Reviewed: May 16, 2007
Reviewed by: John DeWeese
Publisher
Strategy First
Developer
Muzzy Lane
Released: March 13, 2007
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1-8
ESRB: Everyone
8
7
6
6
7.5
System Requirements
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Let’s face it – wannabe World War II generals don’t get much love from the gaming industry. If you want to play an Army ranger bravely charging a German pillbox on Omaha beach, you can choose from dozens of first-person shooters. But only a few specialty titles cater to those gamers who want to control the outcome of WW II from the vantage point of General Eisenhower or Field Marshal Rommel.
Those who love epic turn-based games will be happy to know that Making History: The Calm & The Storm does a good job of balancing historical accuracy with playability. Some turn-based WW II games are famous for their complexity, forcing players to practically micromanage when soldiers take coffee breaks. The good news about Making History is any gamer who has mastered the Civilization series can quickly learn the ropes of this game.
The bad news is Muzzy Lane Software originally developed Making History as a teaching tool. The AI is therefore not as clever as it could be and the graphics will certainly not max out your graphics card. But if you can get past the whole “edutainment” aspect of Making History, you’ll likely discover a decent strategy game with quite a few fun surprises.
Making History allows you to play one of the seven major nations that fought in World War II – America, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. The game also allows you to choose what time period in which to enter the conflict. If you choose to start play in 1936, your country will have small armies but you’ll have a number of turns to build up your economy and research new weapons. If you instead choose to start in December 1941, you’ll have large standing forces but will be at war by the second turn.
The world map is divided into territories and you can win the game by grabbing as much land as possible. You also score world power points for building up industry, gathering resources, and trading on the world market. Fortunately, nobody has to fight a world war alone. If you join an alliance, every country in that alliance benefits from a combined world power score. This is a very good thing for Axis players who otherwise would have little hope of outscoring the US or Great Britain. Finally, you can win an ideological victory if the majority of the world converts to your political system – whether that’s democracy, fascism, or communism.
One of the better points of Making History’s gameplay is the user interface. With just a few clicks you can manage your economy or locate any unit in your military. You can also easily click and drag your way around the game map and order units to move halfway around the world. I did experience some pathfinding issues, especially if units have to maneuver around neutral countries. But with a little micromanaging it’s very easy to move units from Washington DC to the South Pacific and all points in between.
I also found the game’s economy to be very streamlined and easy to control. Resources such as food, steel, oil, and coal are collected from each territory your nation controls. You can then use resources to build goods, arms, and military units in your major cities. You’ll need a stockpile of arms to keep your troops supplied and plenty of goods to earn cash and keep your workers happy. Your cities will keep operating at max capacity as long as you have the necessary resources – but should you run low on food, fuel, or steel production will steeply drop. Over time there are several ways you can boost the economy, including building heavy industry in cities or improving the roads and farmland in territories.
Making History’s combat system is fun but leaves quite a bit to be desired. It’s very easy to keep track of how well your armies are performing. Every unit from an infantry division to a battleship has a power rating. Basic infantry only rate a 10 in power while a heavy tank might have a rating of 100. When two armies collide in a territory, the game calculates the power totals for both sides and assigns damage. The defending player gets bonuses for terrain and fortifications, but usually it’s the side with the largest force that wins – at least for the first turn.
What makes things interesting is you can call in reinforcements from nearby territories or fly in air squadrons to provide air support. This means a battle may seesaw back and forth as reinforcements arrive over several turns. Naval battles are handled in almost the same way as army battles, except that submarines can slip past enemy fleets and aircraft carrier can launch air squadrons against both sea and land targets.
Unfortunately, the game’s combat mechanics are hidden so it’s hard to understand exactly how units cause or take damage. In more than one battle I watched my heavy tanks and artillery get chewed up only to have my basic infantry survive intact. Luck also seems to play too big a role, especially if two armies are about the same size.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, Making History has a decent if not remarkable AI. The computer can act aggressively yet is often slow to reinforce key territories. Allied countries will be quick to send reinforcements but your enemy’s allies will do the same. This leads to some weird situations like the Japanese and Canadian air forces fighting each other in Poland. Yet the biggest problem with the AI is how quickly it will break alliances, especially if as a democratic country you’re allied with the communist Russians. This gives the Axis a distinct advantage because Italy, Germany, and Japan all share the same political system.
Finally, I should mention that those looking for a highly detailed war game should look somewhere else. Every country has access to the same technology trees, so a German heavy tank will have the same abilities as a US heavy tank. Also, don’t expect to see actual references to your favorite WW II vehicles – your factories will simply be building “heavy bombers” or “advanced fighters.”
Turn-based strategy games aren’t known for cutting edge graphics, and Making History is no exception. That being said, the world map looks great. I also loved how each country has its own customized miniature infantry, tanks, and planes. Whether you’re watching German storm troopers, American GIs, or even Spanish Civil War guerillas, the individualized units really bring battles alive.
There’s not much to say about the sound quality in Making History. The musical score is pleasant enough but sound effects are limited. The game does not have any voice-overs to judge.
The various scenarios are challenging, at least the first or second time around. I had loads of fun building up America’s war machine in 1936, which was a completely different experience from trying to fight on two fronts while playing Germany in 1941.
But two problems quickly emerge in the single player campaign. First, there exists a major power unbalance between certain nations. Playing as America is a relative cakewalk, as even on hard level I could handily destroy Japan and still launch D-Day at the same time. Other nations can be extremely frustrating to play, especially Imperial Japan. Considering that historically Japan conquered much of Asia in a few short months, I found this faction to be severely underpowered.
The second and larger problem is that once you’ve mastered a scenario, Making History just doesn’t offer a great deal of replay value. You’ll find yourself fighting over the same Russian Front or South Pacific islands, unless of course you decide to do something crazy like invade Mexico or Switzerland. Unfortunately, other Allied nations will break their alliance if you start invading everything in sight, and Axis countries rarely have the manpower to spare on wild goose chases.
Yes there’s a multiplayer option but it seems to be only available for LAN games. This is a shame because despite the predictable AI, Making History would be a blast to play against real opponents.
One very positive thing I will say in Making History’s defense is it seems to be a far more accessible than hardcore titles like Gary Grigsby’s World At War. Strategy fans can expect at least 12-15 hours of fun before things start to get stale. The $40 price tag is a little steep, but I’d happily recommend this game once prices drop into the $30 range.
I can see that Making History is struggling to overcome its educational roots, since the AI isn’t quite ready for prime time and the multiplayer function seems obviously built for a classroom. That being said, this is the first WW II game I’ve played in a while that really mirrors a classic game of Axis & Allies in terms of exciting, streamlined gameplay.
Perhaps my highest compliment is that on a beautiful spring evening, I actually succumbed to the dreaded “one more turn” syndrome. This goes to prove that in a niche market that caters to hardcore stats junkies, Making History is a game every World War strategy fan can enjoy.