Quote:
Originally Posted by Charger
Can you tell me about the game? Is it worth getting?
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In reading many reviews and opinions on all the strategy games out there before I make a purchase I have to say what makes an enjoyable strategy game is pretty subjective. But, the reviews I find valuable tell me about the features, limitations and overall playing experience in addition to what other games they've liked so I can get a sense of their taste so I can decide if it's to my liking so I'll do my best to do the same.
First of all. Anyone looking at buying Time of Fury (2011) should know it's a slightly updated, less glitchy, overall smoother version of WW2 Time of Wrath put out in 2009. I bought Time of Wrath, played the hell out of it for 9 months, bought ToF and was a little surprised it was basically a new version of the game with some minor improvements. The fact that matrix will give you a 30% discount if you own Time of Wrath and are purchasing Time of Fury shows even they believe it to be mostly an improved version of the same game although they haven't come out and said it. If you haven't purchased either game, skip Time of Wrath and go straight to Time of Fury as long as spending the extra $20 isn't an issue.
I am a detailed oriented person and do love long drawn out strategy games with some logistics, diplomacy, tech trees and variables like historical factors, weather, random luck, etc. But for my tastes there can be too much of that in a game too. I was bored to death of games with so much logistics and managing mundane tasks, like Arsenal of Democracy and Iron Cross and I wasn't a fan of steep learning curve. I enjoyed playing Victoria 2, but I could have done without a few aspects of logistics management, which thankfully some of the expansions did away with. I also don't like games that are so focused on combat and overly simplistic like 1st person shooter games where you can get shot three times and keep on truckin' (the closest game to a 1st person shooter I love is World of Tanks.) I think Time of Fury generally pleases the minutia freaks that love Arsenal of Democracy although might leaving them wanting a little more but also generally pleases those who are more of the Company of Heroes types that might feel Time of Fury campaigns take a little long (grand campaigns are about 400-450 rounds). Overall the game feels and plays fairly historically accurate but still gives you choices to take your country or Axis/Allies in a different direction. An example is that in one grand campaign I systematically didn't develop Germany's navy so I could send all that steel into Russia, which meant an invasion of England was never going to happen.
The learning curve for Time of Fury is short. Within 30 mins of starting up the game I knew how to fully play the game with the exception of one or two little tasks which I figured out in my warm up scenario, but it wasn't so basic I was sick of it fast. I've played against the AI through several shorter campaigns, one grand campaign and two medium length campaigns over several months. I am a little bored playing against the AI so I've moved on playing others through the game's PBEM+ (play by email) system which doesn't really use email other than to make occasional contact with another player. The PBEM system for Time of Wrath was a nightmare of zipping, emailing and unzipping files to other players (with occasional crashes and glitches) that made me give up. I haven't had any problems playing others online with Time of Fury. I paid $27 for the game and I feel as though I have gotten my money's worth and for me, I only feel like I get a good value for my game dollar out of about 1/3 the games I buy. I'm a little on the frugal side so $40 feels a little steep to me but I'd say I've played it enough to justify even the full price. A few times a year (I know around Christmas) Matrix has sales, especially on their older games that knock off about 20-30%. If you wind up buying this game and like it, you'll like Storm over the Pacific. It's the same game as Time of Fury but obviously set in the Pacific. It has the stream lined PBEM+ system for playing other players online and has an advanced interface to control units, development and logistics, but not so much I'm overwhelmed and it reminds me too much of my day job. I'd also suggest looking at Panzer Corps, made my Matrix too.
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