It all comes courtesy of the guys at Lesta Studio. They’re hardly household names, yet quote the titles ‘Pacific Storm’ and the add-on ‘Pacific Storm: Allies,’ and the familiarity with the Russia developers becomes slightly more obvious. It’s been over a year since Pacific Storm: Allies arrived on the PC scene and we’re finally being treated to a larger, better and all round stronger strategy title.
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Aggression takes place across two mediums. The majority of your time is spent on the game’s map screen. Much like the Total War series before it, Europe has been recreated to a very impressive scale. It’s got every major city, transport route, unit placement and environmental feature you’d come to expect pre World War I (1910). Country-wise you can pick Germany, Russia, France or the UK. The sole aim is to take your country of choice through the first, second and the beginning of the cold wars. Nothing is set in stone and it treats the political climate and war backdrop as a open playground. You choose who to ally with, who to invade, what to deploy, what to research and who to hire.
There’s a staggering amount of detail on offer. You can customize your cabinet with the leading figures of the twentieth century. They, in turn, earn experience points and level up, allowing you to assign new skills depending on their profession. Each city allows you to choose its construction, industry / education output (the games currencies) and standard of living. There are helpful ‘automatic’ options to streamline the process / help you out if you’re struggling with the learning curve. The tech-tree models the historical advancement of science / technological warfare with the only difference being the order in which you discover. The game does feature an extensive tutorial that holds you by the hand, but it’s an isolated mission. It does throw a lot at you and it’s very easy for you to miss / forget a concept.
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The real time tactical map is only half of Aggression’s arsenal. The other side is a real time 3D battle engine. It’s easy to compare with Total War again, but enter contact with a warring nation and you’ll have the option to auto-battle or fight yourself. Choosing the later brings up deployment and then the undertaking of destruction. Whatever units you had when you were attacked will be the force you field in battle. The game generates terrain depending on your location / season and the aim’s as it is in any other strategy title. Destroy the enemy.
The game includes victory points for those that prefer a flanking / sneakier approach and it definitely adds some variety to an otherwise bog standard experience. The maps are littered with buildings and vegetation and they’re all under the control of a competent physics system. It’s no Company of Heroes, but it’s better than most and impressive from such an unknown development studio. The game lets you strategise to your heart’s content and its execution is worthy of plenty of praise.
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Engine wise, the real time battles aren’t that bad. It’s not a stunner and neither will it challenge some of the bigger RTS’ on the market, but you can tell what you’re looking at, what’s firing at what and whether you’ve just blown a house to smithereens. City battles are particularly interesting with famous landmarks open to destruction. The sound effects have an edge of digital to them, but overall they’re on the money.
AGGRESSION: REIGN OVER EUROPE VERDICT
When summarising Aggression: Reign Over Europe, the easiest way to look at it is not saying what it has, but what it lacks. It could have a shiner graphics engine, it could have a modernised interface, it could have a better tutorial system and it could be a tad less hardcore. There’s not much else to comment on. Lesta have done a fantastic job at creating a Early Twenty Century: Total War. If The Creative Assembly ever get round to making a modern game, they’d be hard pressed to beat Aggression.
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