Shattered Union

[MahatmaManic]

I was a bit confused by your Shattered Union review. I think you must have reviewed an old version of the game? The review shows pictures of units and unit colors that I have never seen while playing the game. The review also mentions setting bombers on patrol paths, which just isn't the way the game that I bought works. Fighters can be set up on patrol paths, but I have yet sto see a patrolling bomber.

Second, it seems disingenuous at the very least to refer to the game as a "turn based RTS." Is it safe to assume that your reviewer knows that "RTS" stands for Real Time Strategy, and that the reason it is called "RTS" rather than just "Strategy" is to differentiate it from the huge number of Turn Based Strategy games that exist?

Anyhow...I think Shattered Union is a great game. I have been having lots of fun with it. Of course, I am also a huge Strategy fan. Perhaps having the review done by someone who doesn't seem to know that Turn Based Strategy games exist, or are at all seperate from RTSs, is a mistake?

[asherdeus]

First off, the reviewer who reviewed this particular game hails from the United Kingdom, so he was in fact reviewing a non-NTSC copy of the game. I don't know where you come from, but that may or may not make a difference.

I have never played Shattered Union, but I have read through Jim's review (in fact, I was the one who approved it for posting). Jim admitted while writing the review that he didn't know a whole lot about the genre of games, and when I read "turn-based RTS" I assumed that he meant something along the lines of Rise of Nations, where on the world map actions play out in a turn-based style but in battles it's all controlled in real-time. This may or may not be the case because I can't find any specifics on the combat really as I haven't played the game.

As for the aircraft control, setting patrol routes in strategy games for aircraft is nothing new so I didn't think there was anything wrong with this, but as I haven't played the game I again can't comment on the accuracy of this statement. And your issue with the screenshots does not appear to be justified. I've looked at several images of the game, including ones that I've downloaded off of Take Two's FTP and they look identical. Perhaps you aren't recognizing the units right or maybe you haven't gotten far enough into the game to find some of them. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to back the screenshots as accurate.

You'll have to wait for Jim to answer you specifically.

Oh, and welcome to the forums. We hope you'll stick with us! :P

[MahatmaManic]

The fact that the reviewer comes from the UK may indeed have something to do with it...perhaps his copy of the game is out of date.

As far as it playing like Rise of Nations, it does not. The enitre game is turn-based. The campaign plays out on a minimalist overhead map of the US broken into various territories, and the battles are classic hex-map, turn-based strategy with each player moving and and attacking once with each of his units and then the other player doing the same.

While I don't disagree that aircraft patrol routes are nothing new, the reaosn I noted the discrepancy is that bombers do not have patrol routes in this game so far as I can tell. You can set up air patrols with fighters for air interdiction, but bombers must be used more directly.

Finally, you could be right about the colors and units. Perhaps the Pink Units are unlocked at some later stage of the game. On the other hand, perhaps the dev team realized that the pink units looked a bit silly and thus took them out before the game shipped. The screenshot in the review also shows what appears to be a transport helicopter, but those are also nowhere to be found in either the manual or the in-game unit lists for any of the eight factions. (Again, perhaps these are unlocked later in the game, by beating the campaign on a higher difficulty level than I have, though I have as of yet found no mention anywhere to unlockable units)

I don't mean to come off all complain-y. I just really like strategy games a lot, and there has been a definite shortage in good turn based strategy games the last few years. I would like for Shattered Union to be successful so that there will be more games of its ilk in upcoming months and years. That being the case, it would be a shame if it got a lower rating than it otherwse would because of either the review being of an incomplete version of the game, or due to its being unfairly compared to games in other genres.

Anyway, thanks for your response and our kind welcome to the forums. I hope I will be here more in the future :)

[asherdeus]

Perhaps the pink units and green units are multiplayer unit colors, like they are in PC FPS games? And I'm sure the bombers were just a simple mistake. As for the RTS bit, I'm sure Jim will take that out now that he's been aware of the mistake.

We're always open to constructive criticism and I'd like to personally thank you for being polite and helpful with this. Thank you and I hope that you do stick around our site.