Active Reviews

Written by Edward Hankins

For many of us children of the 80’s, war with the Soviet Union was a daily possibility. Though not quite as paranoid as our parent’s generations, we all knew that the Soviet Union was the “Evil Empire” bent on World domination. Luckily enough in those closing days of the decade we saw the fall of the Warsaw Pact. Imagine though if the worst had come true, the Soviet had massed more than a million troops on its Western Border and launched a largest assault in a desperate attempt to hold onto their withering power. The American’s and NATO had always imagined such a possibility, and the German’s always feared it. For them it could be the entire annihilation of their country and their entire people.

Flashpoint Germany is this nightmare war. The “Thirty Day War.” The relations between the NATO powers and the Warsaw Pact have broken down and the plains of Germany were to bleed again. The NATO forces were comprised primarily of the United States, Denmark, Great Britain, West Germany, and a host of smaller countries. The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union; though other countries: Poland, East Germany, Romania, and others had “advisors,” the Soviet word was the final word.

Flashpoint Germany, in the tradition of Matrix Games, is accurate to an extreme. The composition of battle groups for both NATO and Warsaw Pact are both accurate in number and units. The units are accurate as well: M1A1 Tanks, Apache Helicopters, and Bradley Armored Vehicles are all present, but so are the less glamorous M107 Artillery Battery, Engineering Platoons, Infantry Companies. Expect to find almost every unit you would find in a realistic field operation. The same rings true for the Warsaw Pact units, the attention to detail is obvious.

Flashpoint Germany is a turn-based strategy game placing you in command of large military contingents. Flashpoint deals solely with the command decisions on the large scale; you will survey, evaluate, and issue orders to your troops to complete the mission at hand. Your units will engage enemy units in anything from small skirmishes to full out battles across a variety of terrains. Once the action starts it rarely stops, and your orders can mean the difference between 1,000 casualties and 10,000 casualties.

Installing the game was simple and easy and the game is definitely not a memory hog, as it runs well on both the gaming systems at work and my personal laptop. After installation you are brought to a menu that runs the game. From the menu you can choose to be the NATO forces or the Warsaw Pact. You can also choose what type of game you are going to play; you can play by LAN, by email, or against a computer opponent. You can also play against another person or watch the computer play the computer.

If you choose single player you are presented with a wide variety of scenarios to play. From siege tactics, wide open tank battles, and strategic withdrawals, you are given a variety of missions to choose from. Choose one of the tutorial missions as they are a must for any new player, without them you will be lost in the game.

Action in this game comes down into three sections, the order section, the action section, and the clean-up section. In the order section you issue your orders simultaneously with your opponent. Then in the action section your orders are executed; units are moved, attacked, or withdrawn. In the clean-up section you are allowed to perform general unit maintenance.

This game is extremely complicated so I will only go into the basic command briefly, you really must read the manual and complete the tutorials. Your troops can be commanded in a variety of manners but I find the mouse with the keyboard to be the most efficient. To select individual units click on them, to select more than one hold shift while selecting. To give orders to that unit right-click on the unit and an order menu will appear. To cancel any order just click on the cancel button on the order menu.

Normal combat (not including air, artillery, or nuclear strikes) can not be controlled, they are just the consequences of your previous movement orders. Direct fire will resolve itself in up to five minutes using a complex series of statistics developed by the developers at Land Sea Air.

In addition to normal combat, you have your ordered combat such as air strikes, artillery, and nuclear attacks. These attacks, just as in real life, can be devastating. To plot your artillery you select the barrage order and select the reference points. To plot air assaults you just select air assault and select targets, same with nuclear attacks.

You win your battles by accumulating points, a player wins if he accumulates over 180 points. These points are accumulated by battlefield victories, surviving units, and units killed. If you have achieved 180 points it means you have completely wiped out your enemy.


Audio/Graphics: 70%

The graphics in the game are definitely not its high point. It could have obviously been improved, as in some cases it looks like it is being played on a PSX. Graphics though is not what a game like this is built on, though it does make it look prettier. One benefit was the ability of low systems to play the game with ease. Audio in the game leaves not much to discuss, but then again what kind of audio to you expect in a war time strategy game.

Game Play: 60%

The game play in Flashpoint Germany is where the game scores lowest; control is difficult to say the least. So difficult that a new player may set the game down and never play again. It can be so complicated in some situations you just want to give up. The positive side to this is once you have the complicated controls down you can control your troops with utmost efficiency. Giving orders is one of the more difficult aspects of the game; to simulate real life war situations there are time delays on receiving the orders, which can be a definite pain. Once you get everything down, including the delay, combat will become much easier and control of your troops a cinch. Once you have mastered the complicated game play you will be a grizzled veteran. Your knowledge will be necessary as missions become more difficult and combat actions require multi-level strategy.

Overall: 75%

Many casual or adolescent gamers will be turned off by this games complexity and lack of immediate action; but if you play this game a few times and get the controls down just a bit it becomes much more interesting. Nothing beats the feeling of commanding your divisions into battle and winning, much like those feelings of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and George Patton.

Go back to the Flashpoint Germany page.

Screenshots