@orald I too kinda bounced off the earlier Strategic Command games. Honestly, I was put off by the drab graphics and slightly beer-and-pretzels feel.
By contrast, this global Strategic Command really has its hooks in me. It still has kinda dreary graphics, but the worldwide scope makes it far more interesting to me, and it’s much deeper than beer-and-pretzels. (Which, in fairness, was doubtless true of the earlier iterations too.) For me, it’s really fun to play Britain’s turns in particular. I have to decide where in the Empire I’m building stuff, whether to reinforce Egypt at the expense of India, where to hunt for German U-boats, what to build, what to research. But as I said above, even China’s turns are fun.
Also, every turn presents new high-level decisions. Some are pretty obvious choices – honor the Nazi-Soviet Pact? – but many make me stop and think. E.g., do the Sovs invade Finland? Should Britain and France support Finland against the Soviets in the Winter War? Should Britain invest in fortifying Singapore against naval invasion? Should Britain press India to join the war or let the Indian Congress sort it out? I imagine modders might really go to town with these decisions. In fact, I could see modders producing an entirely different grand-campaign, with weekly turns, higher counter density, etc.
Now, I may not be the best barometer, because I’m especially interested in the Pacific War. Part of my diminished enthusiasm for the earlier SC games was their forcus on Europe. I’ve read some criticisms that SC:WaW’s AI struggles with the naval game, which wouldn’t surprise me. So who knows, I may be disappointed once I get to 1942.
Indeed, even now I can say the game isn’t perfect. For some reason they have not made the world wrap around itself east-to-west; the eastern US is on the west edge of the map, and the western US on the far east edge, and you navigate between the two using the minimap. It’s clunky but it works fine. The left-click-to-move UI still confuses me a tad, but surprisingly I don’t screw it up much. I wish I could choose NATO icons for ground units but 3D models for ships and aircraft. Normally I play wargames with NATO icons, but here I’ve actually opted for the 3D sprites.
Finally, I’m glad I paid only $20 for it, using the Matrix Christmas sale. That gave me a Steam key, and now the game is in my Steam library. But it’s not on sale within Steam itself.
So, I love it, but bear in mind that I’m a global/Pacific/naval war nut, and I’m a bit tired of Europe-only WW2 games.
