The Entente: WW I Battlefields – PC – Preview

And the caissons go rolling along …

The warfare in World War I was harsh. Weapons were still somewhat primitive
and proper planning could often spell the difference between success and total
defeat.

The Entente: World War I Battlefields, a PC release slated to ship this fall,
from Buka Entertainment, attempts to capture the style of combat in a real-time
strategy setting.

GameZone.com was invited into the trenches in a demo version of the title.

The set-up for the game is quite simple. The game takes place between 1914
and 1918, and like most of the games in the RTS genre, you are given a scenario
and then turned loose on the fields of war on a mapboard partially shrouded by
the fog of war. You move your troops and machinery and attempt to accomplish the
goals before you.

In March 1917, the German forces retreated tot he Siegfried Line. Using
tanks, which often were little more than trainers, or were inadequately prepared
for the terrain, the British nonetheless pushed forward and drove a wedge
through the defensive line. Are you ready to try the same thing? Or do you have
something else in mind.

That is the idea behind the game. You are placed into a real historical
situation and challenged to succeed. How you do it is up to you. There are five
playable nations in the game – British, Germany, Russia, France and Austrian.
The game not only spans battles with tanks and soldiers, but will put you on the
ocean as well.

The beginning scenario for the Germans is the Jutland Sea Battle. For the
Russians, it is a slightly different proposition. It comes as the 1^st
Russian Army, with woeful support, engages the 1^st Germany Army
Corps.

The game not only embraces the tactical elements, but tosses is a touch of
the economics of war as well. You will have advisors ready to give you ideas or
warn you against foolish aggression.

The sound of this game runs from that typical of the genre to a musical score
that is abrupt but reminiscent of a Cirque de Soleil show. This was merely a
demo and it seems likely that the snippets of musical score will be rounded out
by the final release.

The control elements span the familiar and almost familiar. In this demo, one
could not drag a box around a group of units to combine them into one command,
but you could shift-click on a variety of elements to group them that way. Then
it was just a point and click to direct them. There is a tool bar across the
bottom that sets offensive or defensive postures.

Graphically The Entente is quite similar to games on the market. The camera
is fixed above the battlefields, which are lush and simulate a three-dimensional
feel. The battle looks quite good and the game AI is sound. The game is also
geared to allow a great number of units to participate in each battle, through
you can expect some movement duplication.

Multiplayer game play, when it is part of the package will support up to 8
players. In many ways, The Entente: World War I Battlefields is a mixture of
what is good about the genre and what is typical for it. What will allow this
game to stand out is the depth of the World War I scenarios. Whether by land,
sea or even air, the game faithfully sets up circumstances from The Great War,
and the casts players into the seat of commander of the armed forces. Some of
the battles waged were agonizing exercises of those ill-prepared overcoming the
odds to march to victory, but through great cost of lives.

This game represents your chance to change history with a real-time,
three-dimensional model.