Summary
Pretty Fun Game
The Good
I never played any of the other "General" games put out by SSI so I can't compare it to them. But I really enjoyed playing this game enough to play it through two different heroes (the Warrior and the Wizard) and played it half-way with the Knight. When this game came out in 1996 (maybe late 95), there were lots of "board" strategy games both for computer and for the table-top and while I wasn't into the genre, I did like the idea of controlling armies of dragons, rocs, knights, warriors, and the like.
The musical score for this game is incredible, enough so that I ripped the songs into MP3s on my PC! Of course as with all games, the music gets old after a while but it is good. There is some replay value in the game in that there are four generals you can play and different difficulty levels. Heck, every once in a while I'll play this game again just for the fun of it. The graphics are only static "pieces" but since this is played like a board game, that didn't bother me.
I did like the "learn more" feature of the game (used to learn more about a specific army).
The Bad
There is a lot to learn about this game. Sure, the basics of movement, casting spells, and the turn-based system is pretty easy to learn, but how to use different armies or heroes takes a long time to learn. Plus each general has different bonuses (or penalties) that are bestowed upon your armies. I suppose all good strategy games have this learning curve, but in FG, this was really steep. I think this was the most frustrating thing.
The Bottom Line
Think of this as a board game for your computer with all of your pieces in the form of things from the fantasy genre. It is a fun strategy game.
