Windows

Sid Meier's Antietam!

A joy to play and a joy to just look at, that is Sid Meier's Antietam. This exceptionally well done game has earned four and half Gin Gems, from this reviewer, and has me anxiously anticipating which battle they will do next in the series. Come on Chickamaugua!

When Firaxis appeared on the scene with Sid Meier's Gettysburg in 1997, gamers rejoiced at the combination of attention to detail and playability that the title offered. It was, by some estimations (including my own), one of the most fascinating and functional real-time tactical games ever. Just before the Christmas break, we received a package from Firaxis containing their second game built on the Gettysburg engine, Antietam. Since the break I've been giving the game a serious working over and I've got to admit that it surpasses even Gettysburg in several areas. While the game definitely has flaws, these are minor compared to its strengths. But first a little context...

Antietam! is an enjoyable wargame, and definitely one of the more enjoyable Civil War games available. It straddles the fence between fun and realism, but does so in such a way that both novices and the hard-core crowd will enjoy Antietam!

Still a great engine after two years, Antietam! is a worthy update to its father, Gettysburg!

Antietam! — типичный пример, как надо делать игры. Точнее, воргеймы. Несмотря на тотальное сходство со своим предшественником, игра принесла в геймплей много нового. Конечно, Antietam! вряд ли станет хитом, так как велика еще любовь народа к C&C и клонам его и мала к истинному стратегическому искусству. Однако можно считать очередное творение Сида Мейера лучшим воргеймом ушедшего года (протестую! — Прим. ред.) и, если конкуренты не изловчатся, даже этого. Close Combat 4 отдыхает, я играю в Antietam!, чего и вам желаю...

Antietam is a wargame that only hardcore wargamers could love. Historically accurate to a fault, vast in scale, unnecessarily complex and poorly presented, it isn't going to win any new fans for the genre. Which is a shame, because lurking under the excessive detail and dated graphics is an enjoyable game trying to break out. If you can forgive Antietam its flaws you may come to love it, but for me it was just too much work for too little reward in the end.