Outdated, but still worthwhile
European Escalation suffers from a first game syndrome. Game was good, but it aged with time and its sequels did everything it does, but better. However, this game still has one ace up its sleeve.
🔥The Worthwhile Bits🔥
It is an old game and usually, sequels tend to improve game in every way, making original as a completely redundant experience. This game however has two elements which makes original game still unsurpassed by its two older brothers. - Star System
Game has an unique system where you unlock units to play with stars. These stars are gained through playing matches or completing campaign. While initial decks are completely uncompetitive, players receive so many stars that by the end of campaign, they will have more than enough stars to unlock most of units which are of interest to a player. This system adds an interesting progression layer to a game as it is fun to gradually unlock more and more stuff rather than merely being given everything. Furthermore, veterancy on units stays throughout the campaign. As you keep your units alive, they become gradually better and better in each mission.
Such systems in RTS games are very rare and it actually really fun. If you are progressing through singleplayer, you can add more and better units to your decks as campaign progresses and becomes harder. In a same way, you call up veterans of a campaign with which you thought from a first battle into the last, hardest fights. This way you can feel that scale and intensity becomes more and more serious. It also adds an amazing incentive for a player to complete all the side objectives and to repeat same mission until they ace it. It is seldom seen mechanic which adds a lot of immersion to a simple campaign as each of your units has a little story to tell and you hate seeing them die for it. - The Campaign
Good RTS campaigns are the rarity. This one however ticks boxes in all the right places. It has the narrative as it makes realistic WW3 scenarios. It makes you immersed into experience through its story line. Stock Cold War era footage makes experience feel authentic. It gives generous presentation of what your mission are and why it is important. Such things are simple, but few RTS gives enough a damn to do that. It even surpasses Red Dragon. Where Red Dragon has identical presentation at the start and then a long narrative campaign, this game has same level of presentation for one mission. Presentations can be quite a bit shorter than in Red Dragon, but there are dozens of missions to complete! European Escalation has a massive campaign to complete and then triple your playtime as you try to perfect each mission in an effort to score all those juicy stars.
🧨The Good Kind of a Bad Game🧨
Lets not overhype this game. While it had obvious care, love and passion poured into it, still feels like a first attempt kind of game with a lot of jank and roughness. It is borderline frustrating to play it in multiplayer and its sequel refined everything this game does. Ugly screen filter
Calicifer’s Reviews
- First issue is graphically. This game has an ugly screen visual effect as it tries to portray everything through a lens of an old TV. Sure, it had distinct look. However, there is a reason why humanity had moved away from it. It looked bad. Putting it in your game only makes your game looks bad. Thus developers had quickly threw this screen effect away with sequels. So, you need to buy this game in order to enjoy the badness!
Lack of variety - Another issue with this game is that there is very few units in a game, but game has a lot of factions. Polish for example are comically bad. This game does not have enough stuff for any more than two major factions, but for some reason it hamfists into multiplayer a lot of minor factions which are just a joke.
Abandoned without getting balanced - Game units are vastly unbalanced. Nato units have various units like Chaparral who are way and above better than anything Warsaw Pact can bring to the table at that price point. By the same extension, Nato helicopters (especially with anti air missiles) makes mockery of Warsaw Pact’s helicopters. This game has a lot of units which are easy to highlight as examples of a terrible balance.
Accuracy system - Game engine is a primitive one. It merely calculates range and then picks from a table base accuracy for that range and then multiplies that value for modifiers. However, that then leaves blame on developers. Cheap units are extremely bad. Even at shorter ranges they can’t do anything.
As we played, we had prepared an assault with a lot of cheap, basic units. They failed miserably to kill Nato forces in a zone. Then I had deployed a team of Shturms, ATGM tank destroyer vehicles. They single handedly dealt with entire Nato force there. In a single salvo they would always destroy one vehicle. They would be more potent, have a greater range and accuracy. All this at a reasonably small price too! Our entire, far costlier force did not managed to do half of that these two units did!
Game has a severe issue where low cost, low accuracy vehicles are practically useless and newer, more expensive vehicles have historically unexplainable performance advantage over old hardware. If you are an aspiring commander, this game is not your ouster to prove your tactical ingenuity. In game units have nonsensical performance which does not align even remotely with reality.
Unrefined unit interactions - This game is first attempt from developers to create Wargame such as it is. It is very rough product. We are speaking about game where infantry gets outspotted by tanks when they are in buildings or in vegetation… We are talking about game where tanks are the counter to entrenched infantry in the forests… We are talking about game where an enemy can deploy swarms of helicopters, legions of tanks, human waves of infantry and all that would be defeated by 1 Abrams, 1 Chaparral with a supply vehicle. Game often does not work as it should. Expected interactions never materialise and its flawed unit simulation makes most units completely useless in a competitive environment.
☢️Into the WW3!☢️
This is one of few precious gems about WW3 wargamming. There is a distinct lack of such games on the market. Even more so if you want something remotely modern and actually good. This game is one of such products. It is cheap and it has a lot of enjoyable content to play which wasn’t one up’ed anywhere else. If you are looking for a good campaign with gradual unit progression, this is your game.Calicifer’s Reviews
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