Wargame: Red Dragon touts itself as an RTS that stands alone above the rest, but all I found was a game full of frustration and misery that requires an encyclopedia of knowledge before playing.
Let’s get down to brass tacks here, as I no doubt am sure to be raked over the coals for my opinion by series veterans. Wargame: Red Dragon is a mess of a game; there I said it. I am new to the series, but am an avid fan of the RTS genre, a genre that we don’t see a lot of these days. This being the case, as soon as I login I do what I do with any new game, I click on the tutorials. In most RTS games since the beginning of time, these tutorials would be presented during the initial batch of levels. You would start by assuming command of a handful of units and be given a rundown of the games features and objectives within a short span of levels, all the while giving the player some sense of accomplishment. In Wargame: Red Dragon, the tutorials are nothing more than some measly text, book-ended with a few static images. Not only is this more akin to studying in a library, (not a very video game like endeavor) but it is beyond tedious and not at all helpful. What’s worse is that if you did want to call back these static tutorials while in-game you can’t, so be ready to do a lot of screen grabs and printing if you want any help at all.
You are given zero amount of learning curve, and are expected to have command over every facet of the game. Look, if you are a veteran of the series that’s all well and good, but for the rest of us who don’t have hours upon hours to invest in trial and error, this is a huge gaping problem. After reading the tutorials and jumping into my first mission, I suffered an utter defeat within three turns. The first mission in Wargame: Red Dragon is set at a difficulty level of many endgame missions in other RTS games, and least in those you have mastered the fundamentals of the game by that point. The funny thing is, I read it several times across various forums that Red Dragon was made to be more accessible than previous installments.
When a game-guide for new players, created by a player, surpasses 200 pages, you know you have a serious issue with accessibility.
If I were a consumer new to the series, I would be very angry and disappointed in spending $40 on something that requires hours of study before you can garner any enjoyment out of it. Being as this is my job, I roll up my sleeves, grab a coffee, put on my reading glasses and give the games tutorial pages another read.
After some additional fumbling about reading the tutorials again and experimenting with units and their deployment, I am happy to announce that I made it a whole five turns after another thirty or so minutes. As I continued playing, trying new campaigns to see if the difficulty changed, I did manage to become semi acclimated to the games layout. This by no means meant that I won any altercation on my own though, as the battles I did win only came about from using the ‘auto’ finish button. I actually saved and replayed a very small skirmish trying to control my troops myself and lost every encounter, but as soon as I auto completed, letting the computer handle everything, I came away with a total victory. In this regard, I ended up playing the game not as an RTS, but more like the board-game RISK. While this isn’t the ideal way the developers intended the game to be played, it was the only way I could focus on having any sense of genuine fun. Look, micromanagement is a big part of a lot of games, especially older strategy games, but Wargame: Red Dragon just doesn’t give you the tools to learn how to manage, well, anything.
I’m no stranger to overly complicated games that require some serious investment in learning. I remember playing Star Trek: Birth of the Federation way back in 99’ and spending hours figuring everything out all on my own. Unfortunately, I no longer have the time needed to invest or even the patience required to squeeze the enjoyment series regulars are having with Wargame: Red Dragon.
The detailed unit models, coupled with the wonderful use on terrain make Red Dragon a very pretty game. A majority of the reason I stuck with the game so long was because of the fact that it’s design was just so well done. The sounds of gunfire, tank shells and the games musical score are all evocative of the time period the game is set in, but nothing really stays with you. There might well be something great just under the surface that makes Wargame: Red Dragon a good game, but only if you are willing to forgive the hard to navigate interface, amount of micromanagement required and harsh learning curve.
Another big problem that I had with Red Dragon was with the marketing push behind the game. All the videos, all the trailers that I saw prior to release had me really excited for the game, but as it turned out most of those trailers were outright lies. All the videos and featurettes showed close quarters combat between ground, air and naval units. Nearly everything featured would lead a consumer to believe that they would be getting an RTS experience in the vain of StarCraft or Total Annihilation, only set in during Asian conflicts of the past. At best, this is deceptive marketing, at worst it’s outright lying to the general public.
I did manage to enjoy my time toward the end of the many hours I put in learning to play, but I don’t feel that that small amount of enjoyment is worth the hassle or asking price for the game, or even come close to remedy the feeling of being lied to. If you are a fan of the series then you are no doubt going to fill the comments defending the game, and that’s fine. Wargame: Red Dragon was created with you in mind, but if you are like me and new to the series, be warned that you are going to be spending as much time just learning to play this game as you would completing another.
PC
Style
Single/Multi Player
Developer
Eugen Systems
Publisher
Focus Home Interactive
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