CDV’s American Conquest series has been one of those hit-or-miss franchises. The original title did pretty well, and built a strong following among hardcore RTS fans who loved recreating history. Through the years, several expansions made their way onto shelves, and a few related titles using the same engine appeared – probably the most memorable of these (in terms of sheer awfulness) was American Conquest: Fight Back. The game was just plain bad, but thankfully (for those dedicated fans) they’ve decided to give the franchise another shot, with American Conquest: Divided Nation.
Divided Nation uses the American Conquest game engine to place the player in some of the better-known battles of the American Civil War and the Texas War of Independence. There’s also some action from the Battle of New Orleans thrown in. It’s a diversity of battles that haven’t been part of most historical RTS games of late, which is sure to earn the game more points with fans.
Production value on Divided Nation is decidedly low – as the publisher and developer seem more focused on building in new gameplay elements than graphics and sound. There’s just not much to say for the game graphically – it’s pseudo-3D using 2D sprites, and has only two zoom levels – “on the ground” and “so far out, your troops are literally just a few blocky pixels each.” That’s ok for the most part, since combat’s based on those two zoom modes, you’re either close in and micro-managing troops, or zooming out to handle entire armies. Handling armies is a major component of the gameplay, as you’ll be literally commanding hundreds, if not thousands of troops at a time. A third mid-level zoom would be appreciated, since when you zoom to the far out perspective, you can’t make out individual troop types, but it appears the engine simply can’t support this.
Divided Nation’s gameplay, for the most part, is tried-and-true RTS. You are given mission objectives, you build structures and units, and you go kill things. It’s simple enough, but for hardcore war reenactment fans, the focus on historical accuracy is what will sell the game. There’s no way you’re going to win by just throwing waves of units at the other player, Divided Nation requires you learn to use offensive and defensive formations, penalizing you with weak morale and horrible combat modifiers if you don’t. Throw in the ability for heavy weaponry to literally fire from one side of the map to another, and you’ve got a heck of a lot of strategy you’ll need to focus on. Fans of more free-wheeling RTS titles will more than likely be driven mad by some of the ways the missions play out – for example, early missions start with hundreds of troops trickling in, with you having no ability to choose what types they are, but those who enjoy a good reenactment will likely enjoy this tight focus on realism.
American Conquest: Divided Nation is the kind of game built for specific type of gamer. What it lacks in general appeal it will surely make up with through its focus on historical accuracy and its variety of oft-overlooked battles. Is it for everyone? Hardly, but it looks like it’ll keep hardcore reenactment fans happy.
