Open General

World War II was vicious enough to be remembered forever, especially when it comes to the battles that took place between the two factions. As such, video games never miss an opportunity to present famous confrontations and provide you with an active role in them, whether as a mere foot soldier trying to survive, or as the commander in charge sending the units on the ground to their death.

Open General is a tactical wargame in which the battles take place in a turn-based manner, and you get a lot of time to think about your strategies. Hence, whether you want to play it safe and slowly advance with your units to claim one city at a time, or you enjoy the art of blitzkrieg more, everything can be achieved if you have a good enough plan in place.

The game takes place on a hex grid map, and each unit can move a certain number of cells before their action points run out, which means that you also have to calculate their movement quite precisely. There are many types of soldiers and vehicles to use on the battlefield, each one of which was modeled to come as close to the real thing as possible.

Speaking of which, every unit has a lot of stats linked to it, which allows you to calculate which are best against the danger you are faced with. Hence, while tanks are indeed great when it comes to moving fast and covering a great portion of the battlefield, they are weak against infantry and they quickly succumb to grenades or rocket launchers. Hence, every kind of unit comes with ups and downs you must properly assess them beforehand.

As far as the technical aspect is concerned, the graphics are rather basic and they won’t impress anyone, especially since everything is static. However, wargames have never been about flashy graphics, so fans of the genre probably won’t even notice this inconvenience. On the other hand, there is a soundtrack playing in the background to keep you company throughout the scenarios.

In the end, Open General may be a bit rough on the edges and not as pretty as big studio releases, but it gets the point across and it’s definitely enjoyable if you are well acquainted with the genre. Hence, it’s worth a shot and a few hours of your time, as long as you do not mind spending them looking at a picture of a battlefield.