American Conquest Demo

The Cossacks series gained its fame mainly due to the fact that it was among the first games to support a truly huge number of units on the battlefield at the same time, ranging in the lower four digit numbers. It also featured large maps and exceptional troop control, but it had issues when it came to animation and unit pathfinding, which sometimes got quite frustrating.

American Conquest has been developed by the same studio and it is basically a heavily improved Cossacks, only with better graphics, smoother gameplay and an entirely new setting, since the action now takes place somewhere between the 15th and the 19th century. Hence, you get to take part in historical battles and command a variety of troops, as well as wage war on an unprecedented scale.

The campaign follows the story of the colonies that established in America after Christopher Columbus reached the continent, as well as his attempts to expand the Spanish Empire further inland and, finally, the Independence War between the Americans and the British military. Thus, you get the chance to witness quite a lot of history, as well as play a role in it and experience the thrill of having the fate of an entire nation in your hands.

As you might expect, the gimmick that made the developers famous makes a comeback as well, although this time it is heavily improved and far smoother than it was before. Thus, although the game supports up to 16.000 units on the screen at the same time, each one of them has been carefully animated and you can get into the atmosphere much easier, seeing that every man is giving his best on the battlefield.

The AI has been refined as well and it now allows for far better pathfinding, which is great when there are trees or buildings obstructing the way of your units. Graphically, the game is definitely one class above Cossacks, especially when it comes to textures and animations. On the other hand, once the unit number starts growing, they begin to blend in with each other as they previously did, making it rather difficult to distinguish them.

Despite the minor inconveniences, American Conquest truly is a major step forward from its spiritual predecessor, especially when it comes to graphic quality, gameplay mechanics and the AI. The lengthy campaign and the great selection of missions should give you plenty to play, before heading over to the skirmish mode.