Amazon.co.uk Review
Designed on a grand scale, with up to 8000 units allowed on screen at any one time,
Cossacks focuses on the European nations and the battle between them from the 16th to 18th century. With each country having its own graphical style, military advantages and drawbacks, the 85 large-scale wars will keep you busy for a long time to come.
Taking strong influences from other games in the field--in fact at times you might even think you are looking at a different game--Cossacks aims to build where others have fallen. Like Robin Day once said, "Design is not necessarily new but just reworked from the last set of drawings".
Expect therefore to see a reworking of RTS's gone by, with a few neat little tricks thrown in for good measure. Now instead of limited troop numbers, Cossacks allows you to take up to 8000 units on your PC at any given time. Couple this with a large multiplayer option and you've got a game that will once again see those international boundaries under fire.
But Cossacks doesn't just concentrate on being the biggest battlefest in the RTS field. Carrying 85 campaigns based around historical events and battles is just one of the ways that it tries to serve the single player.
Cossacks is by no means a ground-breaking revolution in its genre, but what it does manage to do is build on areas that previous RTS's have neglected, with greater depth, bigger battles and overall more to manage. --Stuart Miles
Product Description
Designed on a grand scale, up to 8000 units allowed on screen at anyone time, the game focuses around the European nations and the battle between them from the 16th to 18th century. With each country having its own graphical style, military advantages and drawbacks the 85 large-scale wars will keep you busy for a long time to come.
Noteworthy battles include the English Revolution, the War for Spanish Succession and the Ukrainian War of Independence.
Money is made from farming resources such as wood and coal, while you can also sell, buy and exchange resources at the market.
Like other great strategy games, there is of course a technology tree allowing you to develop more than 300 upgrades divided in two time periods. While upgrading allows development of new units, it also includes the development of architecture.
All military forces are represented in Cossacks, with huge scope to command infantry alongside artillery with naval support providing backup from the rear.
Because of the openness of the game, any tactical movement can be adopted, whether it's through a lingering siege or strengthening of the right flank.
With real-world physics employed in Cossacks, getting infantry to climb hills really does take longer, and terrain has to now be taken into account when in the mists of battle. With the added option of playing up to 16 players at once in multiplayer over a number of exercises, games lasting as long as a city siege will soon be possible.
