PC Gamers' Officers Video Game Review

PC Gamers' Officers Video Game Review
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How’s the Game Play of Officers? (2 out of 5)

Officers implements a system that focuses on reconnaissance and logistics as you battle across huge maps with a scale that’s amazing. This focus is different than other games in the genre and has a few points of interest that are certainly unique and different, but the implementation of these elements has been poorly executed.

At first, the huge scale of this game seems like it might be a strength of this title but the more you play the more issues pop up that make the game play more frustrating than entertaining or useful. You can only view a small portion of the map at one time during the fight. This means you don’t always know what is happening outside your view and things can happen to your forces that you won’t realise until later. You also need to play this title at a slower speed because your army is kind of fragile and enemies lurk behind every tree or building. This means playing one mission can take up to 5 hours to complete.

You need to make use of roads to move around and controlling the roads is important to winning the battles and resupplying your army. Using your jeeps and armoured cars to scout ahead of your forces and areas before you move into them is very important. Every unit has a different range of influence and attacking versus detecting the enemy, but these elements often didn’t work the way they were supposed to.

The Fun Parts of Officers (2 out of 5)

Officers implements a unique system that focuses on you taking care of logistics and reconnaissance, which is different than any video game in this genre I have played. This system works to make the game play and elements of combat in this combat simulation an unusual video game in this genre.

The Parts of Officers That Needs Improvement (2 out of 5)

Officers puts you in the shoes of a commander of an army

Officers is a WWII combat simulation that has a daunting scale that can be difficult to manage due to the problems with viewing the whole map. This title also included load times between missions and screens that can take five minutes each time. Add in laughable voice acting that is hard to hear, yet alone understand, and you begin to understand the inherent problems in this title. They also included a multiplayer option with this title that isn’t worth the effort of playing.

The Graphical Presentation of Officers (2 out of 5)

Officers takes you back to WWII

Officers includes a presentation that’s bland and uninteresting to view as you take part in the battles. They did include a night and day cycle but these effects are uninteresting and ugly to look at. You’ll spend your time taking your army across bland landscapes that are basically just vast expanses of boring and uninspiring green plains. Your infantry will also occasionally glide over the terrain rather than walk or run. Armor will go right through buildings without destroying them. These problems we’ve seen in RTS titles before, but by now we shouldn’t be seeing these problems in video games in this genre.

The Bottom Line on Officers (3 out of 5)

Officers isn’t a real-time combat video game that is going to entertain hardcore or casual gamers for long. There are just too many problems inherent in this game that shouldn’t be included in a title in this popular genre. You can find too many other games in this genre that are entertaining and satisfying to play, rather than frustrating and often unintentionally funny.