cw695356
07-20-2008, 06:33 PM
Imperial Glory - PC (Released 2005)
Imperial Glory is an attempt at creating an empire building strategy game, which combines Turn-Based Strategy with Real Time. Now, whichever way you look at it, the Total War series undoubtedly holds complete sway over the genre, but Pyro Studios seem to have completely overlooked this, and released a half hearted attempt at the genre. Prepare yourself of course, for the inevitable comparisons with Total War.
Somehow, Imperial Glory manages to fail at that makes the Total War games great. While the battles in Total War can hardly be called hugely realistic, compared to Imperial Glory they're History Channel documentaries. The fatigue system in Imperial Glory, for example, is simply an energy bar. A unit can run for a while, then they will be out of breath while the bar recharges, and will then be at peak fitness once more.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h120/gothmog3/tmpphp5NQ9AV.jpg
The most noticable mistake in the battles however, is the morale system. Or rather, the lack of it. Your soldiers will never run away unless you give the order, so the losing side often fights to the death. Another horrid problem with the battles is how stupidly unbalanced they can be. Militia, for example, are simply hobos with blunt kitchen knives, yet they can absolutely destroy my Line Infantry who, statistically, do more melee damage and have much better armour. Pretty much the only way to defeat the militia units are with cavalry or with more militia (And it's worth noting that Great Britain cannot train militia, putting them at a significant disadvantage).
The turn-based map pales in comparison to Total War's as well. Despite having a beautiful hand drawn look that MTW and STW had, the campaign itself isn't as interesting. It has a few interesting diplomatic options, but is also a lot more complicated than Total War, which puts me off it. Also, it's incredibly difficult to find someone to declare war on when you want to expand - almost every country will be in a defensive alliance, meaning you end up at war with about 5 countries at once. Considering the horrid real time battles, you might end up auto resolving battles. However, even this went wrong - for example, if a battle is an easy victory, and you click auto resolve, your commander will somehow manage to lose. Even if there is no conceivable way of losing, they manage it.
http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/5462/2h/images.gamezone.com/screens/24/0/9/s24009_pc_18.JPG
The sea battles, of course, are the major draw of the game. They are the only thing that, until Empire: Total War is released, the Total War games still lack. Again though, Imperial Glory fails miserably. Battles only ever get up to about 5 ships a side, but still this is usually too hard to control, as you have to move and fire all the ships individually. Even the small details go wrong. It's great to see little men on the ships, it's just a shame they don't do anything, and don't seem to notice when they're being showered with cannonballs.
There are so many things wrong with this game, that I haven't yet mentioned the terrible graphics. Men with square heads is basically what you're in for. Need I say more?
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h120/gothmog3/s24009_pc_5.jpg
With the now budget price of £5 (UK only, of course, I am unaware of prices elsewhere, but I guess it will be cheap everywhere), there is still a bit of entertainment available from Imperial Glory, if you really can't wait for Empire: Total War. If you really want to play a Napoleonic game though, I would suggest buying Rome: Total War and downloading the Napoleonic Total War II mod from here: http://lordz.thelordz.co.uk/
Score: 5/10
Written by Dante
Imperial Glory is an attempt at creating an empire building strategy game, which combines Turn-Based Strategy with Real Time. Now, whichever way you look at it, the Total War series undoubtedly holds complete sway over the genre, but Pyro Studios seem to have completely overlooked this, and released a half hearted attempt at the genre. Prepare yourself of course, for the inevitable comparisons with Total War.
Somehow, Imperial Glory manages to fail at that makes the Total War games great. While the battles in Total War can hardly be called hugely realistic, compared to Imperial Glory they're History Channel documentaries. The fatigue system in Imperial Glory, for example, is simply an energy bar. A unit can run for a while, then they will be out of breath while the bar recharges, and will then be at peak fitness once more.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h120/gothmog3/tmpphp5NQ9AV.jpg
The most noticable mistake in the battles however, is the morale system. Or rather, the lack of it. Your soldiers will never run away unless you give the order, so the losing side often fights to the death. Another horrid problem with the battles is how stupidly unbalanced they can be. Militia, for example, are simply hobos with blunt kitchen knives, yet they can absolutely destroy my Line Infantry who, statistically, do more melee damage and have much better armour. Pretty much the only way to defeat the militia units are with cavalry or with more militia (And it's worth noting that Great Britain cannot train militia, putting them at a significant disadvantage).
The turn-based map pales in comparison to Total War's as well. Despite having a beautiful hand drawn look that MTW and STW had, the campaign itself isn't as interesting. It has a few interesting diplomatic options, but is also a lot more complicated than Total War, which puts me off it. Also, it's incredibly difficult to find someone to declare war on when you want to expand - almost every country will be in a defensive alliance, meaning you end up at war with about 5 countries at once. Considering the horrid real time battles, you might end up auto resolving battles. However, even this went wrong - for example, if a battle is an easy victory, and you click auto resolve, your commander will somehow manage to lose. Even if there is no conceivable way of losing, they manage it.
http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/5462/2h/images.gamezone.com/screens/24/0/9/s24009_pc_18.JPG
The sea battles, of course, are the major draw of the game. They are the only thing that, until Empire: Total War is released, the Total War games still lack. Again though, Imperial Glory fails miserably. Battles only ever get up to about 5 ships a side, but still this is usually too hard to control, as you have to move and fire all the ships individually. Even the small details go wrong. It's great to see little men on the ships, it's just a shame they don't do anything, and don't seem to notice when they're being showered with cannonballs.
There are so many things wrong with this game, that I haven't yet mentioned the terrible graphics. Men with square heads is basically what you're in for. Need I say more?
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h120/gothmog3/s24009_pc_5.jpg
With the now budget price of £5 (UK only, of course, I am unaware of prices elsewhere, but I guess it will be cheap everywhere), there is still a bit of entertainment available from Imperial Glory, if you really can't wait for Empire: Total War. If you really want to play a Napoleonic game though, I would suggest buying Rome: Total War and downloading the Napoleonic Total War II mod from here: http://lordz.thelordz.co.uk/
Score: 5/10
Written by Dante