Customer Reviews

Allied General

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love Allied General and I have had the game for over 2 years and still have not played all the different battles. I must disagree with the previous review. If you want better graphics, I would get Panzer General. I have both and enjoy the fact that both games make you think about your next move. When you make a rash move or have not thought about your next move the game will punish you for bad startegy. For example, I have played the battle of Sicily 15 times and still have not even won a minor victory. Allied General takes a long time to play I would reccomend you buying a storage card and playing the game over time. I have some major problems with some of the battles. For example, the battle of El Almein was a battle of combined arms with heavy emphasis on infantry, artilley and anti-tank weapons. The game programers have program most of the battle as a battle of armor first. I won the battle by follow the British Strategy during the battle. I attack the Italian infantry and wore down the German armor. Sometimes it is very hard for a player to win the various battles. It may take a player four of five times to win. It took me three games to win the battle of Tunis and that is my major problem with Allied General even with the EASY option, the programers sometimes makes it hard or impossible to win the different battles. I do not mind taking 3 to 5 times to win, but after the 6th or 7th time even with programer's own advice and my knowledge of WW2 history, weapons, and strategy. Overall, I feel both are the best military strategy games avaialble.

I like games that allow me time to think, rather than games that become exercises in button pushing for Ritalin-deficient, Mountain Dew-hyped 13-year olds. I like historical simulations. AG is a good game, but not great. The manual does not reveal what thevictory objectives are, execpt in very vague terms. Help is available on variuous web sites, but the objectives I found on the web appear to be for the PC, as they do not seem to jive with the objectives for PSX, or indeed in reality. One example, the battle of Pskov is the second in the east front series. There are seven cities on the 'board', of which the Russians own three and the Germans four. As this is July, 1941, one would not expect the Russians to be attacking -- at any point in the battle -- yet that is what they must do to achieve even a minor victory. I have found -- through extensive and frequent saving (or 'cheating', if you will) that the only way for the Russian to achieve any victory is to possess all seven cities. Acccording to the web help I found, the Russians need only hold their three original cities to achieve a minor victory (which would be realistic in historical terms), and capture two of the four German cities to achieve a major victory (which would have been a *HUGE* historical victory). The other scenarios also experience similar problems vis-a-vis what is achieveable, what is historical, and what it is in the game. But it is an okay. And it is all we have. At least on PSX ...

Tactically, don't even mess with infantry. Buy loads of tanks and artillery. If you are on the defensive, buy air defense and sprinkle them liberally around your artillery, because that is where the Germans unrealistically large quantity of aircraft will be heading. Once your AD has taken out his planes, then build your own planes (fighter-bombers like the Mosquito or B-26). Don't try to achieve air superiority with your fighters -- they will get hammered.

I concur with the prior reveiew that the game must be played on the lowest difficulty due to the objectives issue.

Straight out, this really is only for those real war-gamers who spent their childhood (and may in fact still do so in adulthood!) setting their lounge up as a huge battlefield, with little plastic soldiers and tanks, .................With this in mind, Allied General is a engrossing, addictive game. It is not fast moving by any stretch of the imagination (even when turning off the annoying battle animations), and the graphics are workable at best - the AI, however, especially the further into the game you get, is very good, and the basics of strategy such as level of entrenchment, the territory being fought over, and the wide variety of weapons and soldiers available, makes Allied General a very good substitute for the sofa in the lounge.

Allied General is the perfect companion for Panzer General. It took me a long time to beat PG, and I hope it takes me just as long to beat AG.

Some helpful hints for the novice: (1)turn the animations off, they're useless, and just slow the game down; (2) set the difficulty low at first or you'll give up quickly; (3) buy lots of aircraft.

I liked this game more than PG because of the diversity of the available equipment. In PG, you are limited as to what equipment you can purchase, which in the early stages of the game limits effectiveness.

If you are looking for a super-fast, dazzling game, stick to command and conquer. If you like your strategy without bells and whistles, get this game.

Allied General and it's companion game Panzer General are without a doubt the two best strategy games out for Playstation. The scenarios are challenging and require thought and planning to successfully complete. The graphics could be improved however, the games have been out for several years and the technology is showing it's age.

AG and it's brother PG are 2 games that from reading the reviews you either love (mostly it seems) or hate(if your graphics minded, probably). As an original "Pong" owner, and liking the game play of a lot of 8 and 16 bit games over the newer games, I'm not hung up on graphics which are simple here. The secret to this game is the control you have in what seems to me to be as historically acurate WWII video game as I've ever played. Yes I also dabbled in Avalon Hill games which were way to much trouble to play, this game does all the boreing work for you and leaves you the spoils, watching Rommel or Montgomery, or Patton win the War! Yes I've actually played both these games for at least 5 years (God thats a lot of hours wasted!) but hey at least I was entertained! I have won the game as Rommel in Panzer General several times (Washington was a super challenge), and to me that was a lotta fun, I never finished Allied General after the Battle of the Bulge ( or if I did it was once) cause hey to me thats not changing anything. As another reviewer wrote the Eastern Front in AG is flawed, I stopped bangin my head against the wall after the 20th time, was glad to hear the way to win that battle but it'll take a whole lotta skill and luck, even I draw a line at that abuse, the Eastern Front in PG as the Germans was awesome!
The key's to winning this game are to delete units with no expierence before you win a battle or the computer will carry
them over and delete your battle hardened veterans.
Load up on cheap units like the Germans anti tank gun PZKW1 for 24 units and attack in waves of suicide attacks to wear down the enemies ammo and entrenchment (make sure the supply option is on or you won't be able to do this). Upgrade your Infantry to Pioneers and Rangers and you'll treasure them as they become 5 star battle veterans. Artillery is allways going to get hammered by the CPU so don't sweat losing units it's going to happen. You can also upgrade your Allies planes to another nationality (ie Italian fighter with 3 stars into a FW 190, or British Hurricane into a Mustang) by flying to the German or American airfield and hitting upgrade. You might think Tanks will do it all until you hit a city, you need Infantry! Also you can do a lot with Strategic bombers where you bomb a city a couple times and attack once and the defenders will flee or surrender, this game has different units with different strengths for a reason. Get both AG and PG and I'm sure you'll get your $10-$20 dollars worth! I played PG III and its way superior in graphics but seemed too much like a tactical recreation than strategic.

this game is awesome it takes hours and hours to play but you'll love every second thinking about your next move and conteracting your opponet to save europe and the world will keep you coming back time after time I have played this game for about 5 years and I still love it

This game takes hours and hours. It really makes you think, I have a blast with it. The wife tries to hide it from me sometimes or I'll disappear for entire weekends with this one. Super tough cpu opposition ensures it is always a challenge. I had this thing rented for 20 days til I finally gave up and bought it here.

This game and its twin, Panzer General, are probably the best strat games for the Playstation. I've loved them, and their PC successors, for years. These have crappy graphics and clunky movement and firing rules compared to PZ2 & PZ3, but I still love them.

The only reason Im reviewing this after 10 years is because I'm interested in what another review wrote about the Pskov scenario in the Russian campaign. It has to be bugged.

I remember trying for months to beat it, to the point where I reloaded extensively until one time I beat it with a major victory. Anything other than a major appears to end the campaign with a loss.

I saved that win on a memory card and any any time I wanted to play the Russian campaign I just started with that save. So my old memory card got trashed in a flood and now I have to try to replicate what took about 1 month of on and off again playing to beat Pskov the first time. Can anyone (if anyone reads this in the next three years) tell me if there is any quick and easy way to pull a major on Pskov?

This is my favorite all time game. In an age of ever improving graphics and realistic video, this game is still my favorite. It's simplicity is something overlooked in today's games. The battles and top down map view lend itself to the i go, you go style. The old time movie clips are still enjoyable to watch. I sure wish more of these were made.