Gary Grigsby's War in Russia

by SSI

Product Details

• ASIN: B000F230AU
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,719 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the serious gamer only, July 9, 2006

By 

Reader "a_reader_999" (United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Gary Grigsby's War in Russia (CD-ROM)

I've had this game for years, and I've actually finished a campaign maybe a half dozen times. Doing so is a genuine accomplishment, because it takes many--and I mean MANY--hours to do so. This game is incredibly rich in detail, so setting up a single move can take an hour, or possibly much more than that. And when the computer takes its move, that also can take quite a bit of time, especially if you set the game to allow you to analyze battle results in detail.

Those who want to play WarCraft-style RTS games should stay a million miles away from this one. I'd imagine also that any gamer who doesn't have a strong interest in, and knowledge of, the campaign in Russia also should skip this one. And anyone who's looking for a relatively short game also needs to take a pass. Finally, gamers of all kinds who want tactical challenges will not be interested. This game is strategic in scope, and tactical decisions rarely play a role, except perhaps in the assignment of air resources.

But if you want an involved, detailed simulation of the German invasion of Russia, you may like this game. Certain aspects are very pleasing, others not so much. As Germany, for instance, you can very effectively punch holes in Russia's defenses in 1941, push armored columns through, and encircle vast numbers of Russians. As Russia, you can essentially hyperventilate through 1941, because no matter you do, you will be overrun, then institute a policy of falling back and retrenching, and force Germany to slowly bleed herself to death until your crack Siberian troops come along.

I actually played a campaign in which I captured huge numbers of Russians around Kiev, just as in the war, and the turning point came at Stalingrad--just as in the war. And I also found myself stalled in a hopeless stalemate, although at least it was late 1943 before the Russkis even pushed me back across the Don.

There are irritating aspects, however. I read and re-read the manual with its rules on movement, zone of control, and so on. But there are times when, so far as I can determine, my units should be able to move, but they won't, or they won't enter a particular hex. And it looks to me like, at times, the computer can disobey almost all of the rules and send several units zipping merrily along, to my horror, to take places at the front line just where I thought I had finally cracked resistance.

The biggest drawback--or depending on how you look at, appeal--is the massive amount of time it takes to play. One might say that this isn't so much a game as an extended intellectual exercise. As such, it's not the kind of thing you sit down to play when you're bored, and you want to kill an hour or two.

Nevertheless, it has to be said that this is a masterful achievement as a game, one that shows immense knowledge of the actual campaign, and one that can help the student of history reinforce the details inside his own head. Geography, for instance...you'll remember all the towns and cities and rivers and lakes and forests, when you have to wrestle with moving troops through them.