Customer Reviews

History Channel Civil War: Secret Missions

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

 

 

I was looking for a game that I could play for a short time (during a work break) and come back to later on, that didn't take a long time to learn, and that involved shooting something. This is definitely it. In the level of sophistication, it reminds me of the first time I played Doom. It is very linear, so don't look for challenging strategy or even tactics. Or any surprises. It basically amounts to finding cover (usually a log or embrasure), then picking off the enemy until they are all gone and moving on to the next objective. Interest is added with some scenarios using cannon and Gatling guns. There are about a half-dozen different small arms types, but the Henry is the best for rapid repeating fire and least reloading. The shotgun they give you is useless: you must aim spot-on to affect an enemy, so why not just use the rifle? Grenades are useful at times.

I wonder about the accuracy of the weapons depicted. I wasn't aware that any grenades were commonly used in the Civil War. All of the weapons are rapid-fire (for the time) except for the sniper rifle. But, I can see how incredibly boring it would be to use the predominant muzzle-loading Springfield or Enfield rifle. Sorta looks like MOH applied to the Civil War.

The introductory scenarios (really, speeches) for each mission are generally hokey, but if you know little or nothing about the Civil War, I think you would get some good lessons in reality, tactics, etc. The graphics are generally pretty good, though certainly not cutting edge.

What drove me nuts about this game is the inability to save a game (you MUST finish the scenario) or to move to a previous mission to replay a scenario you liked. You must start the whole game over to play a previous mission, even if you have successfully completed it once. Also, there are no health devices to heal any wounds: you just sit there an wait until you are better. If enough wounds accumulate in a short time, you're dead and have to start back at the last check point.

There are "bonuses" in the game, usually a photograph. You get bonuses for helping the wounded, though they are uncommon despite frequent groaning and calls for help in the sound track.

Finally, there is ABSOLUTELY no documentation for this game. You just feel your way along. This works, since the game is so linear and simplistic. I am assuming that information will eventually show up on the game sites regarding features that I did not discover, but right now there is nothing.

Civil War - Secret Missions is a average shooter where you take on secret missions from either the North or South's side during the American Civil War. For the South you take your missions for the famous general "Stonewall Jackson" that I thought he looked and sounded like his real life charactor.

The game play objectives include from taking out watch towers to firing a Gatling gun at the enemy. These missions are extremly linear in that you have to go down a small narrow path instead of a large open area in some modern shooters like Far Cry 2 but the game is fun even despite of this fact.

There are many weapons to use including a large cannon, Gatling gun and various Henery Repeating Rifles and Colt Pistols from the civil war era. The overall games length is farely short but for a price under $19 it's a bargin mainly due to the time period that is rarely presented in shooters.

I do recommend playing Civil War - Secret Missions if you have any interest in the time period or want to play a different shooter than you have been playing.

ok, i bought the game a few days ago, and love it. first of all, i love history, espespecially World War 2. but, i am just starting to get into the civil war. the reason why i call this the perfect comananation, is because it combines a ton of good historical imformation (that is easy to digest) and plane fun, it feels like a regular fun shooter game. it does NOT feel like a "learning game", and it isn't! you just learn a ton, and have fun. ok, the only cons it has, are these: 1, the grafics are perfectly fine, but not exactly life. they are pretty decent. (I AM USING A PS2) so, the grafics might vary depending on what system you are using. and some parts of the missions can be somewhat confusing. but, you can just put it in on google and it comes right up. that's what i did. also, the guns that you get to use are AWESOME! you can use everything from gatlin guns, to colt rifles, the henry rifle, theres a lot. it's a cool fun game. i would definitly recomend getting it. i did buy it at a different place. but amazon has a decent price. i have bought a lot of stuff from here, and it's great. anyway, it an awesome game, it's fun, with a ton of great history.

This game was just OK.It is a pretty easy shooter game even on HARD.The only thing that made it Interesting was what I consider a bug in the targeting system.The cross hairs are to turn red when you are on target but many times thy will not turn red at all no matter if you are right on the target then you have to use a grenade.Other times thy will blink red off and on.In that case I just blaze awaey hoping to get lucky and it usually works.On the sniper rifle sometimes thy will not hit anything then it is best to switch to a gun with cross hairs.Sometimes the targeting system totally fails then all you have is the grenades so save them.I know this is a bug because sometimes the cross hairs turn red when I am pointing at a blank wall.But all in all this makes a way to easy game more challenging.

This game is not compatible with my PC (running on Windows Vista). After researching more about the game, it seems the issue is extremely common for this game. I would strongly suggest purchasing a different Civil War game which has high reliability for being compatible for PC gaming.

I have no idea how accurate this game really is, since I all but failed High School History class. So I will rate this not as a simulator, but rather as a game. The weapons look and feel good, and sound terrific, with a satifying boom each time you fire. The sniper rifle, always my favorite in these shooters, works very well, and there is plenty of long-distance shooting to do. This game is linear, but is less linear than the previous game in the series. There are plenty of bonus items to find, and soldiers that need help crying out for you to heal them. And dang, I could find them every once in a while, but I need to go through this game again and look harder next time. I love exploring, and it makes me mad that I couldn't find everything.

The game looks spectacular, and the levels are quite large and varied. I really felt like I was in the time-period of the game. Beautiful graphics all around. Enemy AI is kinda dumb, but I played it on easy, so that might have had something to do with it. In any case, it didn't detract from the fun. No DRM at all. Install it, put the DVD away, and you're good to go. No activation or anything. I appreciated that.

Playing on an Intel Q6600 2.4 ghz. with a 9800GT, and I'm getting around 70 frames per second with everything set to max, not that there are many video options. It does support my native resolution of 1920 x 1200, which is where I'm playing it at. A very good graphics engine. Stable, never crashed.

All in all, great fun if you like a simple shooter taking place in Civil War days.

Wish I could review this game, but I can't...based on the fact that we could never play it because it didn't work. My 10 year old waited and waited for it to arrive, removed it from it's box and anxiously awaited for it to download, and then nothing. I'm forced to select one star or cannot make this comment. Next time I'll order new.

First of all, congratulations to those of you skilled enough to PASS the nautical portion of the game; you are better gamers than me by far! Good job!

Wimp or whatever, if a game has levels that are quite difficult, it really behooves the creators to allow for a method to cheat/bypass this level; otherwise, the game will never be completed and frustration is the end result. Surely that can't be what they want?

I played the overly simple level of the game just to get caught up in my imagination of the era and for the joy of a FPS FINALLY in the Civil War days. This was trashed by an unpassable level for me and not cheat codes. The fact that there aren't any cheat codes to me means that no enough people were interested in this title to make it worthwhile trying to find them. The fact that there isn't ANY type of manual was a little weird, too.

The game itself has very early COD/MOH type graphics, really; acceptable ONLY because of the newness of the Civil War setting. The voice acting is OK and actually, some of the lines/gestures of the characters are quite believable.

So, the few levels I WAS able to complete were fun, in an imagination-filled, pretend type of way that was FUN... but it was all ruined by the goofy exercise of trying to shoot at tiny specks you could barely see, all the while you're bobbing UP and DOWN {OH! And moving FORWARD, too} like a cork in the ocean...even though you're on an otherwise placid-looking river.

It makes you wonder how they decide upon what is an acceptable finished product as well as WHERE in the heck they get game testers [AND if they listened to them at all].

So, when I get frustrated like this, I just take the game immediately off my PC and toss it down the hall to the GOODWILL donation box; I don't even want it on my PC.

I wouldn't advise buying this game unless you have years of time on your hands to replay the one troubling section I had until you finally get lucky enough to blow-up everything they require of you to move forward. A LOT of people can do this but I'm less than average in this regard...and it's cost them.

I have always had great luck with Activision games. Not this time. The graphics were fine, but the game doesn't shoot where it's pointing. My solder's rifle must have had a bent barrel because I could not hit a thing. Even at point blank range, I'd point here, and my character's gun shot ... well I don't know where, but not at the target.

I tried to adjust mouse sensitivity, video adjustments. Nothing worked. Very frustrating indeed.

Needless to say, my man just got killed right away and I couldn't get past the first 20 seconds of the game.

"Call of Duty Modern Warfare", "Call of Duty World at War", etc all work fine in my machine, but not this one. "Uninstall, reinstalled" it several times, it didn't work.

But all is not lost. The DVD makes a great coaster.