Recent reviews by 12lambes

Honestly, it's just not good enough to justify the price. It specializes in missile, naval, and air combat, but has a frankly lackluster ground system.

The "game" side of it suffers from scale problems. It is a tactical game, with very fiddly controls, and poor graphics.

This hits all levels of scale:
1. Time: Real time is completely unplayable with more than one or two units.
2. Space: scenarios often span absolutely massive areas, resulting in search and destroy missions often failing due to "all search no destroy". "Realistic scale" means that missiles are instant death in most scenarios, which to save time often start close together.
3. Game Scale (Unit types, mechanics, etc.): "Grand Tactical" might be a generous title for the scale of this game. In truth, it is a tactical game with some random logistical elements thrown in, that are either buggy, or can be safely ignored. Yet the database is replete with "operational" units, support tankers, airbases, etc. The problem is, that for the most part, the tactical part of the game boils down to a very unsatisfying procedural affair, where you randomly stumble upon an enemy, and are either instantly killed or instantly kill them with a missile.

To make matters worse, the graphics are not functional by default on larger screens, and a workaround is needed to display properly. This feature that should be built into the game itself. Even when working properly, the scale of the game is such that most units are just unreadable dots at even a 1km square view. And when you zoom into read them, the map becomes an unreadable blur.

The shame is that a lot of the systems are potentially good in isolation, and I enjoyed a few of the very small scenarios, but combining them results in more frustration than I'm willing to put up with.

But the final nail in the coffin for me is the developer answer regarding GIS mapping: You cannot bring in your own GIS maps without paying for the "professional edition" of a game that already retails well into the hundreds of dollars. Overall the monetization of this "game" is bizarre, and an adequate feature list of the things you DON'T get is not readily available before purchase. This leads to frequent bouts of "buyer's remorse".

Maybe enthusiasts of modern air, naval, and missile warfare will find adequate value, but frankly I wish I could get my money back. Instead, this goes into the "uninstalled permanently" bin.

Yup, it's still counterstrike.

The description of the game is factual: "War in the East 2 is the most comprehensive, most realistic, and most advanced wargame modeling Eastern Front warfare in World War Two."

But it is also an interesting game psychologically. The feeling of anxiety that the game can impose can be quite the rush, while at the same time you might spend days paralyzed, unable to click the play button.

If you are considering this game, and you have experience ladder anxiety, or ELO fear, the experience of anxiety building just from playing a game, an experience that does not feel entirely comfortable, is not often possible in a single player experience.

It's the "hardcore" experience that many modern games seek, but never really find without artificial grind, or forced toxic interactions with multiplayer teams.

But what War in the East 2 manages is something truly unique in the wargaming space: a totally immersive game that put forces you to confront the enemy, and at the same time; yourself.

I highly recommend the game, although I realize that most people will never get past the "$80????" phase.

To me, the experience is worth every penny, and is something that I will always come back to.

If you are struggling to find a gaming experience that confronts you with a reality within yourself, while still providing a chance to play with skill and cunning. This is that game.

It's a game that rewards you with confidence instead of skins and loot crates. A game that is decidedly two dimensional in appearance, but four dimensional in scale. A game of literal 4D chess.

I hope that someone, on the downturn of their physical gaming abilities who feels that they still could reach another level, if they could just find the right game, will give this a try. To me the game has made me feel connected to gaming in a healthy, happy way that I never thought was possible. And I am truly grateful for the experiences that I get every time I click play.

I actually love the game, but the constant pointless DLCs are disgusting. The fact that you need to download 30+ GB every time they release one drives me nuts. Yes I realize it's so that you can play them with friends that own the DLC but I wish I could opt out of them. As it is the game sucks up almost an entire hard drive. I would pay for this game all over again if I could simply play 1 map and never get updates pushed.

Just get Ableton.

Beavers are cute.

Third Revision:
I was wrong. This is a good game, but the subtle quality was lost upon my ignorant mind.

I have tried hard to enjoy this game, fully believing that it would be a single player version of EVE. Unfortunately, there is a steep learning curve, followed by struggling against the AIs of your own ships, followed by meeting massive enemy destroyers and battleships that can turn the largest ships you can buy into slag before your alert goes off.

The UI is the biggest problem. If I could at least see the game's sectors clearly and play it as if it were a strategy game, I don't feel that I would be as bothered by the massive losses. The UI makes managing the economy an absolute chore.

That said, I still like flying the ships, shopping for them, using mining fleets, and doing some mission types (although some are borderline impossible for no reason). The problem is, that development effort is being put into expansion packs that don't fix any of the underlying problems of the game. This makes me unwilling to pay for their expansions, as I can't even complete the existing content without losing tens of millions every time a Xenon Battleship blinks. These loses to random attacks are unavoidable, since the various factions in the game get overrun by Xenon quite easily, and once a superhighway node is lost, enemy ships can show up with no warning.

Maybe it's just me but I don't really want to have to constantly micro every single ship with the game's awful UI. The AI gives me no choice.

In summary, an improved UI, with slightly better AIs, would easily put this game up with the likes of Elite:Dangerous in sales. That said, it would be best to start from scratch with X5, that could take the existing graphics and ship gameplay, and only focus on improving the strategy game elements by taking cues from successful games like Sins of a Solar Empire, and Paradox's 4X games. The user spends almost all their time interacting with the UI, so it should be the best part of the game.

Doesn't load

I haven't been happy with this title from day 1. My feelings towards it are nebulous but negative. I can't put my finger on exactly what's wrong. Maybe it's the new campaign screen that shows you how many options you COULD have. Or the game itself that shows you the potential for fun, and then turns to rebellion management like every total war title since Empire. Maybe it's the bland maps, or the constant game breaking updates. Maybe it's fantasy warhammer itself, which I'm not too fond of. All I know is that I wish I had refunded it the day I bought it. Every day since has stacked on more regret.