Normally with DLC I would review it and tell you whether it’s worth purchasing or not.
But this DLC is free, so really the only consideration here is whether you should purchase Wargame: European Escalation or reinstall it.
First on purchasing it. In my original review I actually didn’t recommend buying the game. I didn’t recommend buying it because there were a lot of bugs, the campaign was rather lackluster, the game was not easily accessible, and the community was well…. French.
Since then a lot has changed. Eugen Systems has put out four DLCs, the last being Fatal Error. These were all done for free. The game actually evolved into quite a strong multiplayer community. The new DLC also solves a lot of the original problems. For this reason alone I recommend jumping on Steam and purchasing this game immediately.
Having said that, on to the DLC.
Fatal Error takes place in a different alternate universe. As you may remember in the original Wargame alternate universe Ronald Reagan goes to war with Gorbochev and war breaks down in Europe.
In this new DLC the SALT agreement signed between Russia and America indicates a limit on nuclear arms. When the Russians break this agreement the Americans and Russians sit at the table to try and hammer out a second SALT agreement.
Talks break down and the Americans do not ratify the SALT agreement. The Russians have units staged in Cuba and until they can say for sure what they are doing there the US Congress will not ratify.
A scientist creates a simulation to detect nuclear warheads. The “fatal error” is leaving this simulation on over night and not indicating that it is in fact a simulation. The simulation detects thousands of nuclear warheads. When this crisis occurs President Jimmy Carter is unavailable. The decision to act falls to Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The decision is to fire up the B52 nuclear bombers and have units in Europe stage for an attack. As it is all happening the order is made to stop the nuclear missiles from firing.
But it is too late, forces are already moving in Europe for another European Escalation.
The campaign will follow five missions involving opening military moves in Europe. Much like the original campaign these missions will scale up in difficulty very quickly. At first you will manage one flank, then two, then five, then it will feel almost impossible.
What this campaign offers that the other did not is a break down of unit functionality and strategy. Each mission will add in a couple of units, explain what they are used for, and indicating a tactical method of deploying them.
This is something that was MASSIVELY missing from the original game that was much needed. A lot of the crap about the old game was how it was just one narrator. In this one you have the narrator explain the story and a general explain tactics to you.
Best yet these are maps that appear from the multi-player pack. This means the game is not only giving you tactics for how to use the units, but tactics for multiplayer as well.
What’s still missing from this is really a lack of good story telling. The story itself is unbelievable enough to be entertaining. I don’t think in any alternate realities game we should ever worry about it not being realistic enough.
The main problem with the story telling comes in how it reads like a dry war history book. To a lamen the explanations of troop formations and deployments is dry and boring. People are more interested in these kinds of details:
- Why is this location important?
- Are they dug in?
- Are you surrounded?
- Who is the enemy general?
These are elements they should work on for their next game.
I would still recommend picking up Wargame: European Escalation if you have not and I would definitely play through these missions. If you like a challenge these will most definitely offer you that. These missions were designed for the hardcores, so expect to put some hours into it.
TheGameGuru.Me 