The nostalgia pulls a lot, but not even relying on it, Cossacks 3 gets what it wanted. The keys to success are there, because it is basica
lly a remakeof that strategy game that surprised 15 years ago by the enormous scale of its battles, but its authors have not known how to take advantage of them. They have limited themselves to take what we already knew, mi
stakes included, give a little facelift, period! It is like going back in time, losing along the way the many great advances that have exper
ienced a genre as prolific as that of the strategy in real time. On the one hand it is good, because it means facing your action with the style of the good old days, but far from stoking that illusion, the new GSC Game World simply disappoints.
Despite the attraction of leading thousands of soldiers into war in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , the ch
aos of the struggle and the failures of the artificial intelligence of allies and enemies are such that what could well to have become an exciting game of strategy and tactics is far, far away, from that goal. It’s still fun, of course, because who d
oes not have a great time crushing rival armies with the strength of cavalry and cannons? But that’s precisely why this remake disappoints so m
uch. The potential of this work is enormous; there are ample tactical options , dozens of troops to command, siege weapons with which to wreak havoc … and an absolute chaos that throws everything to the ground.
Keep training!
You can have a good time organizing the host; placing the lancers here, the cavalry over there, the musketeers with their firearms well guarded by an iron line of soldiers with swords … and suddenly the chaos! The troops are thrown in droves to fight aga
It does not always happen that way. When you manage to manage the troops well or, rather, when they allow themselves to be con
trolled, the show and the epic take on the leading role. That’s when you see the enormous potential of Cossacks 3. If the game takes into account even the morale of the soldiers , who, driven by fear, will feel the urge to lea
ve the battlefield. Detail that we like for realistic, but also for the tactical implications involved: hit hard, crush an enemy line of defense
, and you will see how it cracks allowing your cavalry to massacre the enemies with astonishing ease. Sometimes, too, you will do so as a result of a discrete artificial intelligence that spoils the experience.
The development team has forgotten the many advances that the genre has experienced in the last decade
Enemies find it hard to surprise with elaborate combat tactics; rather, they throw themselves into the mogollón, forcing yourself almost to respond with the same coin. There are also those who suffer from supine stupidity, who in the middle of the fray turn around on the same axis, or those who lose their way and can not reach their destination.
Even the design of the missions conveys the same feeling. They are fun because of the intensity of their action and the variety of objectives, but there are cracks in another era that are somewhat frustrating. An example. There is a mission in which we
are proposed to exterminate all enemies. There can not be one left! … and there is always one who does it. The typical soldier, expert in stealth, who hides in the most recondite place of the gigantic mapped by which we move, eternalizing the outcome
of a mission that ends up being hateful. In its eagerness to preserve the essence of the classic Cossacks, the development team has forgotten the many advances that the genre has experienced in the last decade, and it is a pity.
Build houses, ironworks, barracks … collect food, gold, stone, wood; also investigate new technologies, equip the troops with better weapons; all these elements lead you to delude yourself with this strategy game, but it is a mere mirage; the excessiv
e chaos of the battle or the simplicity of artificial intelligence are two difficult ballasts to carry. Cossacks 3 entertains and entertains, more if you go into your multiplayer for eight people, but it is far from the expected level. It feels old, as we said before, and not because its graphics, despite the facelift, are somewhat outdated.
Even the management of the troops feels cumbersome. The Total War series, which moves on a similar scale, gives us control over squads of sold
iers; in the game of GSC Game Worlds we control the troops individually. We can and should group them, even adding special units to the team, such as senior army officers and drummers to increase morale, but it is tedious and, in these times, difficult to assimilate.