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Line of Muskets

Published by Tower Games
Price $1.00
Download
Primary Genre Secondary Genre

Perhaps as aeons wheel and pass humanity will confine wars to table tops. Of course many enlightened people do this already. Line of Muskets is one such game. It's a turn based game reminiscent of table top war games but with all of the convenience of a computer handling the calculations in the background.

The armies face off. Time to order my infantry.

Line of Muskets is an online game set during the American civil war and most, if not all, of scenarios available reflect actual battles. All games are human vs human, and many scenarios can be played with more than two players, with more than one player per side. Players take the role of a battlefield commander with responsibility over their units.

Orders are issued each turn. Different unit types have different orders, you can tell artillery to fire on a certain enemy for example, and after choosing a unit there is an easy to understand drop down menu system that displays the orders you may send. Give the order and drag a destination or target on the hex gridded map and when all players have made their moves, the orders are carried out. The control system takes only a short time to learn.

Move... just up there.

There are quite a lot of different orders to learn but after a tutorial game or two the game is about how you choose to play, not how you manage to play.

The graphics are very clear. Maps have ridges and depressions shown and all important land features are labelled too. Rivers, roads, bridges are instanly identifyable and clear. The units themselves are easily assessed too. Realistically, enemy units are not visible unless some of your units can spot them, another plus point.

The sound is minimal as might be expected from a web game but there are plenty of bangs to go with those briefest of smoke puffs from the firing troops.

It is hard to find any flaws in Line of Muskets. The interface is easily understood and the game play is deeply engrossing and historically accurate too. Really there is very little that could be done to improve the game apart from adding 'more sound' or 'more graphics' none of which would have made the game play better. Longer download times might even have harmed game play.

Any game that pits human against human is a winner. Some people like turn based games, some don't, but wargamers know that turn based games can be just as thrilling as any first person shooter. There is a free scenario to try on the site and if you can handle the 10Mb java 2 download then Line of Muskets is definately a game worth playing both for strategy fans, and worth trying for people who think they might be.

Graphics 78%
Sound 40%
Playability 90%
Longevity 94%
Overall Score 90%
Gold Star

Published on 14 Mar 2003
Reviewed by Mark Sheeky

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