Attic of the Underdogs

Review by Underdogs:

First sequel to SSI's breakthrough wargame Panzer General, Allied General is essentially the same game set in a different theatre in World War II, with some slight improvements and Windows 95 engine that makes the game much slower than its predecessor.

As opposed to the first game's emphasis on the Germans' operations, Allied General covers the Allied campaigns in the World War II European Theater of Operations, as well as North Africa. Gameplay is essentially unchanged from Panzer General, except that you can now command a wider range of units, and certain features of the engine have been tweaked to make for a more realistic game. The Allied's anti-aircraft guns, ships, and anti-tank units, for instance, are much more powerful than their counterparts in Panzer General (or at least that's my impression). This means that, as Allied, you now stand a chance against the Germans' formidable Panzer tanks. The scenarios and campaigns are all well thought-out and follow a logical progression, although anyone who wants to try to change history will be disappointed: you can only relive it in this game.

Overall, Allied General is a solid sequel that is more evolutionary than revolutionary. As with most sequels, SSI decided to stick with the safe "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. As a result, Allied General just does not feature any revolutionary ideas to surpass its predecessor in terms of panache and originality. Given how original and playable Panzer General is, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is unfortunate that SSI decided to port the game to Windows 95 platform, because it runs much slower, and the interface is much more cumbersome, than the DOS-based engine of Panzer General. Crisper graphics and better sound effects make up for this weakness, though. Also, the speed problem isn't really a problem anymore for today's Pentium computers :) Thumbs up!

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