Making History II

[Dizzle229]

Making History II is a World War 2 Turn-Based Grand Strategy game by Muzzy Lane. Although, it's only a WWII game in the most loose possible sense.

 

While it does take place in that time frame (the earliest starting time on a scenario is early 1933, 1939 the latest), what actually HAPPENS in that time frame is largely up to you. While many nations will do what they historically did without your interference, timelines of games can range from VERY historical, to Stupid Jetpack Hitler.

 

There's a lot about this game to explain, I'll try to elaborate more later. In the meantime, I'll post an example of what I mean.

 

-As the US, and anticipating a Japanese invasion of China, I sent soldiers to the Philippines, and sent lots of weapons and cash to China. When Japan invaded in 1937, I allied with the Chinese, sent my troops in to help drive out the invaders, and this led to China annexing Manchuria and Korea becoming an independent nation and part of our alliance by mid-1938.

 

In an even more ahistorical example, a game I played as Yugoslavia went completely bat[cabbage] insane. Yugoslavian Empire had annexed Hungary, Southeastern Czechoslovakia, Southern Poland, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, and Western Turkey. We allied with Germany, Japan, the freaking USSR, and Japan's Chinese puppet state. Germany went about its conquests, while the USSR (with Yugoslavian help) had conquered the Middle East and most of Africa, establishing Communist puppet states all over their conquered territory. Also, Yugoslavia, after extensive research programs, was one of if not the most advanced nation on Earth. And this is from a game that lasted from 1933 to 1947.

 

-You can play as any nation, and get realistic starting technologies and resources (some nations are nearly impossible to play as as a result, but tell that to the guy that built up enough to invade Japan and the USSR as Abyssinia.

-TONS of unit sprites. The dev team went all out to give as many nations as possible their unique historical appearances for each of their unit types.

-A number of factors could lead to religious, ideological, ethnic, or nationalist groups declaring independence from nations, sometimes resulting in revolts, civil wars, and occasionally, successfully overthrowing governments.

-Several covert operations that can be used on other nations, to help or to hurt them.

-Extensive research and development system. Mostly to build units, but also domestic improvements.

-Special thought is needed for land, sea, and air warfare, with a huge selection of units for all three, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

-A scenario editor is on the way (devs don't want it out until all major patches are released). When it's out, users will be able to upload their own scenarios. Some have even already made them by editing the XML files.

-A hell of a lot to list, so I'll just end on this. A huge amount of research can get you atomic weapons, and if you dedicate even more to it, nuclear ICBM's. What more do you need to know?

 

To give you an idea of the graphics. Note the unit models of different countries.

 

 

Warnings if you want to pick it up:

 

-It starts to lag a few hundred turns in, and it gets progressively worse as it goes on. A very CPU-intense game, so close other programs before running.

-The game has been out for a while now and has improved IMMENSELY from its release form, but it's still widely believed to need tweaking, and new patches come every few weeks. The AI is often cited as needing work, and it has gotten much more attention recently. The devs are hard at work on it.

-Though I haven't had any, many players have reported technical problems.

 

If you have questions, I suggest asking on the forum under MHII: General Discussion. The developers are VERY active in the community, and most complaints and questions are addressed pretty quickly.

 

The main page:

http://making-history.com/

 

The forum:

http://making-history.com/forum

 

A primary attraction of the forum is the After Action Reports section, where players can tell stories of their most awesome games. There are two AAR sections, for the original game and its Gold edition, and the currently popular one for MHII, which can be found below:

http://making-history.com/forum/section/344428/1

 

Many players use some cool storytelling methods, like making up a leader of their country and telling from their perspective, to newspaper format, to... well, just READ some of them. And they CAN and DO get pretty great, as in the previously linked Abyssinia madness.

 

Demo available on Steam and the main site.

[Shiny]

Sounds pretty good, might give it a download.

[jasignhagj]

Looks like a ripoff of Hearts of Iron III, but I might still check it out.

[Dizzle229]

Looks like a ripoff of Hearts of Iron III, but I might still check it out.

Only in the sense that CoD is a ripoff of Medal of Honor. They're the same genre and setting, but that's about it. Actually, having played both, this is about 50 times better. The technical problems aren't NEARLY as bad as what was reported with HoI III, and the map doesn't look quite as... wrong, for lack of a better word. Easier to get into, too, though naturally it DOES take some getting used to.

[Giordano]

Yeh, there's lots of strategy games. And lots of WW2-related things. Not a surprise when they match up...

 

Anyway, my only worry about this game is the 'turn-based' system...I sorta went away from those after I started playing Paradox' titles.

 

Nonetheless I'm glad a grand-strategy game is on VG&C. Got enough mainstream games here anyway.

[Maze]

If I love Civilization, will I like this?

[Giordano]

If I love Civilization, will I like this?

Probably. :thumbup:

 

Even more so if you like history.

[Maze]

If I love Civilization, will I like this?

Probably. :thumbup:

 

Even more so if you like history.

I like both of those things.

 

I shall try this demo.