I've been playing Wargame: European Escalation over the last week, specifically since I last posted about it when I wrote a lightly detailed and uninformed overview, which you can check here out for some general info. I have yet to experience singleplayer in Wargame, but there is a multiplayer beta that has been running on Steam for pre-orders. It contains two maps and a few modes, but all of the units are available to unlock. If the game looks a little like Ruse that's because it is made by the same developers, Eugen Systems, and it does also use a card based system, but this system is very different. In Ruse you used cards to play out abilities in that large scale RTS, Wargame on the other hand has you use decks and the cards you use are unit cards. There is an armory that contains all the units in the game, which is about three hundred units, and every time you level up online you get command stars, you then use those command stars to unlock new units. Many units also have varies different variants that you can unlock and variants allow you to continually unlock better types of one specific unit, assuming that the unit has variants. Some units has have one or two variants, while others have up to seven. Through this system you can create new decks, which cap your unit amount at twenty five or so, and let you create custom decks that can be geared towards particular strategies. I've played the game about six hours and I still don't have enough units unlocked to even fill up one deck.


Wargame: European Escalation is a grand strategy style of RTS that puts you and your teammates in huge maps and tasks you with controlling areas, while also trying to take out enemy units in the most efficient ways to possible. I didn't expect to like Wargame more than it's predecessor, but I am far more drawn to it than I ever was with Ruse. There is a lot to like about it so far, like the large amounts of strategical options, the enticing graphics, the controls are also easy to learn, the UI is informative and it is one of the most enjoyable multiplayer RTS games I've played in a long time. I must say that the first game I played was very unpleasant and quite distressing, but that was due to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and the beta does not have a tutorial system. I will be back to bring forth some impressions and a review on the game once I get to run through the singleplayer campaign and the full multiplayer selection, but for now you may watch this gameplay video I created, which I tried to voice over for better or worse. The video goes over a match and how many of the functions look and work. Wargame will be coming out on February 23rd and it will cost $40, it is PC only and only on Steam as far as I know.
Main Website: http://wargame-ee.com/index.php?rub=home

*Update 2/27: You may find our review of Wargame: European Escalation here.