Pacific General

The game mechanics are similar to PG2, with additions and smaller changes. There are the usual semi-branching campaigns. The addition of sea battles and combined army navy battles are a very very nice change in the game. While there was navy since the first PG game, the changes and additions to them and the gameplay are making it almost feel like it was never before. If you haven't played other PG games after the original PG, then the amount of changes and how the affect gameplay will shock you, in a good way. Moving after firing for example is just one of them. The game campaigns are very difficult and perhaps impossible to complete in the first time you play them. Not unfair, just difficult. You get the usual core army units which you can expand and upgrade. Everything feels very PG, and that's a good thing. It's a solid 5-Star game (ie "general series") which feels like a solid and worthy sequel to the games. If you like any other game in the series and you haven't played this, you just "have" to get this one. It's THAT GOOD!

Real rating is 3.5 stars. Never played the other games in this series, just tried this one on Gog as was looking for this type of game. Played a few of the Japanese scenarios and the entire US campaign (using the save game bug to get prestige, would be difficult without doing so). Although I did enjoy playing, by the end of the US campaign, it was growing a bit repetitive. It's a difficult game and each scenario takes 2-3 hours to complete, so it's a time investment. Especially getting to the end of campaigns and running out of prestige, needed to restart/reload from an earlier part of the campaign. There weren't many scenarios that are both land and sea conflict (you usually have sea units, but no real sea conflict), usually one or the other and mostly it's land/air conflict. You really only have 5 types of land units (infantry, tank, artillery, fighters, bombers), and the enemy has the same (with addition of fortifications), so gameplay gets a bit repetitive using these basic units, just different maps to play on. Interface is a bit clunky, and manual isn't very good. Upgrades are confusing. Some scenarios are buggy. In 1 US scenario, they give you a carrier to deploy, but no places to put it, and they also give you carrier-based planes. There seemed to be a good user-scenario involvement a while back (late 90's), with corrected unit libraries and fixed/new campaigns, but I never tried these. Never found a site that described exactly how to install these with newer OS. Stability on Win7 (64) was a bit of an issue. Game crashed on opening when installed with the Gog Galaxy client, so installed individually and got game to start. Had a few crashes, so tried Win 98 compatibility mode, and also disabled movement animations and all sound (didn't add much to game anyway), and it ran good after that (not exactly sure what worked, was just happy the crashes stopped).

In my opinion, this is an obligatory position for every PG2 fan, especially if you always missed some serious naval struggles and amphibious assaults in the series. Because of the specific terrain and weather conditions in the SE Asia & Pacific area (many small islands, swamps, rainforests etc.), the role and position of the elite infantry's units (versus armoured one's) is much more important. Thank you GOG :), for this TBS jewel. Now I'm only waiting for PG1 to complete my Panzer General collection.

Old school strategy at its best, where well thought out plans can abruptly appear to be foolish risks. The interface is easy to learn with enough information for keeping track of your units and progress or lack there of. Fog of war and AI both appear to be realistic. No capture the flag here, although there is a button to show hidden forces. Tempting to use but you should avoid using it. As the campaign moves toward a resolution, your foolish mistakes or brilliant strategy follow you. These old SSI games have always been my favorite. I played SSI games way back on my C-64. I would like to see COG find all of the old SSI games and bring them back to life. I still have fond memories of the durable "Fifty Mission Crush". It is available with a C-64 emulator, but is rather clunky and unsaveable in that format. All and all a great strategic simulation for any gamer who enjoys a campaign where you need to plan, react and execute while keeping your forces supplied.