TalonSoft's WEST FRONT places you right in the middle of World War II. This fast paced platoon-level game of tactical combat in Europe starts. Learn about TalonSoft, and find games, reviews, previews, cheats and more for games by TalonSoft at GameSpot.

Is it possible for a game to be too encompassing, have too many features and be too massive? Talonsoft, Inc.'s West Front, a war game covering much of World War II, raises these questions. Whether you're interested in controlling Axis or Allied powers for battles taking place throughout Europe and North Africa, whether you'd like to play out individual scenarios or play through dynamic or linked campaigns, if you'd rather create your own scenarios or just read through the massive manual and online help system to find out everything you ever wanted to know about almost every bit of weaponry and vehicle used during World War II, or if..no, wait, where was I?

I guess that's the point: West Front launches a full frontal and never lets up. And before you know it, your total attention has become a prisoner of war and your free time's been annihilated. For some, such as World War II fanatics and strategic-war game buffs, this might be all well and good, but for me -- not so. The tutorial alone took me hours and hours to complete, even though the tutorial scenario was limited to only twelve turns in length. Which is to say this game has one Hamburger Hill of a learning curve. To be honest, after the tutorial, I didn't even want to play anymore.

In all fairness, I have to give Talonsoft the proper credit for creating the most thorough, complete war game and virtual World War II encyclopedia with which I've ever collapsed from boredom. There have been many other games that have bored me but none so relentlessly as West Front. I felt surrounded on all sides by features and options and toggle switches and hotkeys. And then there's the game itself -- endlessly advancing soldiers and tanks toward some obscure goal that gets lost in the details of battle, such as 'Secure such and such position,' 'Break such and such line,' 'Kill such and such enemy leader.'

True, I wouldn't make a shining cadet; I wasn't even that good at being a Navy brat, so it was as a relative layman I was looking forward to West Front for a game of subtle strategy and overwhelming military realism. Instead, I got what felt like a 2D representation of a dynamic battle plan. Imagine sitting through turn after turn of 'This is what will happen if we storm the bunker here, or, call in the air strike on this chateau, or, march like walking bull's-eyes down this open road.' Aside from the decent background battle sounds, there was very little to pull me into the game. At no time did I feel like some captain leading my troops along Omaha Beach at Normandy or traipsing through the North African desert -- very little to make me feel like I was actually engaged in battle.

This lack of sensation may be due to an old football injury but it's more than likely the result of information overload combined with West Front's dated (c. 1998) hexagonal game board and questionable AI. The game is beautifully detailed and the amount of history and finely reproduced theaters of battle available to you -- the massive scale of the whole thing -- is astonishing. Because of limited victory conditions, the lack of an option for either side to surrender or flee and the somewhat soggy AI (troops aimlessly over-retreating and re-engaging and computer enemies shelling open hexes after the player's position has already been identified), skirmishes eventually stretch into shapeless battles of attrition. Competing sides chase each other around the map until enough reinforcements arrive to ensure that each scenario will not end until the 18th or 20th or 40th (!) turn has been completed.

All of this is probably music to the ears of turn-based strategy game fans or players with the patience of prison-camp interrogators. But, if you don't fall into one of those categories, I recommend that, instead of actually buying the game, you simply take a few moments to appreciate the fact that games like this exist and that people can seemingly devote their lives to creating them.

Graphics: Hexagons and icons and anti-tank guns, oh my! I admit I've been spoiled by RTS (real-time strategy) game graphics but West Front proves turn-based (or stop-action) 2D still has some life left. The interface and available menus (hide-able) are colorful and well designed -- more like a head-up display than a system of toolbars. The multiple map views are helpful but I needed to zoom in closer than the game allowed. Many of the icons blended with the background depending on the type of terrain drawn on the screen and stacking too many units in one hexagon looked like a jumbled mess. The different vehicles (tanks, jeeps, boats, planes) and the map structure (towns, bunkers, cliffs, trees) were exquisitely drawn. Some of the effect, though, is diminished by the fact that all unit icons represent larger groups of soldiers (I'm more the hands-on-per-soldier G.I. Joe type player than the metal-miniature-on-a-game-map type).

Sound: The game's sound effects do a good job of filling in the reality gaps whenever a unit mobilizes or fires a shot. There are also ambient midst-of-battle sound effects that help maintain the mood. Unfortunately, the music is obtrusive, kind of B-movie over-the-top like. I had to turn it off while reading through the manual because I couldn't concentrate with it playing. Also, I missed having any voice-over parts or mission-briefing movies (a cheesy staple of soldier-type games that I've rather gotten used to).

Enjoyment: This is one of those rare occasions where I have to recognize that even though I don't feel any particular fondness for the game while playing it, it's essentially a good game. No battlefield corpse has been left unturned (to needlessly extend this review's dominant metaphor) and when a game is that complete, a sizeable audience willing to explore it can easily be found. West Front's completeness and secondary features added to the fun for me. Even though I couldn't devote the time to poring over the subtleties of every single Stuart tank just to find out which one was best-suited against a particular howitzer, I was still glad the ability to do so was available from within game.

Replay Value: By virtue of length alone, this game could take you forever to complete and that's just going by what's included on the CD-ROM. The scenario editor and the multi-player modes add to the length and variety and the inclusion of both dynamic and linked campaigns gives players that much more from which to choose. Despite what's available, however, the game's slow tediousness will turn many people off well before they get the chance to try out all the available options.

People who downloaded West Front have also downloaded:
East Front 2, Rising Sun, Divided Ground: Middle East Conflict 1948-1973, Civil War Generals 2, Battleground 2: Gettysburg, Battleground 3: Waterloo , Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle, Battleground: Ardennes

East Front II is everything the original East Front should have been. That's good news if you're new to the East Front series, as East Front had a great premise and a good system but was, unfortunately, marred by some serious problems. On the other hand, if you're a veteran of East Front, its sequel will be quite disappointing. East Front II, in fact, is not so much a sequel as an enhancement. It's a revamped East Front with a lot of the problems fixed, plus the first campaign CD add-on and 50 additional scenarios.

The already impressive graphics from East Front make a return in this follow up but are enhanced with more detailing and contoured edges for terrain features. You'll also get armored vehicles with various camouflage paint schemes. Nice as the graphics are, though, at heart East Front II is sporting the same basic graphics as its predecessor. That's not a bad thing by any means, as East Front's graphics were lush and detailed. But, because East Front II's release comes two years after the original, more improvements in graphics would have been nice.

After releasing East Front, Talonsoft learned a set of lessons and incorporated them into their next game design, West Front. East Front II follows West Front and shares the fruits of many of those lessons. But, it's still quite distinctly a sequel to East Front in the sense there are some issues resolved.

The basic combat unit in the game is the platoon; that usually works out fine in the more limited engagements of the Western Front. The Eastern Front, however, was the scene of the largest tank battles in the history of human warfare and these tanks were accompanied by infantry among others. You can have engagements with division or even corps size groups going at each other and the sheer number of units on the field at that scale can be overwhelming. Moving your entire army every turn, platoon by platoon, can quickly become a marathon test of patience. Fortunately, you are given the option to move groups of units at one time but at the cost of losing individual control over unit placement. Even then, the large-scale engagements that are depicted can take many hours to complete.

The supply rules are another problematic quirk about the game. Each turn correlates to six minutes of real time so most scenarios last somewhere between one and two hours. In a two-hour engagement, there simply is no question of supply. Soldiers should be carrying enough ammunition to last them that long and pass ammo back and forth if necessary. Supply rules might begin to come into play on scenarios that last two days but not two hours.

Overall, East Front II is quite an improvement over East Front. The AI is much more skilled this time around, requiring strategy instead of mindless horde rushing. If you've already played East Front, this quasi-sequel may not be worth the price. On the other hand, if you're a wargamer with an interest in World War II and haven't tried out East Front, East Front II is the perfect place to do it.

Graphics: Lush and detailed graphics throughout the game; unfortunately, they show little improvement over the original.

Sound: Decent sound effects for battles.

Enjoyment: The game presents great wargaming that manages to portray plenty of realism for the hardcore fan.

Replay Value: East Front II is really meaty with many units and scenarios.

People who downloaded East Front 2 have also downloaded:
West Front, Rising Sun, Divided Ground: Middle East Conflict 1948-1973, Civil War Generals 2, Gary Grigsby's World At War, Battleground 3: Waterloo , Battleground 2: Gettysburg, Battleground 6: Napoleon in Russia