User Reviews (1 - 11 of 23)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Shocked at a hopelessly outdated piece of new software

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 32
Date: July 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Can you imagine having to study a 128 page manual to be able to play a simple game? That kind of computer game went out with the 1980s. Let me quote from some of the tiny print in pages 55 and 56 of the manual pertaining to the unit display:
- The number at the top left is the number of units of this type with the given attributes in the hex.
- The number at top right is the remaining Movement Points for these unit(s)...
- A target with red X on top of the unit icon indicates that the unit was fired at at least once during the current movement phase.
- Three barrels displayed at bottom left indicates the unit(s) has been supplied this turn.
- A green arrow at the bottom indicates the unit(s) has moved Tactically this turn.
- A red arrow at the bottom indicates the unit(s) has moved Tactically and has used Extended Movement (expending additional supplies) this turn.
- A blue arrow at the bottom indicates the unit(s) has moved Stategically this turn.
And on and on to cover check marks, torpedo icons, a chain with a number, different colors of explosion icons, and the meaning of a small number in yellow.
One reviewer said the game takes minutes to learn. If you are a fast reader with excellent comprehension you might be able to read and digest the manual's glossary of terms in minutes.
If having to read and digest 128 pages of tiny print to figure out how to play a glitchy game with limited replayability makes a game good, then this game "Renews the genre of wargames" as one reviewer put it.

Gary Grigsby? Say it isn't so.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 26
Date: June 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing strategy games for 15 years. This is the worst I have ever seen.

DO NOT BUY!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 60
Date: March 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has play by email as the multiplayer version!!!! I mean the original Axis and Allies had tcp/ip at least! Are they trying to build a great game for the early 90s here or what?

World at War is not for the "DIE HARD" wargamer

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: September 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have been wargaming for over 30 years. I do not care for this game as there is no diplomatic abilities what-so-ever. There is no way to persuade Spain to join the Axis. Yugoslavia signed the Tri-partite treaty and became a member of the Axis, even if only for a short time due to a British led Coup d' Tat. Turkey massed 3 million men on the Russian border waiting for Germany to win at Stalingrad. so they could join the Axis by declaring war on Russia.
The game is very complex, not realistic and to stiff to play. As a member of the Europa Association in the early 90's and the flexibility and freedom that a board game gives you. This is not for a person that wants flexibility and the ability to change history.
I was expecting to much from this PC game. If you want flexibility and the opportunity to change history, do not buy this game because it is not there. you can be the Germans and lose every time...you can be the Japanese and fair worse than they did in real life. If you only ever want to be the Allied powers then this is the game for you because you can destroy the Axis each and everytime.
This game was a waste of money.
if it is Axis and Allies you want then buy it and save the money for something more worth while

So close

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: April 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really wanted to like this game but it's just too slow and limited. (Read the other comments on this.) If you're an utterly diehard wargamer who doesn't mind sitting there while the AI makes all manner of moves might be OK will this. This can't be overstated... following every turn you could eat a meal while waiting on the AI to do its thing. The obnoxious thing is unless you sit and watch you might miss something critical. I couldn't imagine what it would be like with one or more human opponents. Plus as other comments have stated there are the built-in scenerios and that's it. The game's just not worth learning to hack alternatives.

This game should've been so much more. Even just having an option of fast turns with end-phase balloons with blurbs of what happened in each area even would've been enough for me.

Two overall stars for being so close and the work that must've gone in to create it. One for what it's really like to play.

Too rigid, too complicated

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: January 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is enormously overrated. First of all, you have to have the time and the energy to master the complexities of the rules. Then you are pretty much limited in what you can do in terms of winning the game. There is apparently only one major way (with minor variations) to win as Germany, for example, and you have to be able to figure out the formula for doing so. Once you do that, there's nothing left to do for the next game. You've passed the test; now you can graduate. That's what it feels like. So you're hemmed in by the complexity and the rigidity of the game. It really isn't a great deal of fun.

I liked the premise

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 14
Date: June 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was pretty excited when I first read about this game since I am a huge fan of the 'Axis & Allies' genre of turn based wargaming. So I bought it on the day it came out. That is when the trouble began. I would get halfway through a turn when the game would crash. I waited until the first patch came out and downloaded it with no improvement. So then I posted on the tech support forum at the game website and got a pretty quick response that my sound card was too outdated and wasn't supported (in all fairness that part was true). So I went out and bought a brand new SB Audigy 2 sound card. When I tried to run the game I would get completely through the first turn and it would crash at the end this time. So when I posted to tech support again they told me that I shouldn't have bought a Audigy 2 sound card, that they have issues. So I sold the game on Ebay. Buyer beware....

NO, JUST NO

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: November 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The name "Gary Grigsby" sold this game for me. I gotta say this is just not up to my expectations. I cut my teeth on "War in Russia," way back when. I'd play WIR(if I had a copy) over this any day. Contrary to many reviews, I found this game overly simplistic. It's on too grand a scale. Time passes away in huge chunks. Before I know it, it's 1945 and I never feel like I've accomplished anything, even though I may have reach a goal.

not very much fun for me...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: October 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i just don't like playing this game ..i like ww2 games alot but this is just not fun for me.i thought this game was going to be a few steps ahead of the last axis and allies game. it's not,it's just very boring....

Sorry, for fanatics only

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 18
Date: May 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Warning, warning! This game is for feverish GROG fanatics only. The game play allows for absolutely NO deviation from the historical reality of WW2. If you want to play a game with an inevitable result and no variation or creative strategy, this is for you. The game starts you after the beginning of hostilites, with your production already set, and no pre-maneuvering possible. Countries make war and fight battles, based on actual dates from history, not on what is going on in the game. Some of us find this unbelievably boring.

Having said that, I understand there are board-game fanatics out there (you know who you are - the guys who loved spending a weekend trying to figure out the rules to Axis & Allies)who will probably love the agonizing supply rules and micromanagement. If that's you , have fun.

The game worked on my 930mghz, 256 meg machine, even though it told me it wouldn't when I loaded it! If you have a slow machine, you should change the scroll speed to 7+ and you can make other graphic changes to smooth things out.

Review Page: 1 2 3 Next 

Actions