0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z


Cheats
Guides


PC - Windows : History Channel Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run Reviews

Below are user reviews of History Channel Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for History Channel Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.







User Reviews (1 - 11 of 12)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated
Newest
Oldest
Most Helpful
Least Helpful



couldn't prove it by me!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: February 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I see this rated as 5-stars and sure don't know how.

Only once, in many attempts, I have even managed to get this game to start. I still don't know how it started that one time.

Even with the patch installed, I keep locking up when the screen says "initializing...".

I think there's some visual c+ error but I can't even see the pop up. I can't use ctrl-alt-del even to get out of the software. The only thing I can do is turn my whole pc off.

How I got past the c+ error one time is still a mystery and when I did, you can believe I wasn't over impressed with what little I saw.

WOW!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: April 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a good game and the sequel is coming out soon, but no one in their right mind should pay any where near what these people want. Crooks...

American Conquest Divided Nation

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: December 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is just like its' predecessors. It is a very good game,especially the civil war part of the instant action mode. It is very authentic,has excellent graphics, and is very realistic. CDV has put out another excellent game. This game come with everything that involves the Civil War, including the correct types of ships, the gatling gun, cannons, and the whole works. I have played the History channel Civil War Game, and believe me , it is similar to American Conquest Divided Nation, but American Conquest Divided Nation is much much better. I see that this game isn't out yet, but I ordered my copy from the CDV headquarters off the web site from Germany. This game called American Conquest Divided Nation has got a superb Civil War Game on it, (Union vs. Confederate). When you get this game you will find out what I mean

The Civil War Genre....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game got 5 stars because it is good but also because there are no other current... current .. civil war games out there that are any good... Maybe Gettysburg - American Civil War by Talonsoft .. but Gettysburg has little depth and is arcade style whereas The Battle for Bull Run is so much better.. Supposedly Sierra is coming out with Civil War Generals 3 .. which may be even better but its not out yet this review was submitted on 09/05. Anyway, The Battle for Bull Run (TBFBR) .. is easy to play tutorials get you going right away and there is strategy to it .. units fatigue and act realistic and you can take total control over them to where they will get shot at and wont react but continue to the objective. DEFINITELLY .. get the patch because I could not play it without it kept crashing or locking up... had to put it down until the patch came out.. Also in the patch readme it tells how you can edit the ini file to see 1024 x 768.. The only problem with game is there is no manual . printed but there is one you can access and print out in html format which is helpful.. The only other problem is the tutorial gives you messages about keyboard controls and stuff and these messages are not listed in manual so I had to use my screen shot program to take screen shots to save this vital info then I printed it out ... The lack of easily usable documentation is what is poor. But it is there just a hassle to get. But the price is decent very good comparing to what you get with the depth of strategy and playablility... and because no manual it should not be more than $20.00

Good but not polished

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Civil War Bull Run is a game that draws its inspiration from Sid Meier's 1997 game Gettysburg. In that title, players commanded individual regiments (or used their brigade commanders to issue large-scale orders) to flank and engage enemies for control of crucuial battleground sites.

Bull Run follows this style alarmingly closely. Skirmish, column, and line formations from Sid Meier's game are all here and work in similar fashion (You have only 4 choices of difficulty, as opposed to Gettysburg's more fleshed-out options of "Prudence," etc). Graphics are decent but extremely blurry close up - also the 3D map glitches occassionaly over long distances. As best I can tell there is only one major difference in this game from Gettysburg - whereas in Gettysburg the player could command all brigades in a scenario, effectively making him an army commander, Bull Run divides its 10 scenarios into Brigade, Division, and Army commands.

In Brigade mode, the player has no control over reinforcements or other units around the battlefield. This in theory allows you to focus on your goal without too much micromanagement. The problem is that, very often, other AI-controlled commanders will act like idiots. If your left flank is exposed for 10 minutes, and your allies can simply run up and protect you at any time, it is certainly possible that you'll be left hanging until you are destroyed.

In Division mode this is less of a problem. In Army mode, micromanagement really detracts from the fun and some on the official game forums call it "unplayable."

However, there are only 5 or 6 scenarios for Brigade and Division modes, so you aren't getting many pre-fab scenarios. The game offers two other options:

1. Open Play - which allows you to set the time, map (with the patch you have 3 or 4 options here), difficulty, and command position before heading into battle. This, according to the intimations of the game's developers, is sort of a half-baked feature, and I completely agree with them (they say they'll focus on it more in their next game). In short, you'll spend maybe 10-15 minutes of real time simply marching a goal and then either crush bone-headed AI opposition or, even worse, simply encounter no resistance (this is especially a problem if you play for "1 hour" time limit).

2. Custom scenarios - which, unless you want to spend hours downloading and making your own scenarios, includes only 2 or 3 scenarios. One is the full Battle of Bull Run that you can play at any level of command, which is definitely interesting but very boring if you play only an infantry commander. Again, playing in a more important role is strategically interesting but takes hours of micromanagement. Gettysburg's system of linked campaigns (that, incidentally, Bull Run's designers say they will rip off in their next game) worked better.

In conclusion Bull Run needs some work. Its only truly useful mode is the handful of historical scenarios, but these are interesting. For example, in the Evans scenario, the player must scramble to protect a hill against overwhelming odds until reinforcements arrive. It's a rush being outnumbered 5:1, like Evans was historically, and trying to figure out a strategy to delay the enemy. Usually it will involve deploying skirmishers or even a daring flanking attempt. You'll also get to find out how Jackson was nicknamed "Stonewall" as you hold a hill against the Union at the expense of your AI-controlled allies down the hill.

Multi-player is not provided, LAN or internet. The designers should add that and an option for total player control over other brigades for this game to be more competitive. More scenarios wouldn't hurt either.

I'm There!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: August 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is cool! Battle scenes make a clear picture of what Bull Run was.

AWESOME!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: December 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoy this game, but am still pretty amateur. Of course, the difficulty "Easy" helps... This game is awesome though, it recieved a 9.4/10 on game spot, and the patches make it better. This game was designed with modders in mind, and a ton can be dloaded from www.madminutegames.com

WINNER

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: June 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

IT IS WORTH EVREY DOLLAR I GOT IT TODAY I CAN NOT STOP PLAYING IT

Really great game that'll keep you up for hours

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: August 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because it received especially high user reviews on a gaming review website. They were right, the game is awesome.

Intense, engaging and challenging -- even on the slowest speed setting. The pace and interface may be frustrating for those who prefer turn-based games. Such people might have difficulty selecting and ordering multiple units in a timely fashion.

A fair part of the game involves taking advantage of terrain (height/cover/concealment), flanking, and coordinating the movements of multiple units. If such concepts are lost are you then the game might go over your head.

If you like wargames at all this one takes the cake, so don't hesitate. Make sure to apply the newest patch.

Edit: I'm amending this a year later. At this point, you should instead purchase a newer game written by the same company, called "2nd Manassas", which I have also played and love. It is essentially an update of this game.

Just a little bit of info

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: January 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The developer's website for this game is www.madminutegames.com, if you have questions or comments, please try their forums.


Review Page: 1 2 Next 



Actions