Shattered Union Critic Reviews

So overall it's a buy, except possibly for those who might find the apparent wishful-thinking anti-Americanism of the setting disturbing (It depicts Washington DC as a post-nuke grease spot with a ruin of the Washington Monument in the middle.)

Despite some flaws with its strategic game, Shattered Union is a fun, turn-based wargame that anyone can pick up and enjoy.

A good entry into the turn-based strategy genre. It doesn’t offer a depth of play of some of the bigger titles, but it is fun and, more importantly, easy to pick up but difficult to master.

Shattered Union isn’t perfect. It fits a niche market that very few developers are pursuing though.

I found with the limitless possibilities for strategy coupled with the multiplayer capability to be a game with a pretty decent shelf life.

A game tailored for strategy gaming zealots that suffers from a few shortcomings and limited appeal.

I know that developer PopTop and publisher 2K Games are trying to create something that is a little more console friendly, especially to those unfamiliar with the genre, but I have a feeling that much of that could have been accomplished with a bit more polish and presentation rather than cutting back on the strategic side of the experience.

What I didn't expect was that the areas themselves would take up so much space on the overall map and that one victory would take over multiple states. I also didn't expect that the units would be so incredibly limited.

If gamers will take the time to move beyond the initial frustrations (and politics) as well as any conditioning suffered from years of frenetic shooters, they will find a game that is both challenging and refreshing.

What I didn't expect was that the areas themselves would take up so much space on the overall map and that one victory would take over multiple states. I also didn't expect that the units would be so incredibly limited.

The controls are confusing and encumbering but they’re not impossible to get used to so, given a bit of dedication you might just find that you budding generals out there might get all the right buttons pushed with this game.

There's the core of a truly great beer-&-pretzels wargame in here, and strategy gamers looking for a light, enjoyable romp through a ruined United States will have a lot of fun with Shattered Union, particularly in multiplayer. It's just that -- as with most political promises -- what the game is simply doesn't match up to what it could have been.

A war game for casual gamers.

The structure outside the battlefield, like the country it portrays, is broken. Shattered, if you will.

Spend enough time with it, and you'll happily overlook its missteps.

Considerably less enjoyable than the now two-year-old (and eminently enjoyable) "Massive Assault," which had better AI, a stronger political system and even better production values. Save yourself some money and pick up a copy of "Massive Assault."

It has a very simplistic strategic level that amounts to rolling craps when deciding who and where to attack.

It's not bad, but some straightforward tweaks and adjustments could have resulted in a much better game.

The decidedly fragile environments and variety of units give players a sense of having something to fight for in both campaign and multiplayer beyond the unchanging battlefields of the typical turn-based strategy game. More depth and better delivery would have made this war far more civil.

Shattered Union is distracting enough as a strategic challenge, but the concept of a second Civil War deserves something more sophisticated than Risk on a mousepad.