The Great War: Western Front Critic Reviews

The Great War: Western Front is an excellent way to learn something about the battlefields and conditions of a war that, let’s face it, is one we rarely learn much about these days. It’s always inspiring when developers take the time to be meticulous with their history games and aim to present something that doesn’t just entertain, but also informs.

The Great War: Western Front is a good strategy game that tackles a historical period most titles in the genre overlook. Both the strategic and the tactical sides feature interesting mechanics and plenty of choices that affect the course of the war. The computer mostly puts up a good enough fight while the multiplayer side has plenty of options to create varied situations. But the game sits at a weird crossroads in terms of abstraction. It has plenty of realist elements but also allows corps to instantly move across the map. It rewards deep preparation but some battles can be won by simply carefully avoiding some enemy defenses. The Great War: Western Front captures the frustration and tension of World War I trench warfare well but struggles to make it a great video game experience.

Despite finicky controls and complex gameplay, The Great War: Western Front is deeply satisfying, always respectful of the source material.

Right from the start, the game uncompromisingly tries to show the reality of trench warfare. The theme of World War I games is often the feelings of hardships of ordinary soldiers, and it's fitting that even in a game where you have the role of commander-in-chief, this is not forgotten. Chances are, then, that you won't just forget the game either.

The Great War: Western Front aims to be a faithful reconstruction of the many battles the France, Britain and Germany fought more than a hundred years ago, and of the context surrounding them. It definitely succeeds at that, thanks to a very good soundtrack and to videos, posters and quotes from the period. Gameplay wise, however, the result is a game that is more catered towards a niche of players.

The Great War: Western Front is a good real-time strategy game that effectively captures the madness of World War I in a way that nobody ever dared to attempt. Despite some shortcomings typical of an independent production, Petroglyph's title offers innovative ideas that elevate it to the level of the greats in the genre, such as Paradox and Creative Assembly. For a studio new to the field, this is an impressive achievement.

The Great War: Western Front excels at making you feel the pressures of World War I. Sometimes that leaves the gameplay lacking, but most often it requires a level of engagement that is hard to find in a lot of other strategy games. At a certain point it can feel like massive grand strategy tactics, while simply throwing walls of men at each other on the smaller scale. Spending additional time with it, however, will yield additional tactics and technology that transform battles. It is a game clearly made in the image of its namesake, so it is no wonder that the result is a gruelling series of meat grinders that lasts for quite some time. It successfully uses that earnestness to differentiate itself from its competitors enough to make it easy to find joy in the seemingly endless war.

Doing its best to make a long-ago conflict come alive, The Great War: Western Front is ambitious and complex. Like the actual war, it requires patience, determination, and the ability to suffer repeated failures to make a small amount of progress. It isn’t so much a hardcore sim that novices can’t decipher it. The problem for me is more with the subject matter, combined with the weight of many systems. Victories never feel jubilant. In World War 1, winning was a matter of losing slightly less than the enemy. History lovers and wargamers will find a lot to enjoy, but for me, playing The Great War: Western Front felt a bit too much like homework and not enough like fun.

Quotation forthcoming.

The Great War Western Front is a unique game. The game seems to be constantly juggling between historical veracity and the obligation to make it a playful work.

At the moment there is very little else that competes with The Great War: Western Front and it is probably the best modern interpretation of trench warfare on the gaming market.

The Great War: Western Front is an interesting strategy game that delves into its setting for better and worse. Offering various strategic and tactical opportunities provides a lot for strategy game fans. However, the glacially slow pace will undeniably turn some people off, despite being very much due to the World War One setting. If there is one key issue, the AI is almost like a relic of previous games, seemingly not following the same rules as the player. Other issues with pathfinding also feature. However, despite these issues, I can't help but admit the game is compelling.

An interesting strategic game that delves deep in the Great War and its senseless fights.

Big thanks to the authors for choosing WW1 which is unique in this genre. The campaign is a bit clunky, but the combat is unique and contains unusual elements and mechanics that you don't normally see in other RTS.

The Great War: Western Front: is a wonderful treat for those who have experience with the RTS genre and an intense interest in history. For those like myself who have no experience with RTS games however, this can be a major struggle to get through and has the potential to be just another game in a backlog that won’t be touched again after the initial hours.

The Great War: Western Front offers what are undoubtedly the best tactical battles set in World War I we’ve ever seen. It’s original and full of tense atmosphere, even if some might complain about reused battlefields and weaker graphics. There’s balancing to be done and bugs to be squashed, but I’m confident that after a few patches an already fun game will get even better.

The Great War: Western Front is a bleak, conservative attempt to capture the brutal battles of World War I.

Grim-faced dedication to history has produced a rules-heavy RTS that’s rarely fun or strategically rewarding – a highly accurate depiction of the First World War, in other words, and a success in that respect at least.

The Great War: Western Front builds on very good ideas, but a lot of them are not properly executed, and the high difficulty doesn't help. It's not fun, the AI is cheating, too, unfortunately.

I like Western Front, for sure. Its frustrations detract from a good experience rather than overwriting it, and it's more entertaining than the theme suggests, without feeling glib or shallow. It's a solid go at a difficult niche, blending tactics and strategy well, but is best enjoyed on its own terms, and with perhaps a little more patience than I have.