I will be approaching this review under the assumption you have some prior RTS knowledge.

Ostfront vexes me greatly.

Short version, if you're good at microing you'll do just fine. If not, prepare to be in for a bad time.

Ostfront is a functional RTS that suffers from anemic holdovers from previous games. On the surface, being able to control each and every unit as an option sounds like a fun mechanic and it is. However it goes past the point of being an option and instead becomes a mandatory part to functional normally. As many other reviewers have pointed out the AI in this game is questionable at best. Highly dubious pathfinding, the fact soldiers can't run while shooting, tanks can't drive over rocks and priority targets being completely asinine just to name a few. All of these issues stacked up with each other make it so that direct control of units is paramount to success.

Some RTS's like to proclaim "Clicks don't mean success!" but here they most certainly do. That being said, a few of the minor complaints like 3rd person camera angles being awkward, medics not being able to do their job automatically and tank targeting fixes are all mods you can download freely on the workshop. However some of these do come with their own "balance" suggestions, so be careful about which ones you install.

If you ignore the AI issues (Which will prove to be impossible) and other faults, you'll run headlong into Ostfront's biggest flaw. In that it does not convey enough information to the player. You'll consistently find that a tank or squad of yours has been wiped out for some time and you'll have had no feedback about it. No crew shouts, no commander announcement and depending on the damage it might not even disappear from your unit roster, let alone if you have multiple of that unit.

But truthfully, the biggest pain in the neck is the unclear vision system in the game. The view cone around a squad or a tank is just a flat out lie. All it tells you is the area in which it *could* spot something. It does not account for items like smoke, hills, walls or camouflage. So lets say a tank of yours pops smoke but other units in your roster are still spotting targets past its smoke screen. The game does not tell you who is doing this. The tank itself still says it can see past it, when it clearly cannot. So having to manually pan the camera and check to see if a tank or a squad can see over a hill or around some smoke is a painstaking task, especially considering how important vision is to any RTS.

Yes, I am aware that Ostfront has two checks to make when making sure it can spot an enemy. But if this system comes at the cost of relaying information to the player, you should probably re-evaluate priorities.

Publicado originalmente por You:

Wow, it sure sounds like you hate this game.

Oh man, we haven't even touched all of my grievances. Music is generic and uninspired. Voicelines either grow on your or get intensely annoying. UI elements are very user-unfriendly at times. Mod load order and its general organization is a complete and utter mess. Most of the Singleplayer missions are hot garbage. Co-op conquest is just skirmish on someone's conquest file. Meaning you have to be reinvited after every mission. You can't have your own army, meaning no specializations and having to rely on your team mate to give you units (No, you can't have them given to you before the game starts). Defense missions take 10 minutes and then you spend the next 20 waiting for the time to run out.

Publicado originalmente por You:

So then why are you giving it a thumbs up?

Well I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a lot of fun just playing with friends. Hopping in a call and going against each other is intensely amusing and always good for some intense action. And that's pretty much been the only fun I've been able to have with this game. Granted, it's very good at this but if you were hoping to pick up an RTS for its singleplayer campaign or great competitive scene. Just run. This is nowhere near the game for that.

But if you want to mine an entire quarter of the map and watch as your friends start making plea deals to end the game early- then by all means welcome aboard.

This game is frankly one of my favorites but with how optimized it is for multiplayer, it just isn't worth it. trying to play with your friends is like watching a power point presentation. constant performance drops and many network issues. i'd rather rub my arm on a cheese grater at this point.

Great WW2 Rts