But seriously - how bad is this game?

[battlezoby]

I just read about 70 reviews, and the only person who had more than 50 hours (they had 50.1 hours) of playtime simply wrote:

"if u could give orders instead of ur army running around like crackheads"

I haven't bought this, but when I play a strategy game that I like, I tend to play for at least a few hundred hours.(*)

Why is this game littered with "Thumbs-up" reviews by people who haven't even played for 5 or 6 hours yet?

* - Update: I really liked Total War: Napolean, but was suprised that I "only" had 98.1 hours on record. On the other hand, I tried to go back to TW:N, but had trouble doing so because it was too hard to remember all the complicated strategy aspects of the game which I was able to keep track-of before taking a break from it.

[Yuithgf]

well, it wasnt released that long ago, but it does have a bit of a replay value problem, tho thats slowly being fixed with updates. theres some pre battle orders you can give your untis now for example

[76561198881752351]

This game is still VERY new they need to fix update and add more stuff give the game time and im sure they will fix a lot of this

[cjprince]

They've added orders now, that was probably an older review from early release. You should get this game, the developers pay attention to the community and the game itself is good fun. they are going to add Italy soon and this game will really take off once modding support is added.

[zera]

It is new yes but no support and why have thay realys this games it fells like a Early access games. I am very disappointed and feel cheated can not even play the game gets stuck in the
campaign mod

[Namikaze]

This is NOT astrategy game. This is more of "place unit on one side and wtch it fight guy on other side". If you want a good WW2 Strategy game, buy Men Of War Assault Squad 2

[Yuithgf]

first tag for total tank sim on steam is ''strategy''.

[Lagranger]

I concur with Mugiwara, the orders are only initial orders for the units after placement, after that they will just do their own thing. The AI in this game is also completely suicidal and you will be ripping your hair out in frustration if you try to play this like a total war game

[AdamMAG37pl]

Originally posted by Mugiwara:

This is NOT astrategy game. This is more of "place unit on one side and wtch it fight guy on other side". If you want a good WW2 Strategy game, buy Men Of War Assault Squad 2

actually how you place your unit makes big difference so yeah it is a strategy game

[battlezoby]

Originally posted by Yuithgf:

first tag for total tank sim on steam is ''strategy''.

After starting this thread, I think part of the answer to my original question is that this is an "Simulator", as the name implies, that people expect and perceive to be a strategy game. It's pretty bad as a strategy game, but likely to be amusing as a simulator, at least for relatively short amounts of time.

Not having bought this game, I finally got around to watching a YouTube video of some of the game play.

It gives you a chance to play as part of a bigger battle, but probably and at-least-not-usually a big enough part to actually effect the outcome of the battle much.

Even if, hypothetically, you're on a severely outnumbered/overwelmed side, it still tries to simulate that experience.

Having realized this (or to use a better word, "having theorized this,) I think it both helps explain why there are so many positive reviews with short playtimes, and makes me more inclined to buy the game...

It might be fun to try out the various perspectives of the simulated (though probably and apparently pretty "stupid") combatants, regardless of whether the overall strategy controlling the other units makes much sense.

If someone want to quote this post and add a short comment such as "yes" or "probably", I might mark it as answer to my question; unfortinately, Steam won't let non-moderators like myself do that to their own posts otherwise. (I can mark any reply to original post as "an answer" except for this one and any other ones I make myself.)