Burden Of Command is simply a batch similar me, successful that it deserves a batch of emotion but it's excessively frustrating and annoying to get it for long.
The conception is promising: tactical battles with a tiny batch of soldiers, but arsenic a "leadership RPG" alternatively of a regular wargame. Occasional glimpses kept my anticipation live implicit its agelong development, possibly predisposing maine to forgive much than accustomed erstwhile it yet arrived past month. I'm gladsome I did. But wow, did this crippled get maine yelling for a while.
You are a recently hatched lieutenant of the US Army, acceptable to respond to Hitler's genius large encephalon declaration of warfare by repeating and debating his ideas. But you'll beryllium warring successful Italy first, and successful Sicily earlier that, and successful Morocco earlier that. And earlier that, you'll decorativeness training. Before that... you're a blank slate.
This isn't the subordinate quality arsenic the astir peculiar idiosyncratic successful the world. It doesn't substance who you were before. Training is simply a earthy tutorial, but besides a conception that's already defining you. Moreover, it's trying to get you to judge mistakes. To larn by making them. When you screw up by not knowing the bid strategy oregon however turns work, that's intended, I think, to enactment you successful the presumption of your character. He hasn't played 300 hours of wargames this year, oregon watched each the films and convinced himself he's a tactical genius. When you fumble with the UI, that's him conveying his orders badly, oregon getting flustered by adding carnal pressures to publication learnin'.
But it draws up my perennial, whingeful cry: Burden Of Command is simply a single-save game. Worse: that prevention is overwritten with each action. Move a squad 3 hexes and it saves, I suspect, aft each one. Certainly, the changeless pauses suggest much than conscionable updating however galore mines you're lasting on. Micro-delays that rob battles of immoderate tension, but worse: everything is final.
Image credit: RPS / Green Tree Games
BoC makes a constituent of this - this is roleplaying arsenic being this guy, not maximum numbers and perfect outcomes. You're expected to fail, to get named characters or adjacent yourself killed, to retreat oregon lose, and proceed with events altering people (a uncommon and precious dynamic worthy of respect). One lawsuit warns of an upcoming graphic image, which you tin skip by having your feline look away.
But that's undermined by its interface, and the opaque details of however things work. UI elements deactivate erstwhile you cheque thing else, causing squads to sprout alternatively of capturing. Icons and panels look and vanish successful awkward ways. It's hard to spot the tiny icons implicit units you can't zoom into capable (a existent shame; I similar the art). Units deselect erstwhile you resistance the map, and question ranges are lone shown for the existent action, exacerbating unclear rules that propulsion up inconsistencies I can't explain. I tin determination 3 hexes implicit that writer but lone 2 implicit identical grass? Rather than complaint a hex westwards, my guys tally downhill and onslaught backmost up it again? And squads artifact each other's question - a wood tin acceptable 12 guys, lasting country lone - which isn't indefensible, design-wise, but "My men tally 3 hexes nether occurrence due to the fact that my different men won't fto them pass" isn't a satisfying communicative effect of my actions. And determination is not, I accidental calmly with calmness, immoderate bid confirmation. Even ending the crook doesn't ask, and that's bound to the abstraction bar.
Image credit: RPS / Green Tree Games
The narration betwixt "orders" and "actions" throws up curveballs, frustrating Burden's astir simple-yet-rich system. Turns are divided into rounds. In each circular you take a lieutenant, whose bid points are spent to move, act, and activate squads nether him. Each squad tin lone usage its ain enactment points if it's activated, but tin enactment independently afterwards. You indispensable extremity the circular to usage different officer, but the adjacent circular goes to the radical who are conscionable asking questions. It's a crippled of prioritising, and distributing your absorption to wherever constricted orders are astir needed, made much malleable by respective details. Officers tin person aggregate rounds, if you privation to determination Thompson's archetypal squad retired of danger, occurrence Stern's instrumentality guns, past determination Thompson's different squads. The Captain tin enactment whenever you want, activate immoderate squad, and usage Bolster and Rally actions connected adjacent hexes. Lieutenants indispensable beryllium in the hex to bash that, which carries different benefits. But officers determination faster alone, and are conscionable arsenic susceptible to explosions (life tip). Suppressed/demoralised radical suffer actions/orders, truthful sending 1 into the breach could paralyse his full platoon, arsenic they're near without anyone telling them to halt waving astatine the guys with Very Real Concerns and sprout them.
They're often needed elsewhere too, arsenic Bolster and Rally (and Press: walk 1 bid to reconstruct 1 action) are ever needed. One is an all-purpose "do everything better" power, the different lifts suppression. They're not peculiar perks connected a cooldown. They're breadstuff and butter, a changeless reminder that you're not present to bash Tactics oregon adhd +4 to onslaught and occurrence damage. It's enactment arsenic what men successful combat need: being there. Taking charge, prompting grooming to footwear in. A full circular mightiness beryllium moving backmost to an immobilised squad conscionable to beryllium the guy. Maybe he's being a dick, possibly he's supportive, possibly he's playing the bagpipes, but he's here. We're each here, let's go.
It's a decent changeable astatine simulating quality limits to organising successful a deadly situation. But it's sometimes opaque, and prone to bugs and inconsistencies (WHY does that abruptly instrumentality 2 orders? Why is helium suppressed, thing has happened? Why did my serviceman not determination with that squad?). And of course, your prevention is perpetually overwritten, leaving you incapable to bask the consequences, due to the fact that those weren't your decisions. I would person discontinue outright aft a fewer hours, if it didn't softly support a backup prevention erstwhile per turn.
Image credit: RPS / Green Tree Games
Burden Of Command isn't present to punish you, though. Gunfire astir ne'er wipes squads out, but holds them down until idiosyncratic charges, usually causing surrender. Deaths were uncommon until the Germans showed up, barring a bug that vanished astir of a squad, leaving them genuinely useless adjacent months aboriginal (it wasn't worthy the outgo successful abstract points to replenish them, truthful they sat unmoving astatine assorted starting areas for astir of the war. The remaining squads got much attraction from Lt. Daddy and they turned retired fine, dunno what your occupation is). The constituent isn't a gruelling hardcore situation oregon showing off. It's however you handled the job, the ordeal.
Its flaws distract from its large spot - it is, essentially, analyzable interactive fiction. When not successful battles, you're speechmaking done events astir them, handling antics from the men, penning letters to soon-to-be-grieving families. There's esteem of men and brass (not opposed, but the second mostly privation strategical results, portion the erstwhile privation to survive) to earn, your ain wellbeing, and relationships with different officers to equilibrium against preparing for the adjacent fight, and doing the close thing. The penning is softly excellent, with a flimsy stoicism that ne'er veers into jingoism, handwringing, oregon warfare porn. Tonnes of probe went in, but an impressively restrained manus near the bulk of it retired of changeable ("So it goes." - Archivist Ed). The effect is an authenticity of tone alternatively than technicality, and succinct substance that nevertheless conveys what it ought to. It trusts the assemblage to recognize and infer things, which is worthy the outgo of occasionally going implicit my head, resulting successful the classical RPG dialog occupation of responses not rather meaning what I thought.
Image credit: RPS / Green Tree Games
I'm struck excessively by however overmuch enactment intelligibly went into the permutations. Some scenes are "Crucibles" wherein your responses find which of 8 "Mindsets" you espouse, but whitethorn origin unpredictable reactions successful different officers. Thompson mightiness beryllium inspired by your Idealism, but Wilson develops Caution against specified naïveté. It's sometimes dissatisfying, arsenic your archetypal Mindset permanently locks different 3 that look compatible. This whitethorn beryllium for balance, since developed Mindsets assistance abilities of varying utility. Many are once-per-mission actions, landing squarely successful the "too utile to use" zone. That's inactive preferable to making them all-important though, and galore passives are excessively taxable to accidental to beryllium much than a pleasant surprise, successful a mode that fits Burden's ethos much than the standards of its genre.
This is not a crippled astir customising a cleanable team, see. You're 1 person among many, not a Shepard among sheep. I turned down a escaped vantage earlier 1 mission, doubting I'd usage it, truthful it should spell to immoderate different rando. I didn't expect a videogame payoff, but decided arsenic idiosyncratic successful that position.
Burden Of Command is nary dense melodrama of traumatised warfare lads (despite the occasionally audible Shane Taylor, aka bittersweet worker lad and my beloved lad Doc Roe), but is astir radical alternatively than crippled tokens. I adjacent got implicit my archetypal hatred of Lt. Dearborn for his platoon repeatedly embarrassing maine successful grooming by failing immoderate hidden "morale" cheque to move, wrecking aggregate turns. He had debased "trust", see, and experience, frankincense a higher accidental of spending orders connected nothing. I wanted to person them each shot. But his multilingualism was an asset, and helium grew into an oddly loveable, conniving stalwart whose men I'd enactment connected the vanguard if I had immoderate bloody power implicit wherever anyone starts.
If there's a summary of Burden of Command, it's precisely that. A maddening fewer hours of inconsistent behaviour and unclear details compounded by an intrusive prevention system, dilatory giving up crushed to the excellent, unusual, and replayable communicative RPG it's trying to be.
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