Officers is a obscure PC Historical Real Time Strategy game released March 2008 developed and published by Game Factory Interactive, the publisher of eastern European titles such as UberSoldier.
The catch of the game which lets Officers stand out from other PC RTS titles is its scale, the game features over 10 square miles of battlefield and units with realistic weapon ranges which lead to rather large and engaging firefights, a change from the more “arcade” style games such as Company of Heroes or Blitzkrieg II.
There are only two real modes of play in Offices a single player segment that consists of two main sub-segments a tutorial, which although not absolutely necessary I recommend it as it gives you a good understanding of the game and some of its crazy mechanics, a campaign mode giving you control of British and American forces during Operation Overlord which the game condenses into 6 large missions each will take you depending on your level of skill and luck around 1-3 hours each, they aren’t particularly well thought out or conceived but it’s there, coupled with a multiplayer portion of the game which is by today’s standards is broken using TCP/IP and LAN Settings which when it works is probably the better part of the game featuring a handful of good maps which turn into skirmish battles between you and friends and you aren’t forced to play the British or American factions.
The gameplay itself in Officer’s plays akin to the Sudden Strike series or more recently 1C’s Theater of War, which for some is a ringing endorsement but for most you are in for a clunky mess of bad path finding poor target recognition and bad line of sight issues and just punishing difficulties. The controls are basic featuring the classic medley of point click controls and a basic cover system almost like the original Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War.
The game gets crazy considering Officers almost forces you to micromanage every little aspect of your units, the game will factor in skills, abilities, morale, energy and even things such as rations and supply, units will be constantly running out of ammo or tanks and vehicles running out of fuel, or just simply breaking down if you keep them in poor repair. I feel as if it shouldn’t even be in the game it’s just there to provide a more realistic feel but unfortunately it bogs down play even more than it already is and considering the game really isn’t very immersive or at all rewarding is just silly when it forces you to do things like issue rations…
The in game engine in Officers features some nice details and textures, coupled with acceptable load times especially looking at how large this game actually is. The only real gripe I have about the graphics are the animation on units and structures, etc. Its mechanical and rather jagged however since you will probably be zoomed out most of the time to see what is going on in the battlefield it’s not that big of an issue.
The sound in Officers is disappointing and at parts strange
and bone chillingly awful, the only music in the game besides pre-rendered
campaign cut scenes is supplied by a 30 second orchestral loop which is it no
other music is to be heard and its get especially worse in the category of
voice acting. For example, every American unit sounds like a stereotypical French
Canadian, even though the different unit types supposedly have different voice
styles (The American engineers being the only real noticeable one and the worst.)
A Silver lining can be found in all this when listening to the weapons and vehicle sounds which come straight out of Call of Duty: United Offensive and Call of Duty, crisp and clear sounds that really sound devastating and deadly.
The German and Russian voices are also well done and are an excellent change from the painful Americans and British, Unfortunately they also sound like they came straight out of Blitzkrieg II and Call of Duty it’s a metaphor for the game, the best parts are the parts they stole and it continues to be a shame you can only play as the German and Russian factions in the multiplayer which is still one of my main gripes about the game, I simply wanted to select a year and faction such as Germany 1942, create my own personal army and hit the GO! Button and play through World War II, being forced to play generic scenarios kill the replay value and really destroy what had the ideas and potential to make a decent game.
All in all the concepts behind Officers are sound, a realistically scaled battlefield with real battlefield mechanics and soldiers, but the delivery and polish just simply isn’t there. The game boxes itself in by throwing in a multiplayer mode which unfortunately only works if you have friends who are into this sort of thing and those friends will also have to go to your house and LAN PARTY!!! To play the game with you further destroying the replay value by featuring the same six scenarios even the game itself is just like playing a scaled up Sudden Strike, which isn’t a good thing and painful music and sound, even if you are a fan of games like Sudden Strike and Close Combat (Close Combat is good) skip this game.