The Falklands War: 1982

Over 20 years ago, the conflict between Britain and Argentina over the tiny Falkland Islands was the latest in the two countries' long standing feud over control of the islands. Great Britain managed to keep sovereignty in the Falklands then, but what if things were just a tiny bit different? In The Falklands War: 1982 , you might be able to rewrite history with an Argentinean victory, or play out any number of different scenarios. It's all within your control in this title, which draws extensively from military strategy gaming's tabletop past.

Actually, the game tends to draw a little too extensively from the past, is this writer's opinion.

Let's dive right in, shall we? If you're familiar with the gaming style prevalent in older tabletop strategy titles such as Squad Commander, or if you're former military, the interface should be right up your alley. Those of us with less map reading and icon-based unit controls will have quite a bit of manual study and tutorial work before we're ready to even remotely begin playing this at even the most basic level. The game does boast some impressive military abilities, based on real life strategy from the battlefields of 20 years ago, and even today. Call in air support to soften up enemy positions. Use artillery to hit the enemy or throw down smoke for concealment of your units. Control is also not limited to simple squads or platoons, you can get into individual unit assignments if the need possesses you. Oh, and make sure to factor in the weather as well, because it'll probably change on you.

All of this would be fantastic if there was any sort of interesting GUI interface to deal with. The The Falklands War: 1982 has all the elegance of a CAD drawing mixed with a web-based interface. I know I've said that excellent graphics don't always make excellent games, and that bad graphics can be overlooked if the title's fun. Well, in this case, let's just say that they can't be overlooked. With all of the advances made in the last few years, how can a game with this level of complexity have worse graphics than the original Civilization?

Rather than getting into all of the bad of this game (poor controls, lack of any audio, etc.), let's just tell it like it is. This is obviously a labor of love for the programmers who made the title, but the focus (a little known conflict in the early 80's) is just too narrow to be of any entertainment value for all but the most rabid of war sim gamers.