Civil War: A Nation Divided REVIEW

     CIVIL WAR: A NATION DIVIDED

R E V I E W

The nation has separated into two parts. Civil War has broken out. We need new recruits. You have been selected. But it is up to you to choose your side. The decision lies before you. Will you choose Union, or Confederacy?

Civil War: A Nation Divided is a sure classic of war games. Sure if you like shoot-em-up, blow-em-up, games, it probably isn’t your type of game. Happening when it did, the Civil War didn’t have advanced machine guns, or rocket launchers. This game takes time to shoot, to reload, and to get your aim right. Being made by the History Channel you’re probably thinking “Wow…the History Channel makes a video game... the shows on their TV channel are really boring so why would I pay money for more of the same?” Well if you are, you are terribly mistaken! It Is action packed, difficult, and well designed!

G A M E P L A Y---  Civil War has some pretty awesome gameplay. The controls are easy to pick up, R1 to fire, left analog stick to move, right analog stick to look around, Dpad to cycle through weapons, just your basic shooter controls. The graphics are very nice for its time! From the basics, like the first-person view of the gun, to even the wrinkles on their clothes; although, it does have its weak points in graphics. For example, the blood on the people’s faces is practically the same for everybody. Also there are only about 4-5 different types of people. And the only difference between confederate and union soldiers is their voices and uniforms. But the difficulty on this game will keep you busy for hours. Each side has 6 levels, (minor spoiler) but to unlock the 6^th level, you have to beat the other 5 on Normal difficulty or above (end spoiler). In the level you play as an actual private from the civil war that actually fought in the battle you play as him in! While the level is loading, it shows an actual dairy entry/letter sent to home from whoever you play as! You can also find newspaper clippings and photos from the Civil War era during your gameplay, and view them in the bonus content screen!

O F F E N C I V E   M A T E R I A L ---   The violence is not that bad at all. When you shoot people there is just a randomly chosen reaction they have when they die. There is no blood except for the blood already on the soldiers when you see them. In the language department, in the Fredericksburg level one of your commanding officers uses d*** once. Also in the Gettysburg level one of your commanding officers says “Jesus!” when a cannonball hits.  Also (the Gettysburg level is the only one I heard it in) some of the soldiers can shout curse words. But I’m pretty sure there is a speech volume in settings, so if you turn the SFX volume up and the speech volume down then you probably wont here the soldiers say anything.

S U M M A R R Y ---  Overall, This game gets a B+ on the JRMS. I would recommend this game to ages 12+. As long as their not the type of 12 year old that thinks they have to reenact stuff they see done on a screen. There is also an educational factor in the game. When your about to enter a level and when you beat a level, there is a map, and a voice telling you about the battle you will be fighting in, who commanded the battle, and all such things as that! At a fairly cheap price this game is worth it! 

Civil War: A Nation Divided (360, PC, PS2)

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