Panzer General Allied Assault Review (XBLA)

Once you start up Panzer General: Allied Assault, from Petroglyph and Ubisoft,  you can tell that it was fashioned after a board game and so they should play very much the same. Only the difference is this one is the video game version so you have less math to do in your head and has cool animations that the board/card game doesn’t.

Panzer General Allied Assault is a combination board game and card game in one. Sort of like a modern day Stratego only cooler. The turn-based gameplay has you placing several types of cards at appropriate times including unit cards which you use to move, attack and win the game, combat cards which affect combat and action cards which have specific uses.

There is some amount of strategy involved in a successful plan as in war. Each level has specific goals that, once met, win you the day. These can consist of taking possession of your opponents home area, home row or specific areas of high interest.

Each territory on the board that you possess at the end of a turn gives you prestige points which you need in order to place further cards in the next turn and is a vital resource that must be managed along with the cards in your hand.

The graphics in the games aren’t awe-inspiring, but they are fair representations of the army units and vehicles. The explosions as well aren’t fantastic and border on the sedate and stay closer to realism than other war games. In fact that explosion in the image is far bigger than I remember seeing in the game itself. Terrains are easy to discern without having to zoom in and each gives certain bonuses or penalties to attack and defense.

The interface is quite well done and provides you with as much or as little information as you would like thanks to the handy extended stats toggle. If you’re observant as each combat turn begins you won’t need to expand the statistics but from time-to-time it’s nice to be able to if you need it.

The game offers both single player campaign mode (normal and hard difficulties) and multiplayer so that you can challenge others or take on the computer and lead your side to victory. As you proceed through the game you’ll unlock special cards and be able to customize your deck or create multiple decks if you perhaps want an attack or defense-heavy option.

What the game is really lacking is a ’quick resolve’ or ’skip to results’ button. During some combat you have no cards to play and therefore cannot influence the outcome. At this time the game should be smart enough to know that and offer you the chance to skip to the end instead of watching messages scroll by on screen like ’you have no cards to play.’  Also there are times when you might not want to influence the battle and this button would come in handy then as well. But it’s a small annoyance in an otherwise very well done game.

Overall Panzer General Allied Assault is pretty cool and fun. There are some times when you have to sit and watch the game go through the motions and that can get mildly annoying at times. If they had included a ’quick play’ option for a single turn in a battle that would have made it perfect. But it’s still well worth the price if you’re a TBS fan or even a fan of wargames in general.