Raging Tiger: The Second Korean War
By Tiblanc
Category: Strategy
Created: September 18, 2004
Edited: September 19, 2004
Editor: Shrapnel Games
Developer: ProSIM
In store: September 2004
Configuration: Pentium 2 300Mhz 32 Mb
Critic's comments
I have always reflected on an existential question. Why do games of strategy that try to be extremely realistic always seem to come with a terrible interface? It is not now that I am going to have my answer, unfortunately.
It would seem that there are people, somewhere, who feed on complication and like to transform simple things into complex operations. Let us take a simple example. To open a door, it is enough to lay your hand on the handle, close your fingers, perform a rotation of the wrist, and push or pull, depending on which side we're on. There are even people, and this is no lie, who developed a system which opens doors all by themselves when you walk up!
Raging Tiger is meant be a highly realistic wargame. The game takes place in the year 2010 in Korea. North Korea wants to attack the South, and the Americans feel compelled to go there with their marvellous army which seems very small. I did not know that it was possible to conquer a nation with less than 200 realistic men. Perhaps I'm missing something? Our role is that of commander who moves his realistic troops on a realistic virtual field in realistic real-time. It would seem that everything is realistic, except the fact that real commanders have, in reality, a much easier time giving orders to their troops. For instance, what is the intuitive manner of telling a unit to move to a given point? My days playing Warcraft tell me to choose a unit with a left click and to right-click where I want my unit to go. Apparently that is too easy. Here, it is necessary to right-click a unit to get a menu, make the correct selection, and to drag towards destination. If we have misfortune to fumble, such as a right-click at the wrong place, it is necessary to begin again. While playing this game they make little use of interfaces evolved over the years for our greatest good.
Putting aside the lesson how not to design an interface, the game gives other more or less interesting aspects. There is the terrain. It seems to have enemies hidden everywhere, but it is impossible to see them since the terrain blocks our eyesight. It often happens that our troops advance happily across the field and suddenly blow up. It is therefore necessary to try to send our scouts to locate the enemies and to try to move forward our other troops carefully so that they can shoot back. It is also possible to use our artillery to bomb a zone or air units to arrive behind a hill and bomb the bad guys, as in the movies. However, it is so unintuitive to give these orders that it is frustrating. The whole is encoded in a variety of abbreviations which make sure that you are never sure of what each thing represents. What is BBDPICM and what does it do? Put to one side that it is a type of artillery, I have no idea of what it is or of its strong and weak points.
Graphics follow the lead of the game, realistic. When certain persons say that the world is not nice to see, they are right. Our units, which seem drawn with Paint, move merrily on what seems to be a low resolution satellite photo of this region of the globe. The whole is accompanied with arrows when units move and of a black mini - map with small dark blue points. I would well like to know who came up with this marvellous idea. A quick glance to see the position of our troops shows nothing but a big black square. It is necessary to peer closely at the screen and to allow our eye to adjust to see some tiny blue points appear. Far from being practical. On the sound side, not much to speak of. No music. There are only some rare sounds which play once every so often. For instance, a sound of a motor when our tanks start or another sound of a gun when there is a barrage. The rest of time, it is possible to hear a fly.
Playability: Game has good ideas, but interface is so difficult to use that the whole results in a session of frustration. 10/20
Screenplay: There are a lot of incomprehensible military terms so that ordinary mortals will not know too much about what is going on. 12/20
Graphic Quality Welcome to 1990! 6/20
Music, sounds and sound ambience: Minimal effort. 5/20
Play Time: Difficult to say. There are about fifteen missions with the possibility of creating more, but it is necessary to be masochistic. 8/20
TECHNICAL TOTAL: 41
OVERALL INTEREST: 25 %
It is definitely proper to give a chance to the independent developers by accepting that their games are of less good quality than those developed with millions of dollars, but when faced with this title and another for the same price, it would be crazy to choose it. Why be bored to death playing a game when you could be bored without it? Unless wanting realism at any price, it is recommended to avoid this title since it causes irreversible brain damage. Keep out of reach of children.
Tiblanc
