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Stratego, the popular board game of battlefield strategy, comes
to life on the computer. You have an army of men and weapons at
your disposal. Your mission: capture your nent's and
protect your own. Your troops range in rank from scout to
marshal--but your nent doesn't know the ranks of your
players. Each is disguised as an innocent drummer boy marching
across the battlefield while cautiously sidestepping hidden
bombs. When engaged in battle, characters morph into toy
soldiers, and their ranks determine who emerges victorious. This
is the game for developing your strategic skills.
Review
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There are three things that you can count on: death, taxes, and
Hasbro developing another board game into a computer game. The
good thing about this is that the overall computer skills of kids
are bound to increase if parents purchase the computer game
versions of the traditional board games. The hard part is making
sure that the CD-ROM version of the game distinguishes itself
enough from the original to make the computer game a valuable
purchase. This is precisely the move made by Hasbro with the PC
version of Stratego.
If you're unfamiliar with Stratego, it's a unique blend of
simple strategy, memorization, and unit management. In the
standard game, each side of the battlefield (composed of ten
squares by ten squares) is populated by an army consisting of
quasi-European units circa 1820. The pieces on the
battlefield give the impression of toy soldiers marching off to
war. Before the game begins, each player secretly places his
units so that when combat is initiated, the outcome becomes
apparent only after the pieces in conflict are revealed. As for
the details of combat, they have been vigorously toned down so
that determining which units succeed in battle comes down to a
simple comparison of their values (example: generals are worth 9
and defeat any unit worth less than 9). Likewise, movement is
simplified to a "one unit, one space per turn" limit. This may
all seem outrageously simple, and just goes to show why Stratego
has largely remained a game interesting only to preteens.
To its credit, Hasbro has mixed up the gameplay significantly by
providing four new modifications to game setup and play. The new
game styles are ultimate campaign, alliance campaign, ultimate
lightning, and alliance lightning. The "ultimate" styles of
gameplay emphasize the standard one-on-one setup of the classic
game, while the "alliance" modes offer options for four players.
The "lightning" and "campaign" nomenclature refers to the style
of gameplay within each setup. Lightning games play faster, while
campaign games offer a bit more in the way of in-depth strategy.
As much as these new modes provide some very refreshing twists
on gameplay, you'll still find that in essence, the game itself
doesn't deviate much from its simple origins. The overall design
is such that it should appeal mostly to younger kids learning the
basics of strategy, problem solving, and decision making. Unit
animations are cute and friendly, while the interface is simple
and minimal. Part of the lure of more mature strategy games like
Axis & Allies and Risk is that the re-creation of grand-scale
classic warfare is not lost on a realistic with real-life
territories. The banal layout and gameplay of Stratego isn't
enough to raise it beyond an "advanced checkers" feeling. And
although the game provided is well executed and smartly
presented, older gamers will find there's more nostalgic ardor
for this title than captivating game design.
To its credit, Stratego does occupy a gray area that's more
flavorful than backgammon and checkers, but it doesn't have the
lasting appeal of those games in terms of simplistic game design
that overlays a deeper level of strategy. It's a delightful game
to teach kids the basics of combat tactics, but you'll quickly
find little to keep you engaged for more than a couple of games.
--Tahsin Shamma
Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
- Annimated 3-D battles 1998 Hasbro Interactive, Inc..