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A historical first-person shooter focused on something other than World War II? The Civil War setting is the highlight of this History Channel branded game. While the gameplay isn’t fundamentally broken in any way, there are better shooters available on the Xbox 360, including Activision’s own Call of Duty games.
History Channel: Civil War lets you play 12 missions that chronicle the war’s most interesting battles. Like Activision’s Call of Duty games, the game lets you play as both the North and South and see the war from both viewpoints. The History Channel branding is apparent in the pre-mission videos in the game. These clips would have fit perfectly in the channel. We’ll let you draw your own conclusion as to how interesting they are based on this fact.
In terms of gameplay, most missions in the game have you completing simple objectives like destroying buildings or specific enemies. It is very linear in nature, much more so than other modern first-person shooters. Because the game takes place in the pre automatic gun era, most of your weapons will be single-shot weapons. While initially annoying, the game does complement this with a fairly fun melee system. You can you use your weapons to beat your enemies or simply cut them with a Bowie knife. Although the hand-to-hand combat isn’t perfect, it does represent a welcome change of pace.
One of the game’s biggest drawbacks is that you’re only getting about five hours of gameplay for $50. The singleplayer portion would be considered short if the game included a multiplayer mode but even more surprisingly there is no such mode in the game. Sure you can replay the game again, but odds are low that you will want to.
The game’s graphics are pretty good thanks to use of the Call of Duty 2 engine. The character models are fairly detailed, many of the environments look great, and some of the textures are stunning. The particle effects, which Call of Duty 2 received so much acclaim for, are equally stunning here. However, the game doesn’t quite as good as Call of Duty 2 and is several notches below that game’s sequel. The animation system is rigid and as good as the technicalities are the game has a fairly boring art style.
The audio is a bit better than the graphics thanks to a dynamic score that fits the action very well. The guns sound good and unique although nothing here will blow your mind. The other sound effects are equally okay though again nothing special.
Civil War: A Nation Divide is a breath of fresh air when every other historical first person shooter is focusing on World War II, but unfortunately the game isn’t interesting enough to warrant a $50 purchase when you pick up the substantially better Call of Duty 3 for a few dollars more. It's the best Civil War game I've played in a long time, but that isn't saying a whole lot. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Dec 3, 2006
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