Shattered Union

If you were to merely look at a game from face value, Shattered Union has a really fantastic image and back-story. The chronicle is that in 2009, David Jefferson Adams is elected as the 44th President of the United States following a tie-vote, and achieves the remarkable distinction of becoming the most unpopular President in US history (no mean feat, given the work of his predecessor). Over the next few years, a large number of terrorist attacks across the country lead to the introduction of Marshal Law on the West Coast, as well as the almost total collapse of the economy. With dawning of a new election in 2012, the now corrupt Supreme Court sidesteps the democratic process, and disqualifies several popular candidates from running. In November 2012, the incumbent Adams is re-elected after rigging the election, and the public begin to revolt. Then, on January 20th 2013, during the 57th Inauguration Day celebrations, the city of Washington D.C. is hit by an atomic device, killing the President and most of Congress. This act throws the entire country into chaos, and with no nationwide command structure left in place, the Union begins to fragment. California and neighbouring states become the California Commonwealth, whilst other factions such as the Great Plains Federation and the New England Alliance emerge. Finally, the European Union, at the request of the UN, deploys peacekeepers to the remains of the Washington Metropolitan Area. And thus the stage is set for the Second American Civil War. Slightly later on, the Russian Federation forcibly annexes Alaska (by claiming it had always been part of Russia) and also gets drawn into the fighting.

This gripping story was excellently depicted in a long trailer for the game (which also features as the game's introduction), and at the time it quite caught my imagination. Sadly, the game in no way lives up to the seemingly epic war promised and glimpsed in the trailer, and this game just goes to show how an excellent idea on paper can be so terribly spoiled. Shattered Union is attacked on all fronts by glitches, perennial hiccups and random errors, which interrupt and prevent most of the actual gameplay from taking place. When and if you do actually get around to playing something, the turn-based war-game strategy is only mediocre, superficial and uninspiring. I expected a lot better from PopTop Software (the great Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3, as well as the brilliant Tropico).

Let's start right at the beginning. What Shattered Union is trying to be is an old style, turn-based war strategy game, similar to something like Panzer General of Advance Wars. Most of the game plays out in various regions of the former United States, and movement is controlled over a hexagonal checkerboard. The intervening time is spent looking at a national map, showing the various former states held by each faction. Before each game turn, you are given the choice of attacking a region bordering the ones you own, or recuperating your looses. If you choose to attack, you then assemble a taskforce, and take a series of mini-turns against the AI enemy on the battle map. If you achieve the main objective, you gain control of the territory and all enemy forces are pushed from the area. Failure to stop an attack on your land can result in the loss of regions and military personnel. Some problems with this system arise from the fact that as far as the AI are concerned; they are just playing a giant game of Risk. It is utterly random chance who or where they will attack, and they also maintain the decidedly antiquated First World War tactic of launching assaults on the same place, time and time again. This means that the outcome of the entire escapade can be decided in the first move, so it can be an almost purely a matter of chance whether you win or be defeated.

Though made out to be fundamentally different, each of the six different US factions has almost identical military equipment. There are variations in population in each territory, which will limit the number of units that can be recruited, but this basically descends the strategy to a simple game of superior numbers. Only the EU and the Russians have any difference in equipment, though again both of theirs approximates the Americans in many ways. Since this was developed in-tandem with the consoles in mind, the strategy elements have been substantially toned down. For example, there is no means of resource gathering. All you have is cash in hand, which you then use to recruit men. When actually playing the game, units are moved in a hexagonal format across the territory, and can open fire on the enemy once they are within range. This battle map is fairly well designed, and the graphics are quite good as well, although it is a bit bizarre to see a bright red tank and helicopters depicting the different coloured faction's forces (though probably necessary for differentiation reasons). All of the units have varying capabilities and ranges, and can only attack once during the turn. There is also a deep fog of war, obscuring most of the map. One issue with all of this is that it simply feels severely lacking in depth, and purpose. It's not terrible, but it's in now way anywhere above average either.

However, now we arrive at this game's terminal downfall. To be perfectly frank, Shattered Union is just a totally broken game. There is a plethora of horrific and terminal errors that continually pelted every attempt to run the game. Each and every one of these caused the game to lock up or shutdown, forcing a complete quit. In the end, I was never able to play more than five minutes of the game at one time. Eventually I made the decision to completely give up on ever even thinking of completing anything more than the first mission. And do you know the really appalling thing about all of this? The developers of PopTop Software know perfectly well that the game is incredibly buggy, but either because they didn't feel like it, or they ran out of money, an official patch which could solve some of these issues has never been released.

Overall, Shattered Union is a distinctly average game, but with a brilliant starting premise. Sadly, this premise is almost entirely wasted, first by the lacklustre gameplay, but mainly by the never-ending errors and bugs. If you are obsessed with the old-style turn based strategies, this will probably be mildly diverting and entertaining for you, as long as you can get past the bugs. For everyone else, it's going to be a coin toss of whether the technical issues affect your system.