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Rising Sun Gold
by Jolex Del Pilar
Thursday, February 15 2001
Talonsoft recreates the Pacific Theatre of war in great detail. Is it worth your while ? Find out in our full review.
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Title:
Rising Sun Gold
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Platform:
PC Windows, Pentium II 500, 32MB Ram, 16mb video card, 400mb HD space.,
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Publisher:
Talonsoft |
Developer:
Talonsoft |
#
of Players: 1 - 2 |
Genre:
Strategy
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release:
February 2001 |
Grapevine:
If you're a veteran of the Talonsoft Campaign Series of gaming, then you won't have any problem jumping right into Rising Sun Gold. |
With the exception of all of Shigeru Miyamoto's games, and a few sega games, the first games from many companies aren't usually triple-A titles at the beginning. Much like a martial artist honing his skills or a sports player, it takes many years to reach a high level of skill and execution. This is also the case with computer games.. Talonsoft's first release was called Eastern Front, and as its title suggest, it tried to similate one of World War II's least simulated and less popular fronts. It did respectably, recieving above average scores, but it was clear this company could do better. The second addition to Talonsoft's "Campaign Series" was Western Front. Although a better game than Eastern Front, A.I glitches and a few other problems kept the game from achieving glorified "Editor's Choice" status with many websites and magazines. With Rising Sun Gold, the most recent of TalonSoft's Campaign series titles, Talonsoft can look no more for another excellent title from their development houses. With an enourmous amount of depth and scenarios, Rising Sun Gold takes everything from the original, and always excellent Rising Sun and gives you more. Then again, that is the idea.
If you're a veteran of the Talonsoft Campaign Series of gaming, then you won't have any problem jumping right into Rising Sun Gold. It's essentially the same game engine they've been using for 5 years and the game is identical to Rising Sun, which is not bad at all considering how good Rising Sun was. The scale, interface, terminology, unit symbols, and views are all the same. Rising Sun Gold attempts to depict the close, jungle melees that often characterized the Pacific campaign of World War II. Each unit, represented in 2D or 3D isometric represent more than just one tank and or three men; this is a tactical level game. Besides individual generals (who are portrayed as jeeps), platoons of infantry (approximately 60 men), tanks, and machine gun, mortar, antitank gun, and field artillery sections are all represented as a single icon although their numbers are quite higher.
Talonsoft, always a practitioner of accurate modeling when it comes to the army of nations has come through once again. The game is full of accurately modeled units from their strength, and defense, and overall effectiveness on the battlefield from filed reports. Units that are modeled include the Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks to U.S. By-God Marines. It not only covers Japanese and American forces either, it covers the forces of everyone involved in the Pacific theatre. The British and Dutch commonwealths, the native forces of the many islands in the pacific, and a few more. Additionally, the maps are supposedly accurate enough to use as actual tactical maps. Whether there is any truth to that I can't confirm, but what I can confirm is that the maps are detailed and serve as a good board to conduct your campaign. Many scenarios are provided as well. The Marine attempt to capture Guadacanal, Okinawa, and many others. If none of the pre-made scenarios fit your fancy, there is a scenario editor that you can utilize to create your own. An option all strategic and tactical level war games should have, but sometimes don't.
Rising Sun Gold includes two types of campaign games as with all the other campaign series games from Talonsoft: dynamic and scripted. The dynamic campaigns link a series of realistic, but not completely historical, missions. The player guides force which can be made larger of smaller depending on his battlefield performance. The missions you get are based on your performance on the field which can lead to many interesting "fantasy" scenarios which I'll talk about later. You go through these missions to gain experience, garner new equipment, and basically live as your own personally created character as a battlefield commander. The scripted campaign links many historically important missions together to form an almost accurate representation of the World War II Pacific Campaign. You carry the same force from mission to mission. Replacement points are awarded to replace losses. It's not as fluid as the dynamic battles, but Talonsoft threw it in to satisfy the World War II history nuts.
I won't really go into depth about the games graphics and sound as this is a strategic level war game, which commonly isn't known as a genre that will challenge your 3D Card. However, to cover it shortly, Rising Sun Gold on the whole looks better than most war games of this type and the sound is absolutely amazing. The soundtrack is almost Hollywood in its proportions, a definite plus in my book.
Multiplayer is either a hit or miss. Of course it will be turn based and extremely slow compared to War Craft 2 or Starcraft. But for those genuinely interested in the subject matter, the game provides the most realistic outlet to live out your dreams as a World War 2 commander in the Pacific.
Perhaps the best new addition to Rising Sun Gold are the additions of two large fantasy campaigns not released with the original. A fantasy Japanese invasion of America which starts in Seattle and Operation Olympus, the American land invasion of Japan. Both campaigns are large and well executed. As the Japanese, your goal is to inflict as much damage upon the American home states to force the Americans into peace. As the Americans, you must try to successfully execute what Trummen had hoped to avoid more than 50 years ago when he authorized the dropping of the atomic bomb, a land invasion of Japan. These are great additions to the game, making Rising Sun Gold the only game to really seriously attempt to simulate these fantasy scenarios.
Talonsoft has come quite a long way since the company that released games like Battleground: Ardennes, a Civil war game, and it shows in the quality and accuracy of their recently released product. Although Rising Sun Gold is not a fully fledged sequel to Rising Sun, it adds many new features such as new units and campaigns that you just can't get anywhere else. Kudos to Talonsoft for releasing another nice addition to their Campaign Series of war games.
--- Jolex Del Pilar, VGLN Warlord
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