The Star and the Crescent Review
23 February 2006 | By Alex Jeffreys
You will need to read all 130 pages of the manual in order to play this properly, lets get that straight from the start
When a PC game is not a PC game? When it's a jumped up overly complicated board game that has mutated to the PC and now threatens everyones sanity but the most stalwart of strategy war gamers. The Star and the Crescent, Arab/Israeli Armored Combat from 1956 to 2009 is a prime example of exactly this type of game.
You will need to read all 130 pages of the manual in order to play this properly, lets get that straight from the start. There will be no frivolous jump right in an play action, no, you will learn to have fun soldiers. Then, once you have learned to have fun you may attempt to play the actual game.
The game will not make itself obvious, instead you will be required to decipher cryptic symbols long before you even get close to engaging the enemy. Some of your units look like little tanks in boxes, others look like ovals inside boxes. I personally find it laughable that a unit is represented by an oval. This is the new millennium, we can scan electronic code into living cells, surely game developers can come up with something more intuitive for a unit than an oval. Even those guys locked in war rooms pushing ships and troops around a map with those long stick things gave better representations of what's going on.
In spite of the nature of this game, which is to make everything rather obtuse and complex, one still has to asses it on its own merits. So I will say this. Much effort has been put into effectively and realistically recreating all the scenarios from 1956 onwards, and to creating new possible scenarios in the future. There is definitely a niche for this sort of thing, and it will no doubt please war buffs no end. The capabilities of your hardware and troops are realistic, and you can play out battles as they would really happen.
Shrapnel Games have instituted a different kind of battle system, called Command Real Time Simulation. This means that you can play around with time during the game. If things get too hectic and you can't keep up, you can stop time altogether and readjust your units. You can start it again when you feel ready, and compress it if things are moving a tad too slow for your liking. This is a nice feature which ties in well with the ambiance of the game.
Of course, the real reality of being the sort of person who oversees a war is that you'd probably be at your beach house in Spain sipping on a Mai Tai, and being delivered the occasional telegram. But we're not that far into realism as to be dipping into cynicism just yet.
You may find this game somewhat unplayable, if the manual doesn't help, try a quick tour of duty in the marines or something. This thing, I am sad to say, is dammed near unplayable unless you've spent a lifetime pouring over battle maps. The controls have absolutely no intuitive functions at all. Take for example, the button on the tool bar that you use to show your units. This button is represented by a box with a plus symbol over it. What the hell were these people thinking? Would it have killed them to refine the interface and put decent graphics on these things? A box with a plus symbol above it doesn't even seem relevant in the game itself, as mentioned before, your NATO units are represented by boxes with ovals in them. Admittedly, tanks do look like the outline of tanks, so well done chaps, but come on...how does that translate to a square with a plus symbol?
It's absolutely ridiculous and lets the whole game down for people who would actually quite like to play it, but would rather not get an advanced degree first. In short, this game seems to cater to an in crowd, and no beginner should start with this, or if they should foolishly attempt to, they really have no chance of enjoying it at all.
Top Game Moments: "Are you sure you want to uninstall The Star and the Crescent?" Clicking YES!
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| A perfect game... | If you have a map fetish... |
You will need to read all 130 pages of the manual in order to play this properly, lets get that straight from the start. There will be no frivolous jump right in an play action, no, you will learn to have fun soldiers. Then, once you have learned to have fun you may attempt to play the actual game.
The game will not make itself obvious, instead you will be required to decipher cryptic symbols long before you even get close to engaging the enemy. Some of your units look like little tanks in boxes, others look like ovals inside boxes. I personally find it laughable that a unit is represented by an oval. This is the new millennium, we can scan electronic code into living cells, surely game developers can come up with something more intuitive for a unit than an oval. Even those guys locked in war rooms pushing ships and troops around a map with those long stick things gave better representations of what's going on.
In spite of the nature of this game, which is to make everything rather obtuse and complex, one still has to asses it on its own merits. So I will say this. Much effort has been put into effectively and realistically recreating all the scenarios from 1956 onwards, and to creating new possible scenarios in the future. There is definitely a niche for this sort of thing, and it will no doubt please war buffs no end. The capabilities of your hardware and troops are realistic, and you can play out battles as they would really happen.
Shrapnel Games have instituted a different kind of battle system, called Command Real Time Simulation. This means that you can play around with time during the game. If things get too hectic and you can't keep up, you can stop time altogether and readjust your units. You can start it again when you feel ready, and compress it if things are moving a tad too slow for your liking. This is a nice feature which ties in well with the ambiance of the game.
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| Help! Someone has imprisoned my troops in boxes! |
My squares are better than your squares... |
Of course, the real reality of being the sort of person who oversees a war is that you'd probably be at your beach house in Spain sipping on a Mai Tai, and being delivered the occasional telegram. But we're not that far into realism as to be dipping into cynicism just yet.
You may find this game somewhat unplayable, if the manual doesn't help, try a quick tour of duty in the marines or something. This thing, I am sad to say, is dammed near unplayable unless you've spent a lifetime pouring over battle maps. The controls have absolutely no intuitive functions at all. Take for example, the button on the tool bar that you use to show your units. This button is represented by a box with a plus symbol over it. What the hell were these people thinking? Would it have killed them to refine the interface and put decent graphics on these things? A box with a plus symbol above it doesn't even seem relevant in the game itself, as mentioned before, your NATO units are represented by boxes with ovals in them. Admittedly, tanks do look like the outline of tanks, so well done chaps, but come on...how does that translate to a square with a plus symbol?
It's absolutely ridiculous and lets the whole game down for people who would actually quite like to play it, but would rather not get an advanced degree first. In short, this game seems to cater to an in crowd, and no beginner should start with this, or if they should foolishly attempt to, they really have no chance of enjoying it at all.
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| The lines! They're everywhere! Oh the humanity! | Thank god it's over... |
Top Game Moments: "Are you sure you want to uninstall The Star and the Crescent?" Clicking YES!
THE STAR AND THE CRESCENT VERDICT
I will give it full credit for being deeply researched and highly detailed in it’s structure. It is clear that a lot of work went into this game, and if you are a strategy war game fan, then you will probably love it. There is much to be learned about Arab and Israeli armory, and the detailed maps allow you to plan out wars as closely as possible to the real thing. The massive problems come in with the user interface, which could have been done better, if just a little more time had been spent making it easier for gamers to actually play. If you like to watch tanks explode, stay away from this one.
TOP GAME MOMENT
“Are you sure you want to uninstall The Star and the Crescent?” Clicking YES!
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