by Empire Interactive
The game requires Pentium 90 or higher, with 16 Mb RAM (32 Mb recommended), a Microsoft mouse and CD-ROM (quad speed or higher) plus Windows 95.
This is not a game I would go out and buy because the French and Indian Wars in North America in the 18th century are not particularly a period I am interested in, so I would pass this game by.
Fortunately for me I was sent a copy to review for Lone Warrior and I am delighted that I was - it is great! Apart from 'Hawkeye' being re-re-run again on the TV and 'Last of the Mohicans' having just been shown yet again, I found some of the articles I have read in Lone Warrior have somewhat awakened my interest, but not enough to go out and buy figures for the period. There is a tremendous scope for this AI in that it could be used for small scale patrol type operations in just about any period using different types of skills to those which give Fields of Fire its unique game-ability. I will watch with interest to see what comes next and if anyone finds out before me please let me know.
Rather than go on about the game, which you can get from publicity handouts, I will mention a few tips I found essential while enjoying myself. Initially you must build up the expertise of your main character and then develop the rest of party. Start with firing speed, accuracy and reloading skills. Get a rabbits foot but ignore lead plates which slow you down and didn't give my men much protection.
It is essential that you protect your main character, so adopt the "There they go and I must follow for I am their leader!" approach in certain circumstances. On one of my earlier missions my character just managed to escape with the slightest amount of strength left, having lost all his companions! My relief was short lived when I realized that those companions were gone for good and all their expertise with them. New strategy; look after everyone and use the least experienced/valuable character to open doors and enter caves, working on the principle they are easily replaced. You lose your main character - you lose the campaign!
Keep your party together and adopt a formation for them early on in the mission. I found the single line was the most useful and at times my party resembled the Glorious Gloucester's in that although they were not back to back to fight off the enemy I had to constantly change their facing to defeat the foe. Get in a good shooting position with a good field of fire and then let the enemy come to you, and they will sometimes in large, never ending (it seems) numbers. Keep cool, constantly use your medically trained characters to look after your party and bide your time until the time limit is up. Yes, one is required to use 'patience' a trait not common amongst wargamers and I include myself in that category.
Old army saying "if not fighting; sleep and if not sleeping; eat" but in this game when not fighting; hunt. Not only does it hone your skills with the mouse/cursor keys but the skins are used in trade to build up your much needed stack of gold coins. Coins can be exchanged for additional skills and weapons.
Move your party only small distances at a time or in small bounds as we used to say. This enables you to keep a tight control should you come across animals to hunt or enemies to take out, and you will. Once sent five characters off to the start point, put the game speed on fast and was amazed only 3 made it! Back tracked and found the bodies of the other two where they had been ambushed - start again, but slowly.
Tried the recommended characters of Ranger Young for the British and Fire Eyes for the French but only got through a few missions with each because of my inexperience and they not possessing the attributes I really needed. This said I selected Eagle Wing from the British because he had the skill to control eagles and was able to use them to scout the map and route ahead. The result of which was I never got ambushed, spotted the enemy first and the speed of the eagle made getting map details so much quicker.
I don't have the space to list the characters I used but will say that in selecting your party ensure you select characters with different skills and it is essential that you spend time teaching other characters those new skills. This builds up an experienced group of volunteers from which to select from for the forthcoming missions. Get as many medically trained personnel as possible and as soon as you can afford it buy a medical chest, for reasons described above.
Initially I found it irksome that only the main character was allowed in the store and one had to cross load items from other members of the party but then I used this time to sort out loads. Checking what skills a certain character had or could learn gave one the inspiration for the type of load they should carry. So what was a bit of a pain when I first started the games became an essential part of the missions in that I could prepare my party for the next time out.
There are 18 missions for both the British and the French, some are done by parties of different sizes and some are just a solo run by your main character. They take place in daylight, at night, in fine weather and in snow, over land and on water, so there is quite a variety. The scenic effects are very good and the player looks down on the figures from above in a sort of semi-plan position. Figures you are controlling are contained within a yellow box and I would have liked for the main character to have a special color because the amount of times mine got into trouble because I had not been keeping a careful eye on him and if the main character dies then your campaign ends.
The missions start easily and you have the opportunity to gain experience both for yourself and for the characters, so use them accordingly. When you have completed a mission the screen shows you and your party lined up by a flag and I usually send them home to their fort, hunting along the way so when they do return they can go to the store and barter their skins. If you shoot something on the way to the start point of your mission and it is daylight leave the skin there and collect it after the successful completion - you need the space in your knapsack for other things you may find. You can start your mission selecting from 23 British and 20 French characters and if you go through each scenario with each of them you will do (gets out calculator) = a lot of missions! Do not let it take over your life and it could do!
I found the layout of the accompanying book very good but would have preferred a slightly darker font to ease the poor old eyes. The contents should have been a lot more detailed. I eventually, made my own index up for ease of use when doing the initial missions so I could quickly find out what I needed to know without skimming through the book. Don't get me wrong, everything you need to know is contained within this book but in the 'heat of a mission' one needs the information NOW and flipping through the book breaks the rhythm of the game. This is my only criticism of what is a truly new experience for me in computer games in that it is basically a role-playing skirmish game and if that is your 'bag', and it is mine now, then have a go at Fields of Fire and if you don't enjoy it I will be very surprised.
Excellent game, unique setting and in terms of value for money it is very highly recommended! Now where did I put that musket?
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