Multiplayer and Campaign

I decided to devote a separate section for this aspect to the game because this is where some of the game's critical faults are found. So, let's start with the more benign of the two, the campaign, even though it's fault closely ties into the multiplayer's fault.

Starting at Omaha beach and forward, Officers' campaign's fault is not really in what it covers, but what it doesn't. Namely, in this game featuring the russian, german and allies' armies, you are limited to an american campaign. Now this is acceptable of many games, such as Dawn of War and Company of Heroes which both sported a single player mode covered by only one army as playable. Where this hurts is that Officers does not sport a skirmish mode of any sort. As such, the only faction you will ever play in single player are the Americans.

For a fault... it could be forgiven. But the game's more critical fault is in multiplayer or rather, the lack of. It is not that Officers does not sport any multiplayer mode. Rather, it is in how it was included that it does a cardinal sin of multiplayer games that came out in this decade: There's no online multiplayer, or, for a more preceise correction: There's no online lobby.

When wishing to play multiplayer you thus only have two options: LAN (Where you need to have someone else with a copy that you can meet in person to play with) or direct IP (where, again, you need to know someone else already having the copy to be able to play at all). In short, unless you already have a friend with a copy, you might as well forget about playing online. Well, technically speaking. I did run a search and found the game is compatible at least with the xfire service, but somehow it seems to be only compatible with the steam version. Having only a retail version, I thus was unable to review multiplayer as a gameplay mode.

This is how the fault of the single player campaign and lack of skirmish mode becomes even more grave because thus, unless you do have a friend who also managed to snatch a copy of the game and is interested in playing, the only faction you'll ever be able to play is only the americans. And though you can at least fight against the germans in the campaign, this mean that quite a few players might actually miss out on the russians who are not showcased anywhere in the single player mode. This feels a bit bothersome for a game that features officers of all three nations and that the only one that actually is going to be playable for most people who won't have bought the game alongside a friend isn't even the center point of it. That honour goes, ironically, to the Russian officer... a nation that is only ever seen if you have someone to play in multiplayer with.

Lack of online lobbies and matchmaking service was understandable in the nineties but not so much in 2009 or even 2006 when the game was originally released in Russia. This is, amongst Officers' faults, probably it's greatest one.

Graphics and Audio

Graphics in Officers are acceptable. They are no work of art, but they manage to represent such a large scale rather nicely. There are occasional hiccups such as when more "intensive" abilities such as artillery are called, something I had troubles understanding with 6 gig of RAM, a quadcore 2.6ghrtz processor and a 512mg graphic card, however. Nontheless, since such abilities rarely last long, it is not often nor that long that I have to endure such.

Where Officers does much less better, however, is in the audio department. Though the pounding of artillery is acceptable and usually what you'd expect of it, the music is sometimes annoying albeit not as much as the horrible voice acting.

The worst of the example has got to be the "aknowledgement" message you get when requisitionning infantry but the later's oft random chatter, such as when they complain about "needing a cigarette" often detract from game immersion, especially when you are zoomed out of the battlefield. This felt nice in Company of Heroes when you were zooming close to your troops and they were commenting about what they were actually doing, but not so much in Officers where it often feels out of place at the game's scale.

Also, though on a more minor note, is the question of the game menus. Though not neccessarily ugly, they sometimes feels as if they had been taken out from an outdated DVD in a fashion that is almost too classical, set against uninspiring background. Granted, they might not be as offputting than the game cover

Final Note

Officers is an acceptable game when it comes purely to gameplay and sometimes represent well the action of managing a WW2 army in the large scale. However, it is held from being a good game by many faults, some which can be barely excused. The least of which would simply be a sometimes confusing interface made occasionally made worst by micromanagement that makes that sometimes feels like an hassle in such a large scale game.
The worst, however, has to go to the combination of a campaign showcasing only one of three nations something that when combined with a lack of skirmish mode and very limited multiplayer (limited to LAN and direct IP connections) means that you won't even get to play any other factions unless you actually bought your copy alongside a friend. Add to this an uninspiring interface, occasionally grating audio and slight temporary moment of choppiness even on a very heavy gaming rig and the picture of Officers' undoing become even more complete.

As such, even for a game originally released 3 years ago in Russia, it presents many mistakes and lackings that would make me have a hard time reccomending it but to some of the most hardcore wargamers or WW2 fanatics and with a rather rather uninspiring presentation, starting with the game's cover, it is not either a game that I expect to sell much if at all, especially in the though competition already present in the WW2 genre.