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Genre: RPG

Format: CD

Developer: Mirage Interactive Ltd.

Publisher: Cenega Publishing

Mac Port: Virtual Programming

Mac Publisher: MacPlay

Minimum System Requirements: 350MHz G3, Mac OS 8.6 - 9.2.2 with virtual memory or Mac OS X v10.1, 128 MB RAM, Quick Time 5 (installed automatically if required), 200MB of free memory.

Review Computer: 400MHz G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) with 768MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro 128, Mac OS X (v10.3.2)

Version Reviewed: 1.0

Network Feature: No

3D Support: No

Price: $29.99

ESRB Rating: Rating Pending

Availability: Out now

Most role-playing games take place where magic and elves are normal and dragons flying overhead is an everyday occurrence. Another War takes a different approach by taking you to a time in history where the future tipped precariously between good and evil; World War 2.

You start a new game in Another War by first picking your character class from thief, intellectual, and strongman. They are different in their starting characteristics and the special skills they can learn, but are otherwise identical. There are 19 additional skills that all three classes share (the ability to use various firearms, healing, ability to throw grenades, etc.) and 8 unique special skills. Each time you increase a level you are given a point that you can use to increase either a characteristic, additional skill, or special skill.

Another War begins in a small village in France where you meet a friend with a terrible problem. Seems he's found a map which he insists can't fall into the wrong hands. Before you could discuss that further, you're thrown into jail by Nazis. After breaking out, you came face-to-face with an armed guard who pulls out his gun, points, fire, and misses from about 2 feet away. You may think it's a fluke, but then he misses again... and again... and so you manage to whittle his hit-points down to zero with a knife without getting hurt. The next guard manages to shoot you. To regain hit-points, you can either eat cheese, potatoes, or bread. A little while later, you gain a level and your character starts hysterically laughing and saying how he feels stronger now. Upon leaving the jail, your mission is to fix a truck so you can follow my friend to get information about the map. To do this, you have to complete a series of quests that are so contrived that, at at this point, I realized Another War would not the kind of WW II role-playing game I envisioned it would be. This impression was made over and over again as Another War tried to attain a light-hearted atmosphere by having the main character crack jokes and make references to Spider Man, Casablanca, and Brazilian soap operas. In fact, the only relevance WW II has is in providing a reason for the Nazis to shoot you on sight and for you to be able shoot them in return without getting arrested. This point is worth repeating. While Another War touts itself as the only World War II role-playing game currently available, your main goal of finding out about the mysterious map would make more sense in a Lara Croft game.

There are two ways you can interact with other people in Another War: by overhearing conversations and by talking to them directly. The conversations you overhear are in endless loops, so expect to hear the same conversation over and over and over again. What's even more annoying than this are the odd pauses they have (as each line appears written over their head) which seem to have been put in to make it appear there are more lines than there actually are.

Even though I think the dialogue that occurs when you talk to people is more important, these lines aren't spoken at all, and so, you have to do a lot of reading. Fortunately, you get a mercenary early in the game who will write down important occurrences in a diary so you have a handy reminder in case you forget what you're supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the various responses you have to what's being said usually don't make a difference in what happens next as Another War is very linear.

The foreign accents are also atrocious. For example, the French accents sound more like a English speaker trying to sound like a Frenchman rather than a Frenchman speaking English.

While Another War rewards you for completing quests, the majority of your experience will be gained through killing the enem. Being able to control the flow of battle is important. Unfortunately, battles are chaotic, yet not at all interesting since it's not necessary to use any kind of strategy. The special skills are interesting, but not really worth putting points into since they aren't effective in turning the battle to your side. Then there's the problem of your character running toward the person you want to fight even if you're using a pistol or a rifle. Sometimes I'd run towards the enemy, stop, and then run away to get enough distance to use a rifle. This needless running allowed the enemies to get some free shots. While there's a key to press to prevent your character from approaching the enemy, I think this should be automatic. Another problem happened with the mercenary. You're able to tell the mercenary to stay near you or far away from you. At one point, I told my mercenary to stay close to me and to use his fists as weapons. What happened is that he ran towards the enemy, apparently got out of his range, ran back towards me, stopped, ran back towards the enemy and repeated this until I told him to stay far away from me. He then ran half-way across the screen to attack an enemy, leaving me to take all the shots.

The graphics are very good and the performance is smooth. The music and sound effects are mediocre, and I turned them off due to repetiveness. The interface is organized well, but it's more difficult to buy and sell items than it needs to be. You can't look to see what your mercenaries are wearing or carrying, so if you want to sell something they have, you need to transfer them to you before opening the store. You also can't see what you're wearing, so to compare what's in the store with what you own you need to place everything in your backpack. You also need to close the store, then open it again to see new items. A process that means you spend a lot of time hoping to find just the right ammunition or item of clothing for sale. What's even worse is that your mercenaries can't even wear anything which means it's difficult to increase their armor rating and, therefore, keep them alive. This is a pain because, if they die, the game's over.

The result of all of this is that Another War isn't an enjoyable game. It has a storyline about which I couldn't have cared less with a main character without a personality set in a war which has little influence on anything. You have no control over what ultimately happens, the voice acting's atrocious, the quests/puzzles are pointless and contrived, combat is boring, and the music/sound effects are mediocre.

If you want to play a role-playing game where there are no magic spells or dragons, then I recommend you play Fallout and Fallout 2. If magic and dragons in your RPG is acceptable than playing the Balder's Gate series or anything from Spiderweb Software will be worth your time. Whatever you play, just make sure it's not Another War.