North & South - In-depth Written Amiga Review With Pics
North & SouthAmiga, 1989 (Europe), 1990 (U.S.)
Infograms (Europe) / DataEast (U.S.)
$44.95, £24.99
*Alphabetical list of writings
*Game shown and best played in NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio (Atari ST original)
*Game shown and best played in NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio (Atari ST original)
Often with fans of a particular genera you'll find yourself met with snobby senses of what they've come to associate with excellence in a given category of games. In the console world a platformer should be like Mario, though you're not allowed to rip it off! Differ too greatly and you could find a game which might be loved on a computer system utterly dismissed as too hard on the consoles. In the realm of computers, simulations were supposed to be as close to the real thing as possible. If you mixed a little arcade into that sim, perhaps you'd sell a bucket load to consumers, but you'd find that game mocked as for the kiddies in many magazines of the era.
If you ever found yourself screaming over the solution to a convoluted puzzle in an adventure game, you'd have those who were around for the text adventures to thank for it's inclusion, lest the graphical variety seem too easy. While a divergent genera from adventure games and separated primarily by its inclusion of combat mechanics, get a little too involved with that combat system in a role playing game, and you're far too "hack and slash".Strategy games should be the sort that last you ages, thus speaks the elite! If it's not an epic to stand the test of time, reviewers would call it of little interest to the true strategy gamer. Their close mindedness aside, if you're wanting some quick fun out of your strategy games, North & South is here to oblige.
^The main strategy screen, 1861 and 1862
Covering the American Civil War, North & South is a not so serious look at a nation defining conflict. The game is loosely based off "Les Tuniques Bleues", a Belgian comic book series dating back to 1970. I say loosely because its impact is mostly shown in the character portraits on the selection screen, and on the games box. There's very little story in which to show influence from the comic further, though there's various comical cues throughout the game featured in its music, sound effects, and animations. Text in-game is confined to the start of your given scenario, and to the final ending screens.
In the vein of the board game Risk, the main strategic element is in controlling land and defeating armies. Picking a year from 1861 to 1864, which year you select alters your starting situation. 1861 starts both sides off relatively evenly, with two armies and four states under your control. Essential to increasing your army will be gaining control of at least two forts connected to each other via rail. Located in Georgia, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, forts provide the occupier with several benefits. A train will pass between two forts connected to each other when controlled by the same side, allowing money from your territories to collect and thus pay for more troops. The more states your side controls, the quicker your money accumulates.
^The fort action sequence
Forts also provide the benefit of an increased obstacle for the invading army. Normally the only thing standing in your way on the main map screen are enemy troops. Should the state you enter have no troops inside of it, you automatically gain control of that area, except when there's a fort there. The side which controls the fort has the opportunity to fend off its attacker through an action sequence. In the computer game realm, a Defender of the Crown influence can be felt through these mini games. Should you be attacking a fort, you'll take control of a single solider who must make his way through numerous obstacles in an attempt to reach the forts flagpole in order to raise your sides colors.
Likewise when the enemy comes knocking at one of your forts doors, you'll be responsible for timing the correct moments to send your men forward to obstruct the enemies path. Overall I was not a fan of this particular mini game. The scene looks nice and features fast animation, but it's perhaps too fast. I could really only get a feel for defeating this one by playing on the lower difficulty levels, and even then I felt it was coming my way far too quickly. The controls are a mess, jumping when you meant to turn around, not jumping when you were trying to. Needing to turn around in the first place because a wagon of all things can't be jumped over! Bombs exploding, but not even realizing they've entered the screen because of how fast it all scrolls!
^Much fun to be had in the battle sequence
You could play the game without these action scenes, opting for pure strategic play. Here the computer crunches the numbers for you, and decides the outcome of all action scenes. However this is not a pure strategy game, it's of a mixed genera, to play without these scenes would be doing yourself and the game a disservice. While the strategic element is fun, by itself you're only playing a slightly altered version of Risk. There needs to be something extra inserted into that formula to make it worth your time, and thankfully you'll find that in the games combat sequences.
When two opposing sides occupy the same state, combat ensues. Here you're taken to a slightly angled bird's eye view of the battlefield. What the field looks like is dependent on the actual territory you're fighting over. Throughout much of the country you'll be looking at a nicely colored grass field, with various objects (trees, rocks, a house) placed seemingly randomly upon it. Cannons, rifleman, and cavalry fill the field and are quite Lemmings like in the amount of animation packed into such small entities. It proves a bit difficult to get used to the combat at first, and it's slightly unfair how the computer can control all troops simultaneously, where as you can only move one at a time. But I believe you will get used to it, and find these sections the highlights of the game.
^Switching years, canyon battles
I had a blast with the combat, especially at the highest difficulty settings. While it's technically an action/arcade scene because troops either live or die with no stats behind it, several strategic elements found their way into these battles. Should you blast those cannons toward the opposition, chipping away at their ranks before the battle can be joined? Will you charge with your cavalry? They move fast from side to side, but lack the ability to turn around, and continue moving forward after you've switched to another troop type. The battlefield itself may contain hazards like a fall to your doom, so you'll have to line up correctly so your troops may pass over bridges. Multitasking to the extent the game allows will become essential at the higher difficulty levels, and it's here the game shines.
For a strategy game, the graphics are quite well done for the time period. It was originally developed in France by Infograms for the Atari ST. The Amiga version seems to be a fairly straight port, looking identical to the ST original, and thus featuring only 16 colors. You have to look pretty close to realize it's a 16 color game, as there's wonderfully done subtle dithering used, as well as new palettes for each screen. Sound effects used are great, though personally I felt the music getting on my nerves due to its comical feel. It was released for many platforms, with the ST and Amiga versions being the obvious winners in the graphics department, though the Amiga features better sounds and music. From what I've seen of the other versions, they all appear to be competent ports, playing rather similar. You may even end up preferring a different version, as the action scenes play a little slower on some of them.
Despite North & South's European origins, due to its design on the Atari ST (which did not feature extra resolution for PAL displays), it was meant to fill an entire 4:3 display, and is therefore best seen in NTSC mode on the Amiga. It was released on the Amiga in Europe near the end of 1989, around October or November from my research, and being developed and published by Infograms. Several months would pass before the game would be released in America, with Data East publishing it in the states toward the beginning of the summer of 1990, I believe around May or June. The ST version never came out in the United States, and so it was first seen here on the Amiga, with most of the other ports coming out toward the end of 1990.
^Top 3 pics of DOS version, winning/losing Amiga screens, neighbors
Data East did minimal changes to the game itself, really just placing their logo in place of Infograms', and slightly altering the title screen. However they did put quite a bit of effort into the games manual, attempting to ground what could be described as a quite silly game. Several pages would be devoted to a cliff notes version of Civil War history, and I found it to be an enjoyable read as well as essential in getting a bit more out of the game as a whole. Being based off a comic, this game is meant to be fun, and make you laugh.
I wish to note that a lot of the humor could be taken negatively, with stereotypes of all kinds peeking through. There's the depiction of Native American's (called Indians here), and Mexican's, both of whom are considered in-game disasters, popping up to instantly destroy one of your troops on occasion. Even the depiction of American solders could be considered questionable, looking quite foolish. Then there's the sounds of pigs oinking in the background to the intro music. While my first instinct was to laugh, and I do feel you are meant to laugh, I could certainly see some taking offense to this game.
The final mini-game to North & South features you attempting to hijack or defend a train. This is the train which is featured on the main strategic map, carrying the money which turns into a stack of troops once full. Should either side have troops in a state which lies in-between a railroad line, they get the opportunity to take that sides money for that turn by playing this action sequence. It's only a slight reworking of the fort scene, with you hopping from car to car, attempting to reach the locomotive. All of my issues with the fort sequence apply to this one as well, with the bad controls, and how it all just goes too fast compared to the rest of the game (at least on the Amiga).
^Train hijacking scene
The difficulty settings don't work as I would wish them to. They're depicted by a graphic instead of simply saying if it's easy or hard, and the hardest or easiest difficulty is actually a combination of different graphics. To play at the most difficult setting your side needs to have the general looking graphic, while the other side has a foolish solider graphic. Not all of the game is treated equally with these settings either. I never felt as if the main strategy screens difficulty ever changed with these settings, and while I felt the combat sections were perfect at the highest difficulty, I felt the fort and train scenes were impossible there. Really I would have loved to have chosen to play only the combat scene, leaving out the others, or to have had them adjusted differently.
You win the game by defeating the last stack of enemy troops, and you can win the war for either the North or the South, likewise you can lose it for either side. The land conquering aspect of the game being the main strategic element, I do feel this game is on the easier side of strategy games, and would have appreciated more to this section. I think the game could have been extended in a positive way while remaining fun and short by simply requiring you to control all territories. It's possible to beat some scenarios in two turns, just by eliminating all enemy troops. Some interesting situations could have popped up by needing to step into all states, meanwhile the enemy could build up their army within the states they still control. It still would have been short and fun, but lasted a bit longer that way. Still I felt I got enough enjoyment out of North & South to call it a fun ride, if a bit of a quick one.
Magazines of the era differed quite a bit on their thoughts for the game, both in America as well as in Europe. In America Amazing Computing called the Amiga version's graphics very good, the combat scene challenging, and said it would particularly interest those who enjoy strategy games with action sequences. They ended by noting it may not hold up to repeated play. Info gave the Amiga version four and a half out of five stars, saying the game captured the mythic feel of the war very well, and that the touches of whimsy will keep you coming back. Computer Gaming World gave the DOS version one star for strategy gamers, and three stars for arcade gamers, saying this French import "is just about what one would expect coming from a country which has made Jerry Lewis a national icon"... That awful review aside (spoken about much more in my video review), Amiga Plus gave the game three out of five pluses, saying it was by no means complex, but combines strategy with great visuals and laughs, and should keep you busy for awhile.
^Riverside combat
In Europe CU Amiga gave it a 79%, saying the graphics and sound are of a very high standard, making it an instant hit, but that the fun is short lived, and asking "aren't strategy games the ones that are supposed to keep you going for years?" Advanced Computer Entertainment called it rich in visuals and audio, but that there wasn't enough flexibility for gameplay. Amiga Computing called it unlike any wargame you've ever played, giving it a 90% overall rating. ST action, covering the Atari ST version, gave it a 93% and called it one of the finest games they've played in some time. Zzap gave the Amiga version a 90%, saying it was a fresh and offbeat approach to the Civil War.
My feeling was the prevalent thoughts from back in the day were of a mixed variety, thinking it was a good game which wouldn't end up lasting you too long. You need to think of this game in its own subcategory of strategy games. It's a mixed genera strategy/action game with various arcade sequences built in, and it's meant to be short. Some strategy games are a wonder, lasting you many weeks or months, but not all have to be like that. Sometimes you just want to come to a game, have some fun with it, win it, and then go on to something else. The strategy genera is one often times utterly dismissed and skipped by certain types of gamers. I feel they're missing out on some fantastic games by not giving them a shot. This is the type of game which might have them thinking they should give some of these games another look. For the lovers of strategy games, just because you might get through this one quickly, does not mean you won't enjoy the ride. While I would have liked some more challenge to the main strategy game, I had a blast with the combat, and overall I enjoyed my time with North & South.
I hope you'll check out my video review, where I'll give off a little history of the war via the game's manual. I'll be reading through the magazine reviews mentioned here, and show off some other interesting finds I came across while reading those. There's also a side by side comparison with the DOS version. Readers of this article may also enjoy my looks at the strategy games Defender of the Crown, King's Bounty, SimAnt, or Civilization. Fans of Infograms may enjoy my look at Hostage: Rescue Mission.
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