Man of War (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.5 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  T. McDonald
• Reviewed on: 11/19/1997
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 09/30/1997

Fans of the great age of fighting sail have been treated to several games of varying quality in the recent past. Wooden Ships & Iron Men was a disappointing conversion of the classic board game. Age of Sail provided the best gaming experience but was burdened with a rather cumbersome Win 3.1 interface. SSI canceled Ship of the Line, and Buccaneer was less than expected. Now a newcomer called Strategy First is trying to offer the ultimate age of sail experience by combing the depth of a strategy game with the immediacy of a first-person game. The developers were headed in the right direction, but in the end they fail on both fronts.

Man of War covers the classic era of fighting wooden ships: roughly from the American Revolution to the Napoleonic Wars. Those of us who are sail buffs and fans of the novels of O'Brian and Forester are drawn to the image of lines of ships, each two-hundred feet long and bristling with a hundred guns, pounding each other to splinters. It's a fascinating period with many nuances that make for great gaming.

Man of War takes a two-pronged approach to this milieu. In the first phase of each turn, you use a handsome map to set orders for your ships. Each mission involves a set victory requirement and begins at sea with the opposing forces closing in on each other. While the points needed for victory are listed, I could never determine the length of each battle, and so I had trouble pacing my strategies. In the strategic portion, you give a set of orders to each ship (or to the whole division) that will then be executed in that turn. Orders are related to bearing, speed, position in the line, rally/surrender, engagement distance, and targeting.

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