Civil War: Secret Missions is a first-person shooter set — as you may expect from the title — during the American Civil War. The game was developed by Cauldron and published by Activision with the approval, if not the participation, of the History Channel. Although the History Channel might have contributed to the mission briefings by providing maps and data, the scenarios as they are played out don’t appear to have much historical validity. This game is also the sequel to a previous game called Civil War by the same developers (and which was actually a slightly better game).
Your goal in Civil War: Secret Missions is to disrupt the armies of both the North and the South by any means necessary (by alternately playing each side), including conducting train raids, stealing ironclad ships, blocking enemy supply lines and destroying enemy artillery. All events are drawn from the real-life actions of famous partisans, scouts and rangers — such as Mosby’s Rangers, Sheridan’s Scouts and Grant’s Secret Service — and you receive your mission briefings from famous generals, including Robert E. Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a storyline, and the weak missions combine with the repetitive and generic gameplay to present a game that is bland and not much fun. Enemy soldiers are identical, there’s no feedback at the end of each mission to let you know how you did and it’s hard to hit the enemy, even when aiming carefully at 25 yards or so. Granted, weapons of this era weren’t very accurate, and they were very slow to reload (although the game tends to provide the most rapid-firing and high-capacity guns available at the time, which would be a nice advantage if the enemy didn’t use them as well!). On the other hand, when the player takes the time to aim carefully using the sights at close range, they expect to be rewarded with a hit (or maybe that’s just me?). There is an auto-aim reticle available that is unfortunately both easier and more accurate than using the rifle’s sights, so I recommend using it, even though it detracts from realism.
Speaking of weapons, Civil War: Secret Missions does a pretty good job of showing the historical weapons of the period, even though they’re not the most common ones, which would be cap-fired muskets capable of firing only three to four rounds per minute! Although the Gatling guns are extremely potent and provided with an inexhaustible supply of ammunition, they are immobile and limited in traverse. Cannons can be fun, too. Oddly, the enemy doesn’t mind charging into a hail of bullets or taking cover in a position where you’ve just killed half a dozen other identical soldiers. The friendly soldiers who sometimes accompany you aren’t very bright either.
Luckily, you’re not only smarter than all of the other soldiers on the battlefield — and better armed — but you can sustain a lot of damage before you die. And regenerating health is simply a matter of taking cover and not getting shot anymore. Since the enemy rarely advances past the nearest cover, you’re usually pretty safe in any cover. Further compounding your heroic status and encouraging unrealistic gameplay (remember, this is supposed to be an historical game), as you gain promotions you can increase your health, regeneration, shooting speed and accuracy. I’d like to say that some tactical thinking and strategic planning would help you, but the linear missions and limp enemy, combined with your nearly unstoppable character, make frontal assaults feasible.
In a somewhat futile effort to extend gameplay and include more history in the game, you can find letters and photographs scattered at random around the battlefield. These depict historical events or famous personages but provide no intrinsic value as far as the game goes.
Although the gameplay and visuals are poor, there are some interesting ideas that could have been fleshed out just a bit more to make the game fun. For example, the heavy weapons (Gatling gun and cannon) and the use of the ironclad were interesting, even though only about 20 Gatling guns were used during the entire war, including those on gunboats. Still, I think if you’re a gamer (and I am), you’ll be disappointed by the gameplay, and if you’re a history buff (and I am), you’ll be disappointed by the lack of depth.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Civil War: Secret Missions. It’s just not very good — the gameplay is shallow, artificial intelligence is crude, missions are unclear and stilted, the audio is repetitive and mostly atmospheric (rather than informational), and the graphics are dated, which may be attributable to the fact that I’m playing the PlayStation 2 version. It’s hard to read the tiny print, controls are abysmal and there are few options for customization. Finally, the lack of any multiplayer capability limits the game to the awful single-player missions but could have at least given the game some hope of an interesting game by playing against people instead of just the silly AI.
The game is also available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
