I searched for the last week for something to play in the lines of turn-based strategy, and finally, last night, I discover UOC on metacritic, have a look some youtube footage, and within 5 seconds I knew I would buy this and love it.
I too saw this on metacritic, but only Steam sales encouraged me to find out more about it. If not for the demo I'd have skipped it as I had Eador: Masters of the Broken World from the same sales too. I am glad there was a demo, because I fell in love with this game because of it. Graphics alone aren't good enough to show how deep this game is.
- Somehow, even though it is difficult, it is not frustrating. I want to learn and replay to see what works. UOC passes the "but is it FUN?" test perfectly.
I find that the game has great replayability value - you'd think that fixed scenarios would quickly become predictable and repetetive in a bad way. Thanks to some random factors (like outcomes and weather) this is not the case. Moves and turns go by one by one, it's really addicting, kind of "just another turn" syndrome. In a positive way. I tested the demo and was even playing against myself. This was very interesting experience, after that I told myself: "I am getting this!". I got both the game and expansion. I wish I had known about it sooner...
That said the UI is great, graphics are very nice (they learn to see their charm once you play for a while) and functional. The only thing I don't understand is how campaigns were made: to unlock some you have to achieve certain results and if you want to change sides (from Axis to Soviet or vice versa) you reset your campaign. I can play scenarios and I can understand that making some scenarios unlockable by getting better results is incouraging to use your Prestige and Reserves you gain through the campaign, but why campaigns reset...?
I heard you want to develop
Unity of Command 2 (not sure how true this heresay is though) another title and I must say that your next game will be one of a few I am going to wait to see/play (Armageddon and East vs West are on the list for year 2014). I kind of missed the ability to see the whole Eastern Front (like from Berlin to Moscov) or even more (the World War!), but given how Unit of Command was handled I trust that another game of yours will be as awesome as this is.
As a guy who loves strategies and as a player I can't thank you enough for this wargaming masterpiece and I rarely have so many good words to say, which says something.