History Channel: Civil War - A Nation Divided for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I really enjoyed this game. It was a nice change from all the other FPS games out there. It is pretty accurate in its game play as to how it would be back then. If you are expecting a FPS like all the rest on the market you will be disappointed, but if you can keep an open mind about this game and not lump it with all the others, you will enjoy playing it.

The AI is a little stupid at times as you will see guys just running in walls and such and the paths are pretty straight forward (not a lot of thinking about how to get places) but it does give a nice feel of how Civil War combat would have been.

I would say give this game a shot but make sure you do not go into game play expecting it to be like all the other FPS games out there, you would be disappointed, but if you can keep an open mind about a game that tries to hold the actual may war happened back then, you should be pleasantly surprised.

The game was okay. The graphics may have not been the best in the world, but the overall gameplay was pretty good. It's very unique being the only civil war first person shooter i know of. And if your big on Achievements, this is a game for. Your practically invincible on easy. To get the sharpshooter and deadeye achievements, just shoot one guy and use your knife or sword for the rest of the mission. You'll get both the sharpshooter and deadeye achievements, the mission completion achievement, and somwhere along the line you'll get the killing achievements and the knife achievments. Thats a couple hundred achievment score for about an hour to an hour and a half of gameplay. It is easy to find all the documents and photographs. they are usaully in plain sight. The only hard achievement is beating the game on hard.

When I first heard about this game, I remember thinking: "A 1st person shooter, Civil War style? Are they kidding?" So I went to Gamefly and sure enough, there it was.

This game is a true rental and I am so glad I did not buy it. Is it really a horrible game? No. Does it get tedious from seeing the same 4 people attack you? Yes (same models used whether wearing blue or gray). Could this game have been something much bigger? I think so.

You get to fight on either side, Union or Confederate. Whether you choose Blue or Gray, you play the same battles, but with a different point of view. The "battles" are more like small skirmishes in the woods near the actual battle. You can always hear the bigger battle, but you never see it. It is mildly interesting to fire an 1861 Springfield, pause to reload, and then fire again. It truly makes you rethink your typical FPS tactics. You can't go rushing in or you end up stuck with nothing but melee weapons.

I think this game could have rocked on the 360 by utilizing the 360's ability to depict hundreds and hundreds of soldiers on a battlefield. I would have loved to been in a large row of blue coats facing a Rebel Charge by countless Confederates. Unfortunately you only get a small taste of the Civil War and at that it's very scaled down.

I give it a 5, mostly for originality and making me curious to try a Civil War FPS. Graphics aren't terrible and the sounds are pretty good. I also like that I get a small history lesson with each new level.

I'm not sure what people are looking for. I found this game very realistic for the era. Don't expect to quickly reload your weapon and run like in CoD. It took sometime to get use to the slower, but accurate reload time... once I got that it was a breeze. Note.. if you put it on hard make sure to save a lot. You'll get that feeling your playing CoD on a higher setting mainly due to a few issues in the game.

Main issue I have is it seems the enemy can shoot though solid objects That makes it a bit harder to fight on higher levels. But the tactic of saving... fight a little... saving repeat helps greatly and you can make it through the game on hard, which I felt is the most realist setting in the game. It's up there with CoD on vetern when you mix with some of the in-game bugs. Main reason I'm giving this game a 7 is due to that, somewhat scaled down attacks in some battles, slightly poor AI and no XBL feature. I think if it could go onto XBL it would be great. On a side note, if your into achievements, put it on easy.. you should be able to get almost everything without much effort. Shoot once and slash your way to victory.

I found this game a great change of pace from GoW, CoD and all other FPS that are out there. I would recommend renting it and really giving it a chance.

I found this game to be a 5-6 overall game. The graphics and realism are excellent, controls are average to good. You actually do feel as though you are in the heat of battle in the Civil War. The problem is with the old weapons and slow reloading it takes away from the fun factor of the game. I also found it very easier to be confused as to who is on your side, the radar/navigation didn't help me much. Again this may be very realistic, but it takes away from the fun of the game. I was also hoping for a bit more strategy (ex. Axis & Allies or Rise of Nations) but found this game to be purely a shooter. A good rental, but you'll be tired of it the first weekend,

How could anyone like the Call of Duty games and not like this? This is basically CoD without the machine guns, multiplayer, and the Germans.

The downfalls ot this game are as I mentioned before no Multiplayer and the game is rather short. The history lesson is great its amazing to hear how many people could die in 20 minutes. I believe the Answer to that was 7,000. The game has a rather nice progression and feel to it. The Graphics aren;t bad. Just wait until you get on a gattling gun and start shooting tree branches off the trees!

If this game had Multiplayer I would say it would be an interesting buy. Since its short ont he single player side I would say its a renter only. It is however one that you SHOULD rent.

I for the life of me, can't see why so many gamefly members gave this game such a low overall rating....I suppose there are just too many teenie-boppers that only want some meathead with spiked shoulder pads firing a plasma gun at androids. This game has so much historical value and , the research was incredible. The weaponry was so authentic, i was having a ball. The graphics and the sound effects were top notch. You could save any time you liked , no stinking check points. The medium level was relatively easy so, you'd want to play it on hard.
Man, i liked this game !!

I am addicted to this game. You can play all of the Civil War! If you like history, this is the game to get.

I don't know why people wouldn't like this game. It a great breath of fresh air after mobs of WWII shooters it is good to see that someone can have the decency to come up with something at least a little bit original. Now sure the gameplay is a little odd but who cares it's the civil war and the technology is pretty neat.

I don't know why people are trashing this game. I've been playing it and it is LOADS of fun. Yes of course it has it's flaws. It wasn't ever meant to be the next Call of Duty. The few flaws are, obviously, it has no multiplayer online or otherwise. But people, multiplayer isn't everything! Second of all would be the health system. If you've played Resistance Fall of Man on the PS3 then you will know that the health system is kind of similar. You get 5 green stars. The stars will regenerate but only up to one star. If you lose a star you have to find a med pack. Another qualm people may have is that the weapons take forever to reload. HELLO! It's the Civil War. Muskets take forever to load. The one major glitch I have noticed is that sometimes you be perfectly aligned to shoot someone, fire your gun, and they don't even flinch. The last thing is that the control sceme is slightly confusing but once you get used to is, it isn't that difficult. Over all though this is a great game! It is very historically accurate in the weapons and the reload times. Pwning with a cannon? Come on! For Civil War that's amazing! And you will laugh yourself senseless when the enemy comes running at you screaming only to be shot in the head by you who saw them coming from 5 miles away. The graphics are amazing all things considered and it will get your blood rushing when you charge into a group of soldiers only to have to retreat because they all jump you. Alot of people say this game is hard and it is somewhat until you get used to it and the tactics. Give it a try. If you like Call of Duty you will not be disappointed at this game.

If you want a Halo or Gears game do not get this...but if you want a realistic game... RENT IT!
Great historical game.

This game has some really nice elements to it and is really realistic for its time period. Of course the things that make the game realistic take away from the fun(like long loading times for a single shot).The game has a nice control system that's really easy to pick up. Finding cover does not work to well though, and most the time the enemy can shoot you through barriers. With better AI and more attention to detail this game would be among the best. But that's my opinion of course, you may not enjoy the game as much as I did.

This is my review for History channel: CIVIL WAR!a nation divided. This game has great graphics and game play. Like many people have said the weapons are very realistic. Don't listen to those noobs who didn't even finish the first level. This is a great buy for $50.00. It might even be cheaper around Christmas time. I would have given it a 10 but it lacks the ONLINE play I would really like to go online and blow my friends heads off. Once again my name is Sean and this is my review on History Channel: CIVIL WAR! A nation divided

In an era where there are so many solid historical FPS produced (Call of Duty), it's really disappointing that the something as horrific as the Civil War is turned into the poorly-executed mess this game is. The History Channel content is weak and while the scenery is almost up to 360 standards, the character execution and gameplay is as bad or worse than something on the PS1. A few low-lights:

1) Terrible AI. It's possible to stand directly in front of an enemy and they don't even notice you're there.

2) Bad collision mapping. Allies and enemies frequently get stuck on barrels and other content.

3) Ugly NPCs. Whether you're playing the Union or Confederacy, the characters often look identical save for the color of their uniforms.

4) It's not fun. The biggest sin of all. Why Call of Duty and the like worked was that they made you feel invested in fate of your character and those around you. With as rich and horrible a story as the Civil War was, the hollow scripting of this game is almost a travesty.

This is probably one of the weakest FPS I've played on any platform in a long time and easily the worst I've played on the 360.

Ah, how I wanted to enjoy this game. I really did. I love it when game makers take a chance to create a unique take on a familiar genre. However, this unique take was a half-hearted affair that really should have been treated with a little more TLC.

The game centers around 12 battles. There is no story, which is fine with me as it is unrealistic that one soldier would have been a part of more than one or two.

You play the battles as either a union or confederate soldier, but there is no difference between the two as you'll be shooting the same five character models just dressed in an opposing uniform.

The most broken piece of this game is the enemy AI. They are unaggressive, don't work together and act like they want you to remember your Goldeneye days with their behavior.

I cannot recommend this game in any shape or form. If you're a history buff, you'll be disappointed with the lack of historical information and accuracy of the battles. If you're an FPS buff you'll be disappointed by the lack of fun. If you're an achievement hound you'll be disappointed by the amount of time it will take you to rack up the 5 and 10 point achievements.

So, please don't waste your precious GameQ with this game - you'll regret it.

Being a civil war buff, I was excited to hear that there would be a civil war FPS coming out for the XBox360. For years I would see scores of WWII, Vietnam, and Modern war games, wishing and hoping that someone would develop a civil war game for one of the platforms and I finally got my wish. However, once I played it I realized that this game didn't live up to the potential that it had. You can adjust the games difficulty, but even on the "easy" setting, the game seemed just as hard as on "normal". I like the fact that you can crouch, but even when I was behind a stone wall I kept getting hit for some reason. Being able to command a squad of men would've been nice because most of the time you feel like some victorian era James Bond alone on a misison. The graphics are pretty good but graphics alone don't make a great game and I would've liked to see the battles on a much larger scale. This game would've been better suited as a large scale strategy game, similar to Age of Empires or Command and Conquer. All in all I was very dissapointed in this game.

When I first heard about this game I got real excited I looked for it on all kinds of web pages. I rented it on the first day and couldn't wait to play but was very disappointed in it. the main problem I had with it that it looked like it was going to be a battlefield 1942 type game but ended up like a slow and poor call of duty. I think they could have spent more time on the details like when i take cover behind a wall I kept getting shot. anyways i give it a five even though I sent it back before even finishing the first level.

An authentic FPS for its period. Sorry no mobile machine guns. The graphics are comparable to other top games. I feel sorry for the poor dudes that had to go into battle with a single shot musket, when the better off guys had cartridge repeaters.

The historical lessons at the beginning of each level tell a story of enormous battles, with tens of thousands of men, crowding a huge battlefield ready to fight to the death. What an awesome game that would have made. Unfortunately, this isn't it. What I learned most from this game was that WW2 must have been very fun to fight. With a tommy gun or M1 garand you could mow down 6 or 7 soldiers and run to find more in the chaos. But there was nothing fun about the Civil war. The strongest point of this game is also its biggest flaw, its authenticity. There is nothing quite like the tedious thrill of firing a single musket ball, ducking down for 8 or 9 seconds to reload, and then repeating the process. Smoke obscures your targets near constantly. Whenever your enemies fire, their rifle casts a smoke screen in front of themselves. Even your repeater rifle, which thank your lucky stars you have, is slowed down by the smoke screen it makes as well, meaning half the time you're either waiting for it to clear, or shooting blind. Graphics are pretty good, although i would have liked to see more than the same people again and again. Enemy AI leaves something to be desired. While grenades are around, no one seems to use them. And more than once, enemy soldiers ran right past me to attack other soldiers only to get shot in the back. Not a bad game overall, as long as you're willing to see it through. But in the future, it would be nice if they used the 360's full capabilities to make these battles as epic as they were in real life.

This game was terrible. I have to hand it to the developers for taking a chance on a civil war shooter, but it was terribly executed. the graphics were not at all next-gen looking and i soared through the game only using the the melee attacks. i expected this game to be a gritty portrayal of one of the most horrible wars in the history of the world, but instead it was a game with no blood(possibly becuase it was made by the history channel) and horrible gameplay. the voice acting was also possibly the worst i have ever seen/heard. i know that many of you are curious because agame like this has never been done, and i was curious too, but youare much better off renting a game like gears of war or call of duty
3. so please, save yourself the time you would spend waiting for this game to come in the mail and just say no.

Okay,
So I'm a big war buff. And I've never played a game based on the American Civil War.
I thought it would be fun.
When I got the game and started it I was impressed by the historical content, but when it comes to playing the game its horrible.
I forced myself to play it for 20 minutes hoping it would get better.... IT DIDN'T
The controls are horrible, the game play is sooooooooo slow... and frankly its a hard game.

The worst part is, after playing a level for 15 minutes and losing all your health, you have to start all over again from the beginning of the level. There really should be checkpoints. If there were checkpoints I probably would have kept the game for another hour or two.

All in all, don't waste your time, you'll only be wasting your time waiting for your next game to be mailed.

This game was horribly boring and, I suppose, that's to be expected considering what it's based on.

The reloading of the weapons takes way too long. Coupled with the fact that enemies can shoot you through solid objects or fire when they aren't even visible to the naked eye, it made for one bad issue that couldn't be overlooked.

Easily, this is one of worst 360 titles I've played to date and I've just about played them all. I wouldn't even recommend renting this or playing it at a friends house who made the mistake of putting his/her hands on the game.

EXCELLENT GRAPHICHS AN OK STORY LINE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE BACK IN THAT ERA. I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT IT THAT DAY.

At the start of the game it's great plenty of guys to fight plenty of guys watching your back, as you go through the game it feel's like a game that was half way made and the developers just didn't try nor care. I beat the game in about 2 hours maybe 3 I doubt there's many people that have this game so I never bothered online. The weapons were great, the melee combat was weak and inaccurate (not much use out of the bayonet). All that led up to a big disappointment, I am just glad I rented before I bought it.