Shattered Union for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

Shattered Union is an interesting take on strategy games-No longer can you just throw units away at will to attain an objective, you must actually think about what units you wish to attack and defend with. The premise of the game (civil war caused by terrorist action) is a feasible (though not altogether probable) idea, allowing for a great number of factions and units to be used. Special abilities granted due to faction allegiance as well as political/moral choice round out a great game. If you are a fan of strategy gaming (as I am), then you have to give this game a once-over. Believe me, you will not be disappointed!

Shattered Union is a game that just about anyone could pick up and enjoy.

It is a lightweight wargame that gets the combat right. To be fair it's an enjoyable, though flawed, strategy game. First off, it handles what otherwise are complex issues into simple, easy to understand, terms. You can pick this game up for the first time, run through the tutorial, and know what your doing from move #1.

Your units gain experience over time, becoming more powerful & more valuable. It becomes part of the strategy, to use or to save these experienced units. What makes this deeper, is that units used per battle need time to "rest" from one battle to the next. Thus you need to manage what units will be used, and which are to be left behind to guard against counter attacks.

The AI is pretty good when on defense, as it knows how to keep forces in reserve and it likes to attack when your forces are strung out en route. On offense, unfortunately, is where the the AI is fairly predictable. They tend to send units a few at a time, even when up against multiple targets. They also tend to attack random units. Where a smart AI would take out the biggest potential threat in the area. This makes it easier to leave a small inexpensive unit in front of (or behind) your more powerful ones to set up as pawns and take the fire, giving your powerful units time to counter or run.

A bigger issue at hand is the lack of depth behind the strategic portion of the game. There's a lack of simple diplomacy. It would have been nice to have been able to create alliances and gang up on the more powerful factions. Progress in the game is VERY slow, unless you cheat. Odds are you'll be counterattacked in the same territory you just won by the same faction multiple times.

But what gets me the most is the slow load time between screens. During the game it's fine...but loading takes what seems to be forever and a day.

All that aside, Shattered Union has a big "old-school" Board Game feel to it.