July 2, 2001 - My first impressions of World War II Online are that the game would allow players to quickly and easily join battles within WWII, and fight until death took its toll. Players could then quickly respawn and continue to battle. Unfortunately, loading is not quick, often taking up to ten minutes just to load the game. The first time I stepped into a battle, I thought the gameplay and controls were absolutely horrendous, but as I became more interweaved into the action, my opinions on the title changed.

Developed by Cornered Rat Software and Published by Strategy First, World War II Online is a large-scale strategy title that allows players to join simulated battles within World War II and decide the outcome. The game retails for $39.99 USD with a $9.95 USD Required Monthly Subscription fee to Playnet.com for online play.

The general idea of World War II Online is a massive multiplayer reconstruction of World War II. Players can choose to battle as one of many types of troops, including air troops, tank operators, anti-tank gunners, or just simple infantry troops. The map of Europe is modeled in 1/2 scale, and players must use strategy and teamwork to succeed in winning battles. Unfortunately, the game is so buggy and prone to so many problems that it's difficult to even setup a plan and execute it without having technical difficulties. WWII Online was released way before it should have been, and this is glaringly evident once you set foot out on the battlefield.

Installation of WWII Online was fairly simple, but it wasn't until I realized a 70 MB patch needed to be applied to even start playing online. After this patch was installed, I headed offline for a little training. After waiting six minutes for the game to load, I hopped into the body of a soldier and grabbed the instruction manual. Let me just say that WWII Online has one of the most complex and unnecessarily difficult menu systems I have ever seen. Fortunately, the manuals included are large and explain everything about controlling the different vehicles, but navigating the menu system is a challenge within itself. Controls are very difficult to remember as they are different for every vehicle, and are not commonly used within games. For example, the standard controls for a soldier to walk forward is the W key, while moving faster requires the W key to be pressed followed by the C key. When I wanted to do something relitively simple such as escape to the main menu, I had to read through the manual to find out how to do so. Players must press SHIFT + ESC to bring up an exit prompt, instead of just being able to use the standard escape key. Its little control features like this that makes the game so difficult and frustrating.

The graphics in WWII Online are certainly not one of its strong points. The graphics are very "blocky" and dull, with little to spare. Very little detail is present, and for a new title such as this, improved graphics would be a great advantage. We also found that frame rates are very poor, even with systems equipped with newer video cards. While out on the battlefield alone the frame rates are stable, but should you get caught in a battle against opponents (the whole idea of the game) the frame rates lower significantly. Twelve frames per second is not fun to play in and is, to put it mildly, a major problem.

World War II Online is one of the first titles that absolutely requires teamwork between the members of the team. For example, if you are an infantryman you will require a ride into the battlefield, so you will have to find a teammate who is driving a truck. World War II Online is a highly strategic game but, unfortunately, the controls are so difficult and the bugs so prevalent that it's practically impossible to make these strategies become reality. Should a player die in the battle, it can take up to ten minutes to respawn, and sometimes you will respawn right in the middle of a battle and get killed instantly, while other times you will respawn in the middle of nowhere and will be wandering around looking for an enemy.