Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism Review
One of my favorite genres of gaming is turn-based strategy titles. As a history buff, I am always excited to play games that stick close to historical events, so when I was given a review copy of Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism, I was definitely ready to jump in. Most Strategic Mind games follow major aspects of war and call for the players to build strategies around real-life scenarios to defeat their opponents. Each expansion expands to a different aspect of war and perspective.
Setting the Stage
Spectre of Communism takes you through World War II from the Russian perspective. Starni Games has a deep passion for the history surrounding this war and they keep the game as close as possible to history, while also throwing in various perspectives to keep things fresh for the gamer.
If you are a history buff like me then you will recognize many of the key characters they mention throughout the game and you can appreciate the passion of the devs. The campaign includes 20 missions that span the events from 1939 through 1945, with roughly 80 hours of gameplay depending on your difficulty level. This game was released previously on the PC back in 2020 so this review will focus on the PlayStation port of the game. In my review, I give the good, the bad, and my final verdict!
The Good
The Gameplay
One of the strongest aspects of this title is the gameplay. Strategic Mind franchise usually performs well as turn-based strategy games and the same can be said here. Starni Games did a good job at prioritizing the historical-based vehicles, weapons, and strategies mirroring of what was there during WWII. Each unit has its own benefits and drawbacks, and it is up to the player to determine which unit they will use to maximize the situation. Before choosing your next move, you need to be aware of what would be best for the current situation and this game does give you a wide array of options when progressing through different missions.
Whether you are using the Soviet Tanks to clear pathways for your ground forces or bombers to devastate infantry, the various moves and strategies are essentially endless, making the experience fun. What makes the gameplay even better is the after-mission briefings which give you the option to prepare for the next operation. At these pit stops you have the ability to use command points to upgrade your units strengthening current move sets or learning new ones. This only enhances the gameplay which opens up the replayability of the title.
Historical Connection
As I mentioned earlier, you can sense the passion behind Starni Games when connecting the missions to actual historical events. Aspects of each mission you complete are mirrored after actual battles with real strategies revolving around them. You have to give a lot of credit to the devs for showing their passion for history by tying operations closely to real-life missions that happened in the past. If you are a fan of World War II you will appreciate the dedication to the storytelling here.
Art Style
Another positive I saw was the game’s art style, mainly in the music, map design, and story direction. Spectre of Communism had met expectations of being a World War II-based game. What I mean by this is that they give you the vibe of being a general of this era by putting you in the shoes of military officials of this era. I believe this is one of the best aspects of the game. The music for each battle matches the feeling of one of those historical documentaries with stoic tracks that make your actions feel epic. The sound design of the different units also excels and mirrors that of the classic vehicles and weapons of the era.
Direction and Map
The various maps also were impressive due to the design and how close they were to the actual operation. They had gone through many types of terrain and layouts which give the player many ways to combat a situation which gives the game a much-needed boost in giving the player an open space to work. The story direction is pretty straightforward but they introduce many real-life characters and situations that give more meaning to the missions rather than just “eliminate your opponents” as most other strategy games follow.
The Bad
The Animations
This game unfortunately feels like the port to the Playstation family of consoles had difficulty matching the level of the PC. Throughout my playthrough, anytime there were cutscenes between major characters there were major issues with basic animations. Most times, voice lines did not match the lip movement of generals which can throw off the immersion and dampen a scene.
Hurts the Experience
Most animations felt award in this way and it hurt the realism that was set in the gameplay and art style. In the PC port of the game, they did a much better job with these animations but it felt that the port of this game to consoles had major issues that were too difficult not to notice. As I mentioned in previous reviews of Strategic Mind Games, this game would have done itself a favor of using still historic images of these characters and focusing on the voice lines rather than using animation mainly because you could have avoided having to use them which ended up hurting the experience.
Pacing/Writing
Along with animations, I felt that the writing for the cutscenes needs a lot of work. At times I felt like the voice lines felt awkward and at times cringy. There were often long pauses between lines which led to long monologues which caused the game to feel drawn out more than it should have. This expansion did a better job with pacing its cutscenes compared to the Pacific, but it seems like they still fall into the same issues as seen in the previous expansions. Roughly the first cutscene hits you with around 10 mins of dialog in the first section which is way too long to get into the combat.
Most positives of the game came from the closeness to historical accuracy but based on the voice acting you would think that we were following American generals. Most of the voice acting jumped from multiple different accents from American to British back to American. I felt like some of the dialogue could have been adjusted to at least work in Russian accents to reflect the characters that we are working with. The cutscenes of this game should have been kept to a minimum to allow us to get right to the gameplay which was the strong suit of the game.
Glitches
One of the biggest issues I had with the game was the glitches that hurt my experience. At several moments in my playthrough there were times when I tried to attack several units, but each time I tried to the game would automatically push my cursor into one of the corners preventing me from engaging. It did get frustrating at times especially trying to complete major operations that take longer to complete. This seems to be getting a fix in one of the days one patch but in my playthrough, it was a problem that was hard to look passed.
Final Verdict
Overall, Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism has both positives and negatives. The gameplay seems to be the biggest positive due to the fluid movement, various units, and many ways to combat enemies. The ability to upgrade units based on your playstyle really creates multiple ways to play the game which makes the experience fun. The attention to detail in bringing accurate vehicles and maps was great to see and the epic soundtrack amplified the experience.
However, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives. There were too many instances where the cutscenes felt way too drawn out and bland. The gameplay has to be the strongest aspect of the game but we are taking too much time watching somewhat broken animations rather than playing the game. On the PlayStation port of the game, it seems that there are some bugs that dampen the gameplay at times which was disappointing due to the strong gameplay components it has.
Rating
I’m giving this game a 5 out of 10. Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism has the potential to be a good strategy game based on the fluidity of the gameplay. However, the pacing, broken animations, and glitches hurt the overall experience of the PlayStation Port of the game. I hope that with updates the port will get better in the future, but for the time being there are many things that need to be fixed upon its release.
***
For more gaming content, reviews, and live streams come check out our channel on YouTube!
Join up on all of our platforms using the Link Tree here!
Support the channel by buying our Marzzman Merch and joining our Patreon
Support Vendetta Sports Media by buying some awesome merch! Updated daily with new gear!
