Making History: The Great War

About

"Making History: The Great War" is a strategy game that simulates World War I. Players can choose to lead any nation involved in the conflict, managing resources, diplomacy, and military tactics to achieve victory. The game features a detailed economic model, historical events, and a dynamic front line that allows for strategic decision making. It offers multiple scenarios, multiplayer modes, and a map editor to create custom scenarios.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Making History: The Great War screenshot

75%

Audience ScoreBased on 552 reviews

graphics14 positive mentions

stability16 negative mentions

The game offers a complex and detailed economic management system that allows for strategic planning and resource allocation.
The ability to play as any nation and create alternate histories adds significant replay value and depth to the gameplay.
The developers are actively engaged with the community, providing regular updates and addressing bugs, which enhances the overall experience.

The user interface can be clunky and overwhelming, making it difficult for new players to navigate and understand the game's mechanics.
The AI behavior is often illogical, leading to unrealistic scenarios and frustrating gameplay, such as countries declaring war for trivial reasons.
There are numerous bugs and performance issues, including crashes and slow turn processing, which detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.

graphics
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many users noting that they are outdated and lack clarity, particularly on higher resolution displays. While some appreciate the period-appropriate design and find the overall aesthetic acceptable, others criticize the poor detail and readability of text and symbols. Overall, the consensus suggests that a graphical upgrade is needed to enhance the game's appeal, despite its engaging gameplay.
- “The graphics are as good as one would like for this type of game.”
- “Graphics-wise, a lovely looking clean map, sprites all have authentic uniforms.”
- “The graphics are fine; they have a dated look, which is great because the look fits the period.”
- “Extremely ugly graphics; on a 4K screen, it has tiny unreadable letters and symbols, giving me a headache looking at it.”
- “Not only does the map suck, but the graphic clarity of the units is very fuzzy and lacks detail.”
- “Bad graphics and bad UI, and if I can return it, I will.”
gameplay
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
67%
8%
The gameplay is characterized by a mix of complex mechanics that can initially feel overwhelming but become rewarding once mastered. While some players appreciate the depth and improvements over previous titles, others criticize the cumbersome interface, lack of clarity in battle and diplomacy mechanics, and the disruptive nature of rebel uprisings that hinder strategic planning. Overall, the game offers an engaging experience for fans of grand strategy, though it may require patience to navigate its intricacies.
- “The mechanics, in my opinion, are better and more complete than pretty much any other grand strategy game.”
- “While it can seem overwhelming at first, once you get the hang of the mechanics and where the various items you need to keep track of are located, it actually becomes quite simple.”
- “The gameplay is easy to get into, and you can get immersed immediately into carving out your own history - indeed, making history.”
- “Very cumbersome game mechanics.”
- “This is such an old school interface that it seriously interferes with gameplay.”
- “Tried to like the game and I do like the economics part of it; however, the battle mechanics are lacking significantly as well as the diplomacy part of it. Also, there is no difficulty level setting or a way to see how healthy your units really are. To make it even more frustrating, you can move troops already engaged to conquer an empty region and capture artillery which you cannot attach to an army for protection.”
stability
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
89%
The game's stability has been criticized for being unpolished and buggy, with frequent freezes and crashes, especially when managing large troop stacks. Users report issues with map views and mouse responsiveness, indicating that while the game is enjoyable and well-constructed, it suffers from significant performance problems that detract from the overall experience. Despite these issues, players remain optimistic about future improvements as the game is still in development.
- “By the way, if you are a Mac player, this runs great on Mac!”
- “Love playing grand strategy games, but this game feels unpolished and buggy.”
- “I really enjoy the Making History series and although this is probably my favorite, it's really laggy and freezes or crashes when you get a large stack of troops, which is really annoying and makes it hard to play towards the end of the game.”
- “Good game, but it freezes every single turn.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, particularly due to the micromanagement required for province and city management. While some appreciate the depth it offers, many feel it detracts from the overall experience, making the game feel infuriating and unrewarding, especially when compounded by issues with AI and strategy.
- “Province/city management - this is the most tedious aspect of the game.”
- “It's a micromanaging paradise, but for someone looking for a less complicated approach to strategy, this game is infuriating, tedious, and unrewarding.”
- “This effort revealed that the AI apparently has no sense of continuous frontlines; after a couple of weeks of grinding down the Belgians in Wallonie, I then found nothing standing between me and Paris.”
humor
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game's humor to be a highlight, particularly enjoying the chaotic scenarios, such as absurd military actions and the ability to create puppet states with any ideology. Despite technical issues like crashes, the comedic elements of the game, including its clunky mechanics, contribute to an overall entertaining experience.
- “This game is really clunky, but it is really funny to see the entire world collapse into chaos.”
- “Just imagining some dad's army dudes shooting at an air balloon is a really funny sight for me.”
- “Oh, I also find it funny that you can create puppet states and make them any ideology you want.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The game's music has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the quality of the soundtrack, describing it as "nice and imperial." However, many criticize the limited variety, noting that there are only a few repetitive tracks, which can become tedious after a short period of play. Overall, while the music has its merits, its lack of diversity detracts from the gaming experience.
- “To give some credit to the game, the soundtrack is pretty good and the tutorial does a good job explaining most of the game features and game mechanics.”
- “Sound is a little better, but the music is nice and imperial.”
- “The soundtrack is enjoyable, adding a nice atmosphere to the game.”
- “The soundtrack is the same 2 'musical themes' (if you can call them that) that repeat themselves again and again.”
- “There are like 3 songs in the game, so after an hour you turn that off and you can't see the trenches you have made, only the level number.”
- “The map is too flat and totally ugly, but what it does: it blares ugly music at the start.”
replayability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
38%
25%
The game offers significant replayability due to its vast number of playable nations and the potential for additional content through workshops. While currently only a limited selection of countries is available, the promise of future expansions enhances its replay value.
- “You can play as any nation, plus workshop content, which gives it a lot of replayability.”
- “The number of available factions is huge, which is great and would theoretically bring a lot of replay value.”
- “Only a few countries are playable now, but more will come.”
- “The number of available factions is huge (which is great), which would in theory bring a lot of replay value.”
- “Like I said, only a few countries are playable, but more will come.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game suffers from notable performance issues that require optimization tweaks to enhance the overall experience.
- “The only downside is that there are some notable performance issues.”
- “Performance does need to be tweaked though, especially.”