Making History: The Calm & The Storm

Originally Released In 2004 as an educational title, this beefed-up version of Making History puts you in the shoes of your favourite dictator/leader of the free world to re-fight the entire war on a global scale.

Like a huge game of Risk, it divides the world up into territories, around which you shunt your armies, navies and air groups, combat kicking off sporadically. Not that this is anything like Risk, as you have to manage everything from transport infrastructure to weapons research, as well as making alliances galore.

What's interesting is that once the game starts, pretty much anyone can gang up with anyone, meaning the war can pan out differently to history. Stalin might get in bed with Hitler, or the French might decide that the Spanish are their best buddies, before surrendering to the nearest foe.

The interface is streamlined, even if managing all that production and research can feel a little like doing work experience at an accountant's office. As for combat, it's unsatisfying, being a matter of throwing everything you can muster into a disputed territory and observing turn on turn as the sides whittle each other down. Making History is a decent bit of strategy, but it's hardly treading new ground. 2x3's World At War is a similar (and better) turn-based WWII grand strategy sim, and Paradox's Hearts Of Iron does it all in real-time. In the end, this just doesn't kick up enough of a storm to stand out.