Decision in the Desert Reviews

Classic Sid Meier <3

Don't get this game unless its for sale or unless you're a WW2 Buff interested in the North Africa Campaign between the British Italians and Germans. Also this is only the dos version which is the worst version. You should get the one for atari home computer either that or c64 on an emulator. The game uses the same engine as Crusade in Europe, Conflict in Vietnam and NATO commander. But Crusade in Europe is much better. The game features only five scenarios with only a few features. There is very very little variety. Its about as repetitive as Ring around the rosey or the hokey pokey. The only manuals available are for atari or commodore. If you want to play as the AXIS you must push Q button. Just like With Crusand and nam. Unfortunately it just doesn't do justice to WW2 the way Crusade does. I remember when My father bought it 30 years ago. he was very disappointed. He mistakenly thought it was about Desert Storm or wars in Israel. Instead it was just some lousy North African ww2 scenarios. Only get it if its on sale and if you're a history buff. Also you're better off getting the atari or commodore version than the dos version.

The game has a nasty game-breaking bug that locks up the simulation during the first attack in any scenario. Fortunately, there's an easy fix: 1. Navigate to the installation directory. 2. Open 'dosbox.conf' in any text editor. 3. Find the text string "cycles=4000" and change it to "cycles=auto". 4. Save the file, close it, and play the game as usual. Other than that, Decision in the Desert is pretty much the same as its predecessor, Crusade in Europe, with the twist of smaller—but more numerous—armies (lots of brigades with just a few divisions here and there). If you have played the previous game, you already know the drill. The game adds a new unit, mechanized infantry, so that's cool. New terrain types also make a first appearance here with airfields and escarpments. Airfields grant victory points when captured, while escarpment terrain simply slows units down. The micro can get a bit more time-consuming than in the prequel since you have to juggle around more units and orders because the brain-dead suicidal AI is kinda funky. Same offensively ugly graphics as before with a slightly different color palette to simulate the North African geography. It's OK for a game its age, but I—personally—prefer the charm of Crusade in Europe.

This 8-bit Atari game will load up on your PC with Steam, but it has NOT been converted to play with a mouse and/or keyboard, so you can't actually PLAY it on your PC. Save your time and money and skip this one.