War on Folvos Reviews

"War on Folvos" is an ancient game from 2006. It's a whopping 18 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge, or just a cash grab to try profit from abandonware. It was an old school turn based tactical wargame with a science fiction theme. There's certainly a niche for wargames, but "War on Folvos" was not the game to fill it, mostly due to B- tier quality even compared to other games from 2006. Apart from being really dated, there's also some other technical issues that will probably dissuade gamers from being involved in this 18 year old game (old enough to vote!) From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The game doesn't correctly account for modern PC displays, UI scaling isn't handled correctly. As a result of this unfortunate decision, text and UI elements don't display at a reasonable size, it's too small to be legible on most modern gaming PCs, and there's no in-game controls or options to correct this. This can render the game unplayable for many. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam? "War on Folvos" is relatively expensive for an abandonware nostalgia gouge, at $4 USD, and it's not worth it. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again. Even when it was new, this was never a triple-A game. This is the kind of game that went almost directly from the warehouse into the cheap bargain bins at the front of the shop. Now, on Steam, without any modernisation? This is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

War on Folvos is a simple turn based hex-grid strategy with simple mechanics, though I still found it fairly satisfying. Each unit gets two action points per turn and you can use those to move or fire as you wish. With effective scouting, rotating your armour units and pumelling your enemy with artillery the invader campaign becomes very easy. The rebel campaign is a bit more challenging with its weaker units. New objectives given to you part way through a mission can catch you offguard. You can right click on units to view their more detailed stats and descriptions, however I feel key information was missing there such as weapon range. Speed and range need to be learned the hard way. Each campaign's story complements the other and they fit together reasonably well. Overall the story is a bit back and forth across the map with somewhat poorly translated (or written?) conversations between the characters. No skirmish mode, so after the two campaigns there's no replay value. For its low price it'll keep you entertained for a few hours on the cheap if this is your genre. On this basis I recommend it. Credits lists a very small indie team, so good going to them for a reasonably well polished release. There's a bit of an early Dune vibe to it, and I half expected to retreat into the desert to tame sandworms. Maybe in a sequel?

WAR ON FOLVOS is not a bad game. It is your standard hexagonal turn-base strategy, that tries to port to a fiction future the tactics of today (tanks, infantry, long range artillery, air units for both air combat and ground attack etc.). It is a panzer-general or a dune (the old one) clone of sorts. I detect no groundbreaking evolution whatsoever in this game. But it must be said that, although 'more of the same', that is not grounds for dismissing the game. The stats of the units and the maps in which the scenarios unfold are well balanced, the scenarios are challenging, there is an interesting story (once again, too much reminiscent of 'dune' but interesting nonetheless). So though not revolutionary, it is a good hex-TBS game. Actually, if I have never seen PG or Dune I would have found this game excellent. It just isn't because of the formula being so overextended by now. Still, it satisfied me because I do like the genre and so I welcome new installments of the same game-type. It would have deserved a bad review if the game was flat-out bad, but the thing is it isn't. So it's more like having a new, good expansion to something you already know and like. If hex-TBS is your cup of tea, buy it, you won't regret it.

Slightly slow paced turn based strategy game. Decent visuals, good audio, solid although slow gameplay mechanics and interesting unit variety make this game easily worth £3 in my opinion.

If you're really into these turn-based wargames and you see it on one of its regular sales for $1 or less then give it a go. For everyone else I'd steer clear. The backstory here isn't all that captivating so you'll skip through walls of text. The game mechanics are rather simple, and the game lacks quite a few basic options in the settings for a more user friendly experience. Honestly something like Panzer General 2 from 1997 that you can pick up for $4 or less has aged much better and provides a much more immersive and enjoyable experience.

Extremely basic and dull [b]TBS[/b]. Good thing – it works. Bad thing – you won't want it to. Setting here is just a poor and ugly [b]Dune[/b] rip-off ([b]Frank[/b] and [b]Brian Herbert[/b] disliked this game twice). The whole plot is just the filler talks (nothing happens, you just get your objectives and follow them). Maps are a joke. Rivers, roads, woods... All that exist only for your eyes, and your units can easily cross all that without any problems, like those don't even exist. Therefore, each and every map (there are about [b]20[/b] in total, about [b]10[/b] per campaign, “dozens of battles” in the official description is a lie) feels [i]exactly[/i] the same with all others (it's just some units here and there, and small empty map full of hexes). You move your units (there are only the few types), you capture the enemy cities by placing your units on them (nothing to do with the cities, you just capture them), you fight by clicking the enemy units, you hope that you'll win. The end. Nothing else. That's [i]the whole game[/i] for you. [b]War on Folvos[/b] is literally the most dull and boring [b]TBS[/b] experience you can ever find. Which is a big achievement for [b]2006[/b]. I mean, really. [b]KOEI[/b] released the first [b]Nobunaga's Ambition[/b] almost [b]20[/b] years prior this “gem”, and it was [i]way[/i] more advanced. I can't even call [b]War on Folvos[/b] a proper game. Even if you're a huge [b]TBS[/b] fan like me and want to check each and every game in the genre, it still isn't worth it. Just because [b]War on Folvos[/b] doesn't have [i]anything[/i] in it. You just move units from one hex to another and that's it. You either guess the right chain of moves, or lose. No proper tactics, no variety, nothing. Even visually it looks terrible. Animation for some units, for example, is just broken (why in the world my foot soldiers turn into the [b]APC[/b] before dying, I don't know even). So, no. Just no. Even for such a low price. Even for hardcore [b]TBS[/b] fans. Still no.

Not a terrible game for the money, lacks mission to mission continuity. No; promotions, awards, keeping you best units. Its also confusing, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to when or where you can repair/heal and reload your ground units. While you are trying to figure this out, you run out of time. Still, if you like a tough challenge, give it a go.

Honestly, I think War on Folvos is a not bad game. Player can select two forces. Each one has its own merits and demerits. But the game also has a lot of flaws. You cannot ignore them. Because they are really bad enough to ruin the fun. Cons: -The font of game story is too small in wide-screen with a high resolution, especially for 1920 x 1080 resolution. -There has no level select screen. Your save files are the only way to do this. So if you overwritten a wrong save, then you must restart the whole campaign from the first level! -Sometimes the current view area will lock to the upper left corner of battle field when you are switching your units. It seems like a bug. -The manual and in-game tutorial forget to tell the player a very important thing: Unlike normal turn-based strategy games, you can't repair or resupply your units in a captured city! They must be repaired or resupplied in a captured military base! -Another very important thing that they don't tell you is your units can be lost an action point after they damaged. -The manual says this is a relaxed game, you needn't worry about time. In fact, you will encounter many unexpected time-limited missions in the game. -The final mission of Folvos is too hard. So I give up.

Its Battle Isle 1.5 with better Graphics (aged well, nothing too fancy). Runs well on my laptop. Didnt care about the story too much, but honestly who does ? Not too easy, not too hard. (have not finished it yet) I like it. p.s. There's a demo on the Devs website, so you can try before you buy.

Cliff Notes, Worth it but the start was weird. This game was released in 2006 so the graphics are to be expected of an indie game from that time that is to say decent to good and fitting for the story but not going to win any awards. The combat as far as I could play was fairly simple. However it did seem that combat would become far more involved with higher tier units and larger total fighting forces. Difficulty, most of the difficulty for me came from the interface itself. In order to select or target a unit you have to click the actual unit model rather than the hex they are on. This is an important distinction. I also found difficulty in locating my units on each new level. Neither of these have put me off the game however. Plot, weird. Okay now to the actual review. I walk in thinking I'll be helping the Folvos army, then load up the tutorial and plot twist. Okay helping Vasgalan empire now. Read decsription another plot twist helping Folvos again. So if you like plots that aren't mandatory and will make you very confused pick this up. There used to be a game destroying bug of doom however it appears to have been patched as part of the steam integration. Well done Lonely Troops. So even if the game may never get multiplayer it appears that at the very least bugs making it unplayable are going to be fixed.