Being accurate to the Civil War? Please... I hate the History Channel.
Story:
Ah yes, the story. Well, the title about sums it up. You either choose to play six battles, not faithfully recreated, as a Confederate or a Union soldier. Now, there's twelve missions total, ranging from the first battle of the Civil War, known as Bull Run or 1st Manassas, to such battles as Antietam and Gettysburg. Now it's not the entire battle, it's in short segments. Some battles in the game are fun, but others are just boring. Thankfully, they're short, but there are many problems in the gameplay. The game looks promising in the beginning, with both Confederate and Union flags flowing in the background, some really good music at the menu and History Channel intros to each battle. Then it falls apart.
5/10 Graphics:
Graphics for the most part, probably only on the Xbox 360, are good. The environments are especially fantastic, although not completely accurate to the battlefields, but not all can be enjoyed since you can only stick to one path. The most notable to me is probably Gettysburg, that seems the most accurate, battlefield wise. Now here comes the bad stuff. I'm not sure what entered the developers' minds when they made this, but they made almost every soldier looking over seventy-five years old. Now there were older people in combat during that time, but most were teens or early twenties in age. The youngest soldier in the Civil War was twelve years old, who was a drummer boy. Another extremely notable problem with the game is the number of soldiers on the screen. Most of these battles were pretty big, but, like the Gettysburg battle in the game, there are only ten enemies in a wide open field to shoot at. I also noticed that some enemies pop out of nowhere and attack. You can tell, because there's usually an empty patch of field you can go into, wait, and then watch as they appear. Also, it seems that every character you play as has a severe cut on his left wrist. No idea why that's there. Anyway, graphics are good, just some severe problems in covering up some things and a lack of research.
7/10 Sound:
Sound is okay, firing your weapons are good, cannon fire, etc. The biggest problem I found in the game was the annoying repetition of comments from your "brothers in arms". "There's another one!" "Look over there!" "Ow!"
Over and over again. Probably the best sound in the game is the menu music.
6/10
Gameplay:
The severely troubled area of the game. This is a first person shooter, which was a plus when I heard about it. The first mission I played was Bull Run as a Confederate. Most weapons in the game are very accurate in how they work, although reloading doesn't seem practical for some of them, but most don't match the actual battle. The game gives you a large array of weapons, but they're definently not accurate to the particular battle, and to the fact that the Confederates didn't use that weapon. Reloading can be a pain, but don't worry, it takes about a hundred hits before HALF of your health is depleted. I'm not bothered about the reloading part, that's great. I'm bothered about the severely large amount of shots you can take. Most of these weapons are .52 caliber weapons, I don't see how you could get hit that much. There is no person who tells you what you need to do, except at the beginning of each mission. Basically, you'll be relying on your compass in the top left corner to show you where to go. Why should you though when the missions are short enough to end when you're just getting into it. You might not even finish the last objective, but the mission cuts off and gives you a score based on accuracy when shooting, how many enemies were killed, etc. What these score points you earn are for, I don't know. Melee is decent, but very disjointed. Sometimes you can miss with your Springfield musket and other weapons while looking down the sight, for really no reason. Getting hit will happen, even when you're behind cover, because those enemies spawn right next to you. Then again, your health barely goes down. I killed lots by just charging, because as soon as you get to a certain proximity to the enemy, they start to charge. When I entered this zone, I'd start backing up, take aim, and fire. The AI is very stupid, but when they shoot, they're ridiculously accurate. Overall this is why I love and hate this game.
5/10
Ultimately, this game is completely inaccurate to the Civil War. Don't go getting it to have an authentic experience. Start Civil War Reenacting if you want that. If you want something short, kind've poorly made, and easy as getting up to go to the bathroom, then get this game. It's fun, but it really makes me hate the History Channel.