In my quest to briefly review and grade everything I play or do – I present to you an interesting entry. Published by Activision and filled with clips and segments from the History Channel, The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation Divided.

Year Released: 2006

Developer: Cauldron HQ

Publisher: Activision

System(s): PlayStation 2 / Xbox 360 / Windows

Type of First Person Shooter: Military/War

Problem protagonist is preventing: Considering you play as both Confederate and Union soldiers I’d safely say that many problems were not prevented and are way past preventing.

Other notes:

Spawned the 2008 sequel, The History Channel : Civil War – Secret Missions

Starts off in: Fredericksburg, Va (The first battle of Fredericksburg)

Ends up in: Mechanicsville, Va (The Battle of Cold Harbor)

Protagonist: In a move that would probably make Twitter’s head explode now, you play battles as soldiers for both armies. I will spare you my personal politics on the war but I will say that I am very proud that my hometown was a big stop for the Underground Railroad.

All in all, I will say that this game has a fascinating background. I love to see military games that AREN’T WW2 games. The History Channel’s narrative between gameplay is fantastic but the gameplay itself is seriously lacking. Historical inaccuracies abound during gameplay, graphics are awful and the aiming is just plain crap. If they were clever they should have chalked it up to the guns of that time just being unreliable but the game is just shallow and unfinished feeling.

With that said for bargain bin prices I’d pick it up again and I’ll probably pick up it’s sequel someday if I ever run across it.

RATINGS:

Historical Accuracy: 14/20

Story: 12/20

Controls: 14/20

Graphics: 08/20

Sound: 14/20

Overall: (62%)

I am currently writing an Art of War article based on this game. Hopefully that’s out soon. Thanks for reading!

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