Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution Review

Bonaparte: an overview of the mechanized revolution

Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, the new turn-based strategy game aims to create an alternative history. Bonaparte: Mechanized Revolution enters a crowded genre with an alternative take on one of the most famous events in world history. This game has all the pieces of something great, but when the pieces run out, all that's left are just the pieces. These are the essence of something incredible, but when put together, they simply cannot truly bring about the desired revolution. The game's approach to turn-based strategic tactics, political depth, and grand strategy 4X style map design are all familiar and not particularly explained. At the same time, the game maintains a very simple charm, which makes it quite fun to play.

Taking on the role of Celine or Cesar Bonaparte, players find themselves embroiled in the outbreak of a revolutionary war in France. However, this is not the time to remain neutral, as history waits for no one. By joining one of three factions: Jacobins, Moderates or Royalists, players must build their army, capture provinces and establish their political power. However, the invention of colossi, towering military structures, shapes battlefields throughout France. And all this while the story of the French Revolution continues to unfold around the player and his choices.

It is important to note that the narrative of the Revolution is the driving factor of the game. Of course, aside from the actual events the game is based around, it's not as revolutionary as one might hope given the context. The fighting is basic, and the political and ideological paths are not deep enough. However, the game has some striking features that should not be overlooked.

Undeniable revolution: power over strategy

The French Revolution was brutal. Bonaparte demonstrates this perfectly. Of course, the game has some great narrative scenes displayed through text fields. They convey well the terror and violence of the Revolution. However, one of the key aspects of the gameplay itself – combat – is a bit shallow for a strategy game. Despite the variety of units and varied combat backgrounds, the game generously rewards you for having larger units than your enemy.

Of course this sounds reasonable. However, the tactics used in combat don't matter much when the player has a larger army or, heck, even a couple more colossi. It's important to note that this fact negates Bonaparte's more interesting combat mechanics. Why should a player care about flanking or proper positioning when he can simply crush enemy troops with a few colossi? Additionally, enemy colossi were never as scary as intended when the player could force them to repair loops while simultaneously destroying them.

The upside to combat, however, is that the variety of units is nice. The game does a great job of allowing units to do different things. Of course, this means that using cavalry to trample infantry and engage in close combat was viable. In addition, the creation of the soldiers' firing line seemed historically accurate and real. However, once I got the hang of combat and the need to rush at the enemy with my big mechs and waves of troops, everything else fell by the wayside.

Obviously, in order to make the overwhelming option realistic, creating such a large army requires money. However, this opens up another, more superficial aspect of the game.

Revolution with small consequences: France as a 4X strategy

When players are not on the battlefield, they are given a political and military overview of France as a whole. Divided into all its provinces, the nation establishes its divisions. Introducing political influence to a province is an interesting aspect of the game that we will return to later. However, the game's shallow pool becomes apparent when the player pays attention to provincial improvements. The updates themselves seem pretty straightforward. There are improvements that allow the player to receive more money per turn, generate more influence and more resources to build colossi. However, this is essentially true. The world map of France essentially serves as tedious micromanagement between battles.

Unfortunately, most of the strategy portion of the game was the least interesting. Overall, this seemed almost pointless, since the captured territories never felt any real threat. All that happened was the accumulation of more and more money to create new troops. The map function was basic, and visiting the various faction clubs provided very, very little benefit after the first visit at the beginning of the game. Another facet of the outside world is the ability to use your powers to spread propaganda to influence the population of each province. And yet, this is where the game once again demonstrates that this is the essence of something great without capturing greatness: its political reflections.

Minor Revolution: Surface of Time

Where Bonaparte: The Mechanized Revolution shines most is in its introduction to some of the schools of thought of the actual French Revolution. Interestingly, the game uses real historical figures and their philosophies to differentiate between the three factions. However, this is where the depth of understanding ends. Yes, Bonaparte uses terror as a game mechanic and it's truly brilliant. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to affect anything in the grand scheme of things.

The political rivalry isn't really that deep. So for players who only need basic solutions and survive a few executions, this is a great game. If a player wants to truly dive into the ideologies, figures, and struggles of the French Revolution, then this game doesn't really provide any depth.

At its core, Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution is a great game. At first glance, it has so much potential. For example, it has some great additions in the form of colossi, rival factions, and the inclusion of historical events through an alternative lens. However, while it has some charm and reasonably fun gameplay, it just doesn't reach the depth it needs to truly make a revolutionary impact on the genre. For those looking for a quick game where they want some decent tactical gameplay and big robots, this might be the game for you. However, any gamer looking for a truly deep tactical strategy game may need more than what Bonaparte has to offer.

***PC code provided by publisher***