If game developers were historians, World War II would have happened dozens of times, and each successive time it happens slightly differently. War Times takes a fairly close historical adaptation, though battles play out a little differently than they may have in real life. The locales and battles are close to life, the major participants are in place, and weaponry is not too far off. Despite this, I imagine the real war would be a bit less sleep inducing.

War Times does a good job as a flashback to old school real-time strategy, but in current competition it barely makes a ripple. Coming from Spain, a country without any bias, this could have taken a totally different approach. It seems, however, that Legend Studios opted for as generic a game as possible. Legend went all-out with its old school style, from graphics to AI problems. Most of the troubles in the game have been tackled and solved in other games years ago.

The game allows the usual modes: Axis & Allies campaigns, skirmish ("custom"), and multiplayer. The campaigns are fair in length and challenge, but they only truly shine with something fairly original every few missions. There are several missions during each campaign that require little or no tedious base building and stress pure strategy instead, something a game in the strategy genre should occaisionally require. One such mission pits you straight into conflict with a set of planes. No base, no airstrip; just targets and bombs. This means you have to think before you act, not just set up a perimeter and stockpile until you have an army rivaling that of any major motion picture.

The biggest problem in War Times is the AI. Enemies will occaisionally rush at your base with a few troops, then suddenly rush in with an army. This tactic seems surprising at first, but after the same tactic is used in the following dozen missions, it's just expected. A few missions have you moving small forces through enemy territory; the problem is that there is a set path you must send your troops down, and enemies are already sitting on this path. The enemy troops have nothing better to do than sit and wait for your ragtag group to stumble down the road. With the clairvoyance Germans must have acquired that knowledge with, it's amazing I'm not writing this review in Deutch.

While the graphics aren't bad, they are a little behind. There's a very late 1990's feel to this game, graphics included. Most missions in War Times take place on very dull, unmarked terrain that looks as though it was copy/pasted several hundred times. Once in a while there is an abandoned building or even a whole town, but these all appear similar if not identical. The overall graphical presentation is very similar to the Nintendo 64 version of Command & Conquer, but with a better resolution. Even the cinemas, though good, are a little behind current standards. The cinemas seem to be the only graphical element of the game that received any great attention.

Sound in this game is just as brushed over as any other element. Soldiers give order confirmations in their native tongues, and will make noises if attacked - sometimes. The music is either way too strong or not noticeable; never good background noise despite being labeled such. The rock music over the cinemas is a nice touch, but too little too late.

Resource management is always a big problem in strategy games, especially with RTS's. War Times is no exception, but it could take a few lessons from other recent shelf stockers. There are two resources: oil and ore. Some countries must drill for oil with their workers; others can just set up a pump jack on the oil and watch the number rise. Everyone must mine for coal, but with this comes the AI trouble again. At least six workers must be on a mine to get sufficient minerals, but only three can be in the mine at once. This means workers get to wait in mini-lines and traffic jams. The ability of these men to get into a traffic jam on an open plain is almost enviable. These minerals do their job for providing basic needs, but a little more variety is needed. Rise of Nations had six major resources, and I could see another being added with little trouble. Each of the resources also had multiple uses, needing management and planning; War Times uses these resources for building structures and troops, then for repairing them. War Times had a few upgrades that take far too long, and no special boosts or interesting side effects.

War Times is by no means bad, just average. There's almost no diversity in available forces, and very few things are upgradeable. The graphics are fair, but are blown out of the water by recent entries. Sound is tolerable, but just there as filler. War Times brings fair play for those new to RTS and veterans of the genre, but lacks the substance to make it a winner.