Scourge of War Waterloo Review - Worth a Buy?

Scourge of War: Waterloo follows in the footsteps of its American Civil War predecessors and takes the action to one of the most famous battles in history. It is by far the most detailed game about the final battle of the War of the Seventh Coalition.
The game boasts 20 historical scenarios (from the French, Prussian and British perspectives), 3 multiplayer scenarios, unlimited user generated sandbox scenarios, and a sandbox campaign, which adds a campaign layer to the game providing more context for sandbox battles.
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[@WorthABuyreviews]

The frame rate is low only because I turned everything to max so you could see the huge number of infantry in the game. You can tweak the setting and it runs fine, even on my computer.

[@TeamChemicalDestruct]

Worth A Buy When you said my jaw is about to drop, i was like naa whatever, but then i could see the massive amount off troops and holy shit my jaw dropped straight down. I will never not trust you again.

[@hydra7094]

TeamChemicalDestruct "I will never not trust you again." have you being to macks BBQ in rust

[@glennv3176]

Worth A Buy This is a game I would look at one screenshot and never look back, but I love strategy game and I have yet to disagree with you after trying the games myself since you started your channel. So I'm getting this now :)

[@callumsunderling835]

Worth A Buy Try Total war

[@antoniavie]

Worth A Buy Thanks for the review. Hey Mac, how much is it again? 16:11

[@GalacticAstroparticles]

"Total War is massively polished*..." *after about 2 years after first release of every version.

[@Jorendo]

orestisDisturbed And only when you have the right mods as the developers can't be arsed to fix the majority of what is wrong with the Total War games.

[@McNab1986]

Jorendo Also the fact the latest engine ruined the chances of total war ever reaching it's full potential anymore.

[@ZephKin]

I wondered what a modern game would be like if devs had ditched graphics for enormous scope and vision. Like I've wondered if a game can be made simulating a planet's daily events. Like you could be a spy for instance in first person view, fly across the world, assassinate a dictator and then go off-grid(ON THE ENTIRE PLANET). I think it can be done, but fps would sink. But still, games like this are games. Looks Brilliant.

[@xenikusgreekus8152]

There aren't enough of games like these :)

[@jjustGreg]

Hey Mack, I've been watching your videos lately and I am shocked that you don't have at least 1 million subscribers already! I have always thought you had at least one million, but now I checked and I'm shocked! You are one of the few honest reviewers, and please continue making awesome videos! You deserve a million subscribers at least! If I had a fedora and a neckbeard I would tip my hat for you!

[@dylansouza1780]

I would totally buy this if it were cheaper

[@ValravnPrince]

As an RTS fan the scale is absolutely mind blowing. I'm definitely picking this up on a sale, I would right now but the setting isn't quite my cup of tea.

[@KNEXBUILDER19]

Mack you should take a look at Dominions 4. Yet another strategy game with terrible graphics but unbelievable gameplay. It's an incredibly deep game that I think you'll enjoy. Also the manual is 397 pages.

[@ekstrajohn]

Re: units walking into buildings via doors. I was working as a developer on a title with large unit counts and getting more than 10 units to enter a building through doors would take forever. Even if using windows to 'jump in'. Just think how long it takes 200 people to enter a cinema for example. You wanna wait for that? So that was a kinda uninformed comment but great review as always. :)

[@RPGRogers]

The thing is, the scale looks amazing, but if you cannot play it with any semblance of fluidity there is zero point. May as well play a turn based game.

[@fabiosoares4450]

***** I agree.

[@callumsunderling835]

***** Try Napoleon total war

[@bishopbeezus3662]

I want to get a T-shirt made in honor of you that just says "Fuck All" on the front. Haha

[@awezomerobot]

Wow this game looks amazing! Thank you Mack for showing me this game exists.

[@MikaelKKarlsson]

Sounds promising. Maybe after a few patches and $20 tops. I just wouldn't be able to find anyone to play with feeling like paying this much for a game in this state. I've given up on the Total War series though so I'm definitely looking for something in this general direction. Hope you get to play cooperative and could maybe update us on how that works. I'd be quite worried about the multiplayer code in a game like this.

[@bbd468]

This game has so much more potential me thinks. Love the size of the Battles and the Control options, but the Cartoon Soldiers and Poor Musketry effects are a bit problematic for me. Yes, im a Huge Total War fan, but would love the game to be the size and Scale of this one.

[@jasonfenton8250]

Until we get a lot better at rendering, sprites will have to be used to show battles on this scale.

[@Jorendo]

The animation and sound was just like that in the Cival war games as well. I only played the demo and really enjoyed the cival war demo. Really liked the whole messenger system and that it could be outdated by the time you would arrive.. But i always found it a shame that the smoke didn't go in the right order with the animation and that the sounds where just like in Waterloo totally out of sync. But i can live with that. Sadly i don't have the money for these games atm but i really want to buy Waterloo one day.

[@youscootyou]

Would be cool if it had a grand campaign multiplayer map like total war or civ.combined with the battles it has

[@jackkliegerman5909]

Hey Mack, I have two questions. First, how do you feel about the Mount and Blade series? I personally think that they have the best combat of any game. Second, I was wondering about The Witcher 3. I completely agree with your review, the combat was terrible, however I was able to look past the faults to pay attention to the story, which, was worse than the Witcher 2's, but still pretty good, and the character arcs, and I was wondering how the combat made you not be able to see such good characters and stories.

[@Lorelei7983]

Wow, my eye was twitching at how the graphics looked until I saw the scale. Been playing TW for a long long time, the worst part about it is the interface. If this game is even a little bit better in terms of interface I might give it a shot.

[@nordicfatcheese]

This game looks great, it really does, and I'm almost never a stickler on graphics at all. But I draw the line at 2D sprites and 10 frames per second.

[@fallis07]

Omg that fps Mack, this game looks like a slideshow, even Empire: Total War looks way better and that game is yearsss old lol Also any chance of New Black Mesa vids soon?

[@VompoVompatti]

Dylan F Total war games have a fraction of the units this game has and the maps are much smaller. You basicly have to mod total wars anyway if you want it to feel anything like your commanding a battle.

[@SanderMakes]

Dylan F That game had tens of thousands of soldiers, while running on max settings, as Mack explained. Every single game would crash when needing to load that many NPC's.

[@Old_Ladies]

Dylan F I still play Shogun Total War from time to time and this game has about equal graphics to that old game but it is hundreds of times better than the shite Total War Rome 2 is.

[@CodyProxyify]

Mark Wiebe I never played the first Shogun Total War but i have played hundreds of hours Rome Total War and Medieval 2 Total War, those are for me the best Total War games so far. Empire was oké, Shogun 2 was oké (i don't like the new battle mechanics they brought in with Empire) and Rome 2 Total War was the worst ever. Attila was oké.

[@Ksgamer103]

+VompoVompatti That being said, darthmod on Empire is downright fantastic. my average battle size is 52,000 on my campaign atm.

[@BVargas78]

Great video, this is definitely on my to buy list now.

[@KingKabila]

"Why wouldn't you try playing from the saddle? I just bought the game yesterday and in the evening joined the good folks from the SoW:W-steam group for a HITS game. Was great fun. You can start by commanding a brigade.

[@paradoxacres1063]

Eh, I don't know. I'm no "Frame rate Zombie", but..this looks unplayable, even by _my_ (very low) standards.

[@paradoxacres1063]

***** Mack kinda says the game's _very_ laggy, but..it's probably because he turns on MAX for everything. It'd be a lot smoother if he didn't want _massive_ armies on the map.

[@mkimask]

Paradox Acres totally agree. It looks like when I tried to play Gorky17 on my pentium 100, and the game looked more like a slide show. No matter how badly I wanted to play the game I just couldn't enjoy it due to piss poor performance. And here it looks almost the same - what's the point of all the massiveness if it not only looks like shit, but runs even worse.

[@Twbwyattear]

Paradox Acres i bought it so far and havent had any frame rate problems mack just needs a new pc

[@ErkenbrandsTopGuy]

Mack there is one other Napoleonic wars game I highly recommend. Its a dlc of the mount and blade game mount and blade: warband. you control one soldier but the actual combat in the game is fantastic. Id describe it as a total war game in which you are an individual soldier, have a look at or even better make a review. Keep doing what your doing Mack, thanks for making me laugh and show me how to spend my non existent money.

[@zoltankatona6828]

It is good to see these kind of games on your channel. Ageod game review maybe?

[@ThePurpleZebra9000]

Mack how do you feel about the total war games and how they have progressed (or arguable digressed...)?

[@WorthABuyreviews]

PurpleZebra You hit the nail on the head, they have not progressed at all, just copy and pasted different flags and uniforms.

[@AppleheadWithIMPADPS]

Worth A Buy haha i know right xD just like the historical battles ;p

[@MindhypedHD]

Worth A Buy Personally I'd prefer to play battles of 10 thousand men in Total War but this game looks interesting, atleast they've put a decent amount of effort into it.

[@paradoxacres1063]

Hey, Mack. Are you going to check out _Skyforge_..?

[@DominikKost]

Reminds me of good ol' Fields of Glory.

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Dominik Kost Oh man I loved that game

[@FuhqEwe]

Worth A Buy No thanks to this game Mack - I'll stick to my Total War games mate.

[@DominikKost]

Worth A Buy Me too, I actualy got into the Total War series because they reminded me of FoG. And the melody of "The British Grenadiers" played after a victorius battle, haunted me for years until I finaly found what march was that (I'm one of the few Poles that still live in Poland, the downside is that I earn an equivalent of less than 500 pounds per month, and I don't get to listen to British military marches unless I go to youtube :).

[@FuhqEwe]

Jon Hurt I've played every Total War game for 15 years, starting with Shogun. I will not deviate from the almighty.

[@DominikKost]

Jon Hurt I played them both, with CK2 being one of my favourite games of all time (next to oldies like Close Combat and Steel Panthers), but let's not forget about Victoria and Hearts of Iron. :) Paradox tends to publish great, complex strategies, so I'm trying to keep track of their projects all the time.

[@REMMc-jx7vc]

Nice video what recording software?

[@number4497]

You should check out Gigantic when it comes out. I just got into the alpha testing, haven't played yet but it looks sweet

[@ilKhan-Ghost-of-Clan-Mongoose]

hell yea man. great review. a grand army game like no other in history

[@Mogsey1972]

This looks like a game I would Love, but I reckon that it might blow up my laptop.

[@Alimthehotty219]

This game sounds awesome. I'm not gonna lie I don't have the patience to play this but it sounds awesome.

[@JudasII]

Hi Mack! I realise this video is more than a year old already, but would you know the name of the music that's playing at 6:00? Thanks

[@imded4014]

mack what are your thoughts on the M&B series?

[@robbiestuart7694]

Gettysburg? I went to the big 250th anniversary battle enactment of that battle in Gettysburg! Would recommend going to see a battle and the actual battlefield!

[@edwardkim4213]

How does this compare to Matrix Game's Waterloo and Austerlitz?

[@thekingsown10]

Sounds great Mac, I always trust your reviews and never once disagreed with anything you have said. Those graphics though! aghh my eyes!!! xD Is SLI supported?

[@wolfgangthedopest1735]

Dear Mack, I know you don't like zombie survival games, but this game called "survive the nights" looks really promising.

[@-PureRogue]

Reminds me of Cossacks, with better graphic! Though still do not think that it has as many history battles possible, unit types, nations, ships and actually building your city, managing resources etc! To me Cossacks are way better then Total War series and this ! Pretty sure that you can have more units without lags on it as well!

[@Jorendo]

Kris b Euhm...this is historical correct with the battles, it does so better then Cossacks (not saying Cossacks is bad). And this is not a strategy game where you recruit a army, build buildings, have ships etc, so yeah Cossacks does that better as Cossacks is about basebuilding, resource gathering and build your armies as big or small as you like. In Scourge of War you have a set ammount of troops. Also the lag doesn't really come from just the ammount of troops on screen i think. I think it also has to do with the AI. Seeing it needs to run a more complex AI that will try to flank you, have messengers walk around with orders, etc etc.

[@-PureRogue]

Jorendo Did not have 2 comments., so idk what you are talking about >.>I am sure I saw comment which stated that Cossacks sucks, probably got deleted by you and you made new one , might explain allot indeed! Anyway this game has better AI, it might be true, but that is it ! Well hard to imagine good commanding without selecting force though!

[@Jorendo]

Kris b Lol okay i see what kind of person you are. I never deleted nor altered my post but fine if you really think i insulted you and said cossaks sucks then fine believe what you want. I do get messages from gmail and i see what you wrote even when you delete it. So there is that.

[@-PureRogue]

Jorendo Really strange , comments keep disappearing and reappearing! I searched and it seems that other have such problem too!Though have no clue how it actually can work on comment section, make no sense!

[@1RamenGuy]

Mack! Are there still plans for a WAB store?? I want a "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, console ports are worst of all" shirt!

[@MichaelMolli]

What graphics card is that, the IGP of a CPU?

[@Scalpaxos]

Reminds me Cossacks series (European Wars and Napoleonic Wars), one of the best RTSs I ever played, worth a try if not a buy!

[@davidhobbs5924]

Mack, are you doing a re-review of Witcher 3 now that they have fixed some of the controls

[@carlobarbosa1083]

yo mac, I heard you like options, so we put options on top of your options' option options

[@sandervr10]

This what strategy games are about , maybe a little remaster and back in to the steam store

[@Angryconsumernerd]

Imagine you took all that is good with this game and add : Better more optimized game engine , full functional scenario editor, better graphics and animation plus add all the micro managing details of a game like banished ( supplies , housing , death disease ..etc etc ) ...ohh man I can only wish someday .

[@PeanutJaxs]

bought this game last night, wow! Mac was right.........AMAZING STUFF!

[@louislinsley3128]

An honest review.. and, a really good game..

[@TWIGGSTO]

Hey mack, can you do a worth a buy on Better Late Than Dead. Its only £4 on steam right now. Thanks

[@Ferez1997]

Heyya Mack, Love the channel. Is it possible that you can do a Worth A Buy on Battle of Empires: 1914-1918. Not sure that you even take requests. Nevertheless, I would love to see your opinion on the game. To see.. If it's worth a buy. :-)

[@chrisstroh6909]

Hi mack keep up the good work

[@eblueaxe]

Wow, that sounds bloody great!

[@loken9124]

Mack you have a thing against total war?

[@mkimask]

I liked the review, but i disagree with the opinion. Looks for me as the game has bitten more than it can chew. Poor graphics are acceptable, poor frame rate is not. Other known games of such types are balanced to deliver the strategy experience without sacrificing EVERYTHING else. This game literally butchered everything to deliver the massiveness - poor graphics and extremely poor performance. And are asking such a high price for what completely looks like an early access! Nope, just nope - for such amount of money I would expect a finished and polished product.

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Mark Kimask As I said very clearly in my review I was running this with every thing on max including the scale. I am showing 1:6 scale meaning every soldier represents 6 actual soldiers, you can turn this down to 1:19 which literally takes thousands of soldiers from the battlefield visually but the regiments still remain the same size. You can also take away all the trees as well as tone down the graphics. I just wanted people to see the sheer scale of the battles, I would never play Army v Army with these settings. I can however play Corps v Corps size battles without much FPS lag and they are also huge (about 4x the size of a Total War battle). The game is great but it's not a Total War style game, it may look like it is but the troops are more like icons, for example the cavalry looks terrible and charges very slowly but their stats vs the enemy they are fighting make a big difference. So as I said in the review, it's not for casuals who liked TW it's more for the strategists.

[@mkimask]

Worth A Buy thanks for reply! I think that maybe I did not made my point clear. I'll try to explain: 1) I totally understand that you are pushing the game to the limits in the review to show the scale of battles, but yet again I strongly believe that GTX770 with i7 are more than capable of handling this, and all the frame rate issues are because of poor optimization. And even if it weren't why make a game that cannot be handled by modern hardware 2) I have zero issues with the gameplay mechanics, as someone who enjoys oldschool stuff and despises health regeneration, cover mechanics and extremely low difficulty in modern games (press X to win) So my concern is only about this game being clearly unfinished and looking like early access game, while charging AAA price for it. PS and thanks for the channel and the reviews - even though I do not always agree with your opinion, I always like the reviews and the effort, and take notes from them! PPS thanks for saving me 5 euros with rake =)

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Mark Kimask I can only assume it runs fine on a top end system, mine is mid range but as already mentioned in the video if they cba to make troops walk through a door then you have to question how much effort went into the optimisation. It's thankfully not a game breaker as I turn stuff down and it runs fine. Also the map is so big once the armies head off to their victory point locations it's way more spread out which means it also runs better. The thing that makes this game good is not the Total war style battles, it's the depth of command and scale of the battles, it actually plays more like the old hex based huge wargames from the 90's

[@mkimask]

Worth A Buy point taken, and I respect your opinion. But i guess the nostalgia part on your side gives too much points for a game. I just noticed that sometimes the nostalgia (or the lack of it) could outweigh quite a lot on your scale =)

[@kevinwilson455]

07:07 is that the music from FTL?

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Kevin Wilson No but I used it in my Into the stars play through :)

[@kevinwilson455]

Worth A Buy I just played FTL after watching that play through...............I'm getting mixed up

[@bobalina6077]

You should do the Total War series.

[@SarcasticScoundrel]

hey mack i have a pretty cool game you could review its called "unturned" however there is one fact you should note it is 100% free unless you want a gold pack wich only includes cosmetic things (no pay to win), you said it yourself many times that you arent reviewing how good the game is but if its worth the price they are asking for it, i guess you could review if its worth you time. lol, either way thanks for reading!

[@exclude_]

can you do blues and bullets WAB? :D

[@aarrttjjee]

I like the background music

[@thegerki]

I like the new music as well

[@jonhurt6109]

This game looks cool doubt my comp can handle it tho... Ive been playing europa universalis 4 and crusader kings 2 another great nation building strategy games you should give the first a try Mac.

[@jorgeandres6820]

New music mack???

[@021liman]

did he said anything about campaign ?

[@LordDucky1]

But I thought Sean Bean won this battle with nothing but his rapid-fire rifle... So are all the regiments historical? As in, you get the crappy Belgians who run at the first chance, but also elite regiments like the Old Guard, the Foot Guards and the King's German Legion who fight harder? If so, that's cool as fuck.

[@Jorendo]

baxopoka98 You can play as the British, the Germans, the Netherlands and the French i believe it was. Not sure about the Belgiums but its pretty awesome that they finally have the Dutch in them as they did play a big part as well (they hold the lines long enough before the British arived, had they not then the battle could have turned out completly different).

[@hiphopfanatic4088]

Hey Mack, can you review Way of the Samurai 4? It has it's flaws like a simplistic combat system but it's a fun game to turn your brain off for.

[@JesienneKaszaloty]

"French MIGHT retreat from this battle" :v

[@hydra7094]

needs a lot of work but it looks good gameplay wise

[@fabiosoares4450]

Hydra It should be a lot better for the price they ask. It's just criminal.

[@hydra7094]

Fábio Soares yeah the asking price is ridiculous

[@toadsworth6040]

This not on steam?

[@Aiphares]

the game actually looks sweet, but it needs to be optimised a lot more from what i can see. those graphics plus those fps together...shouldnt be a thing no matter wether every single arse scratch is simulated or not

[@maninthebox0]

There's a Gettysburg game like this. It's amazing

[@sebastianramirez9926]

maninthebox0 Is it Ultimate General: Gettysburg?

[@Jorendo]

Sebastian Ramirez Scourge of War Gettysburg...it has a bunch of expansions too and a 150th aniveristy (do you write it like that? Not english myself) edition. Though Waterloo offers a sandbox mode as well next to the historical campaign. Gettysburg does not, it only let you fight in the historical battles.

[@NotEnoughTP]

It's not on Steam?

[@CHARLIE-ECHO]

How does this compare to Napoleon Total war 3 from lordz.. Cause their Historical battles are pretty large...

[@GatorMilk]

Shit, man, if you want massive complexity, look up dwarf fortress.

[@boonejones7373]

You should do a Verdun review.

[@osheamat7549]

Can we get an updated consensus on this game? Did they release patches and updates? AI fixes? Optimizations? I don't care for DLC, UNLESS a fix/patch were hidden behind that paywall.

[@jasonfenton8250]

Matthew O'Shea They had 2 dlcs. Quatre Bras and Wavre. I believe these also coincided with an update, applicable even to those without the dlc. Someone else might want to chime in and confirm that.

[@panzerfaust5046]

but when it comes to rts games nobody knows about, men of war still number 1

[@Whatever4690]

Looks more interesting than napoleon total war for sure, but the price tag was a mistake imo.

[@OzonePro2]

Worth A Buy Mack please please please do "Better late than DEAD" is just came out and I don't know if I should buy it

[@PixelKnighty]

I hope you are not seriously considering buying that shit.

[@OzonePro2]

CRAZYFISH Gaming | Team Fortress 2! Hearthstone! Greenlight! Well I really have nothing to play and I was wondering if it is at least fun... but you're right it probably is bad

[@LadsRedefined]

Adrian M. Not necessarily bad, just over done. What does that game bring to the table that the many other -- almost identical -- games don't? The only thing worth considering would be it's low price.

[@1987-8]

where can I purchase this, its not in steam?

[@WorthABuyreviews]

Ali Mohamadi Links in the description

[@1987-8]

Worth A Buy thanks, apologies for my blindness

[@BismuthDwarf]

-Cavalry charges at walking pace. -29000 cartridges fired = 300 losses. -Finding and selecting a unit by landing a click on its flag is a game by itself. -Bad interface, very few keyboard shortcuts. Hope you like clicking on the same button over and over. -Framerate so low it gives motion sickness. I'm all for elitist wargaming but Total War is still better than this even if only for technical reasons.

[@briandenison2325]

This game is great. I don't have this one. I have the Gettysburg game. It's more of a 19th century battle sim than a game.

[@DeadlyDanDaMan]

Started watching the army vs. army. Had to stop after a couple minutes. I was getting motion sickness from the incredibly bad framerates. That is COMPLETELY unacceptable for ANY game.

[@buttonpusher3786]

The scale is what is impressive but its unplayable and have to turn everthing off when it looks like shit in the firstplace and youre still getting 16fps or something. Then there is the price!!!!! How is this worth a buy?

[@ChristosGoulios]

Holy shit you are saying the truth

[@KingOracle69]

I know this is off topic but anyone know any Good 4x games besides Civ?

[@GoArrowM]

KingOracle69 Check out Galactic Civilizations III, Age of Wonders III, Endless Legend, Endless Space, Europa Universalis IV, and Crusader Kings II.

[@TeamKuukiFoodGames]

LOL the comment about first-hand seeing the graphics XDD :'DD

[@trucktalkvideos]

I like the look of this...

[@CoolMusicPlaylists247]

Holy shit brilliant intro I had a laugh.

[@Twbwyattear]

MOTHER OF GOD WHY ISNT THIS ON STEAM!

[@kriegerdrako]

Out of topic, but... I recommend you Populus: The Beginning :]

[@axelx666]

You need to do a WAB on Yasai ninja It's abysmal

[@LeavingGoose046]

I'm going to cry...

[@Wyldren]

It looks fun. but $50 is a lot for the way it looks is a lot.

[@LadsRedefined]

will moore It's a niche game, like those flight simulators.

[@Quicksilver_Cookie]

+will moore This game won't sell a single more copy even if it will cost $5. As it was stated it's a niche game. People who like this genre will get it no matter the price. There's not much choice really.

[@Craftypiston]

Act of aggression. Review. Now. Thx.

[@mihirchitnis905]

Do the act of aggression review when the game is launched and not when it is beta.

[@Craftypiston]

Mihir Chitnis He does loads of early access games..

[@avski05]

Looks like Take Command 2nd Manassas.

[@lexxel1425]

It looks like an unfinished game and with so many good games out there i would not buy it (amazing numbers thow maybe with some patches or mods this game could be worth it).

[@1987-8]

its in steam now :D

[@medz-cs2]

When the frame rate hits you at 0:08 :/

[@tyburn1493]

"Total War is massively polished" AHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA AHAHA heh. And King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame is also well optimized. kek.