Operation Europe: Path to Victory

Gameplay

The object of the game is to fulfill any one of the military objectives for either the Axis or the Allied forces. Players engage in modern warfare around Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and North Africa. This game uses abstract numbers and figures in the map view and saves the concrete illustrations of soldiers only when they lock horns on the battlefield or in an urban setting. Urban settings give a traditional 1930s view of housing and office buildings that provide extra protection for units that are guarding them. However, there are massive numbers to crunch and the lack of graphics help enhance the number crunching ability of game's artificial intelligence.

As a way to utilize the Nobunaga's Ambition video game engine while simulating modern warfare, each general's statistics are completely randomized by a roulette system. 84 different characters are used for generals; including those from the classic American television show Combat!. Examples of non-fictional characters include Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Walter Bedell Smith.

Weapons are automatically replenished at the end of each scenario. Units cannot be built from scratch; they must be requested from the head of the brigade instead.

The Japanese version of the game has 4 game modes: Campaign, demonstration, one player game and 2 players game. While the American version of the game does not have the campaign mode. In the Campaign mode, you can only play the Germans. Starting this mode with the invasion of France, your army continues fighting in Africa, and so on, ending with Berlin defense. Officers gain Experience in every scenario, retaining it after winning the battle. So, in scenario 2 the officers are more experienced, in scenario 3 - even more, so on. The troops are often replaced by the same type (one of: Infantry, Artillery, Howitzers and Reactive Artillery, Tanks and Self-Propelled Artillery, Armored Infantry Carriers, Mechanized Units). Most often give stronger instead of weaker or make up losses in the battalion for the strong units. Although the campaign mode is not directly available in the US version of the game, it is still present in the game. All the text is translated, all needed graphics present, the formulas for calculating the quantity and quality of units operates. This allowed some folks to patch the game and get a campaign gameplay. The main idea of patching is to find in ROM the hex string of FF 00 00 00 05 0A 00 and replace it with FF 00 80 00 05 0A 00 In normal ROM it is located at address 0568C9h, and only a byte at 058CBh needs being replaced from 00h to 80h. Such patched ROM will start CAMPAIGN mode when run as: "Scenario 1: Occupation of France" + "1 Player Game" + "Axis Forces". Try it!

Reception

Reviewing the SNES version, GamePro applauded the intelligent AI (stating "even if you don't have a friend to go head-to-head with, the game is still enjoyable and challenging") and the huge amount of content, arguing that the six scenarios essentially amount to six complete games on a single cart. Though noting that its lack of action gameplay would make it unappealing to the average gamer, they concluded "its challenging strategy makes it a game that no serious WW II buff should be without."