Take Command 2: Second Manassas

Second Manassas is the sequel to last year’s highly regarded Bull Run. After all, if you need a sequel in a hurry, why not just do a different battle on the same map?
A lot of stuff is the same. The controls are mostly the same, the artwork is mostly the same, and the sound is mostly the same. The game still loads very slowly—too slowly for a game in this day and age—and it can lag a bit on the higher graphic settings on midrange machines. There is still no multiplayer, so the quest for a true heir to Sid Meier’s Gettysburg continues.
If you can put up with these minor inconveniences, what remains is the best Civil War series on the market. The campaign is broken into vignettes from Second Manassas and related battles. You have to perform up to certain parameters in order to advance to larger and larger contests until you find yourself controlling entire divisions at the center of a major battle.
The game is still most enjoyable in open play with a small brigade. Your commander gives you orders to follow, and then a full-scale Civil War battle develops around you. As good as you may be at your task, the ultimate success of your endeavor is highly dependent on what happens on your flanks. Few games available today give you that feeling of being just one cog in a wheel of great importance. Even at the division level, you can see the commanders under you take initiative, and that is sometimes a good thing.
The first Take Command game was one of those pleasant surprises that come along too rarely in the wargaming world. Second Manassas is not a surprise; it’s testimony that these guys know what they are doing.

This article originally appeared in Computer Games Magazine #188