The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation Divided

The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation Divided
The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation Divided
	Xbox 360 cover art
Developer(s)	Cauldron HQ
Publisher(s)	Activision Value
Producer(s)	Chris Owen
Designer(s)	Michal Smrkal; Martin Hornák
Composer(s)	Juraj Karkuš; Ľubomír Ruttkay;
Engine	CloakNT
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
Release	NA: November 7, 2006;
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player

The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation Divided is a 2006 historical first-person shooter video game developed by Cauldron HQ, released on November 7, 2006 by Activision Value and the History Channel for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. It garnered mostly mixed reviews.

Overview

The story line for A Nation Divided is relatively short, spanning twelve levels based on some of the most well known battles of the American Civil War. One can play as either a Confederate Soldier or a Union Soldier. The player plays as a different soldier during each battle.^[1]

Battles

During the game, the player can play through a total of twelve different battles from the Civil War. The battles are divided into two campaigns: North and South. Each campaign contains six historic battles. The player must play through each battle to unlock the next one. After the first five battles are completed for each side, Cold Harbor is unlocked. Upon this battle's completion, Petersburg is unlocked.

Union

Fredericksburg (Pvt. Jeremy Burnet)
Gettysburg (Pvt. Ellis Spear)
Chattanooga (Pvt. Colin Geary)
Fort Fisher (Pvt. Jim O'Neal)
Selma (Pvt. John Howard)
Petersburg (Pvt. Frank Adams)

Confederate

Bull Run (Manassas) (Pvt. James G. Hudson)
Shiloh (Pvt. Rufus T. Neale)
Antietam (Sharpsburg) (Pvt. William R. Mervine)
Chancellorsville (Pvt. Ralph Stockton)
Chickamauga (Pvt. James T. Lockhart)
Cold Harbor (Pvt. Mosley Stokes)

Gameplay

Weapons of the war are portrayed accurately and have corresponding reloading processes. For example, the rifled musket reloading process is lengthy, while the revolver's is quick. The game fails to separate the two factions and has one rifled musket, the Springfield. While the Confederates used them as field pickups they primarily used the Pattern 1853 Enfield.

Melee combat is also a large part of the game, just as it was during the war. The Bowie knife and the cavalry saber are some of the melee weapons.

Each battle can be played on one of three difficulty modes: Easy, Normal and Hard. Completing the game on any mode unlocks an achievement.

No multiplayer features are present in the title, but the Xbox 360 version does support Leaderboards on Xbox Live. While the game specifications do include Downloadable Content, no content was released.

Reception

Upon its release, Civil War received mixed reviews with the main criticisms being stale gameplay, average graphics, low difficulty, poor AI, and the short length of the game, also, many people complained about various historical mistakes, or even lack of important details (like incorrect uniforms, lack of various infantries and regiments which is especially noticeable during the Bull Run level). However, many critics were pleased by the unique setting and fresh gameplay.

Mathew Robson from Gamerant listed the game # 5 of his “5 Games Set During The American Civil War”, stating “Despite mixed reviews from critics, this title has gained a deserving amount of esteem, notably due to the fresh gameplay, accurate representation of firearms and historic battles, and even the chaotic noises and sounds one might have heard upon the battlegrounds, certifying this title's position as iconic to American Civil Wargames.”^[9]