Others say...

"The best strategy game for the Playstation 2"
I know that the title of this review is a bit grandiose but it's true. I'm a strategy game fanatic and I play all of them including Japanese titles so I know of what I speak. In Dai Senryaku VII Exceed's case we've got a very satisfying game all-in-all. Let's start with a description of what you'll get in the box.

Dai Senryaku VII Exceed is a modern era military, turn-based strategy game played on a hexagonal grid of varying terrain. A collection of units--referred to as an Army--from each country participating in the battle are arranged on this grid in a strategic manner. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses particular to its type. Utilizing the strengths of your army while exploiting weaknesses in the enemy until you satisfy victory conditions is the core of the gameplay in Daisenryaku VII. In this case think "Chess" only on a grand scale with modern day military hardware. Players of Advance Wars for the Gameboy Advance and DS will be at home here.

Each country participating in a battle takes its turn by moving and taking action with some, all, or none of its units. Actions in Daisenryaku consist of resupply, moving, attacking, bombarding facilities, combining units, producing and placing units, loading units onto transports, and capturing facilities.

The following countries are playable: Japan, America, Russia, Germany, England, France, Israel, and China.

The following terrain elements combine to make Daisenryaku Exceed's maps: Capital, City, Airport, Port, Factory, Refinery, Bridge, Plain, Desert, Wasteland, Wetland, Grove, Forest, Hill, Mountain, Peaks, Lake, Shallows, Sea, Deep Sea, Snowfield, Snowy Grove, Snowy Forest, Snowy Hill, and Snowy Peaks.

The game contains over 400 units across the nations listed. Each hex can contain multiple units at different heights from sub to upper atmosphere. This adds a tremendous amount of depth to the game and prevents fronts from remaining stationary for too long (in most games, anyway).

There are 25 Mission battles, and over 20 Campaign battles as well as over 100 Free Play maps. The game has a complete Map Editor that allows you to create your own map or modify any of the game's maps. In addition, any Free Play battle can be fully customized with starting funds, alliances, participating countries, and more.

New features over the XBox version are: bombardment of facilities, engineer units to repair damaged facilities, air-intercept of naval units, and screen hiding during change of multiplayer turns. There are only three new units over the XBox version however the stats of some units have been modified slightly to improve game balance. There are operators in the game that provide dialog during a player's turn however they add nothing to the gameplay.

The Campaign Mode allows you to save units from one battle to the next. This unit persistence adds depth as unit experience counts for a lot in Dai Senryaku VII. The Campaign maps are some of the best we've seen in Dai Senryaku and are great fun to play in Free Play Mode as well.

The game is not without faults, it is complex and there is no way to display weapon ranges on the map so you'll need to count hexes. There's no "next/previous" unit selection so you'll need to depend on a unit list or the map for selecting units. The game is very time consuming and one battle can last many hours however there is a 99 turn limit so battles will not go on forever. The graphics are simple but this really works in the game's favor as navigating the map is made much quicker. The music is repetitive but can be turned off. Battle animations are simple but can also be disabled.

All in all, if you're not afraid to sink your teeth into a rich and rewarding strategy game experience then Dai Senryaku will not disappoint.