My word, commanding an entire army of thousands sure is difficult, and while I kind of assumed as much, it takes a game like American Conquest to really hammer home the point. While previous American Conquest titles put you at the head of such important historical events such as the War of Independence, Divided Nation sets its sights on the American Civil War, or to be more precise, the numerous battles that encompassed it.

It doesn't exactly get off to a flying start. Though often a tutorial would feel unnecessary for many strategy games, here the lack of one severely hampers your early progression. Divided Nation isn't exactly an easy game, putting its focus primarily on large scale combat as opposed to fiddly resource managing, although base building still plays its part, only in a more limited form. Yet without the knowledge beforehand on how to actually control the game and relevant information needed to better use all of the different troop divisions under your command, the early stages are spent losing various battles as you attempt to understand how things work.

There's no learning curve either, with no gentle introductory level easing you into the greater campaign structure. The very first level for the first campaign sees you in a rather tricky position, in command of a Confederate army (who begin under the control of the computer) you have to prepare defences when your troops retreat before re-organising them to fight back the Yankee aggressors. Trouble is, you don't really know how you're supposed to do all this.

Although the briefing gives some small hints as to what you should be doing, such as building a hospital tent for wounded soldiers, you are never told where to build it or indeed quite how you're supposed to use it when you do. The same goes for the General, who turns up minutes after the level begins. He's clearly an important unit that can alter the success of the battle, but how you're meant to use him when you've only just been introduced is a mystery. The battles themselves are no less confounding, but visually are at least very impressive.

While it's no looker, with an aged 2D graphics engine, Divided Nation handles large scale battles better than most. The battlegrounds themselves seem to stretch for miles to encompass the hundreds, or what at times feels like thousands, of soldiers. Seeing lines of troops march across wide open fields as they engage an equally matched enemy while cannons and muskets fire all around them makes for some thrilling battle scenes, although at times the scale of the game works against it.

Even with the speed setting on full, it can take what seems like an age for entire armies to march across the map, and by the time they do arrive at their destination you'll either have little time to set up formations or still be bogged down with organising the reinforcements that keep pouring in. Attempting to manage all this while at the same time trying to win a battle can become to much to bear, and the rather awkward AI doesn't help things either, with soldiers either too stupid to get past a simple fence or the enemy being so smart he'll crush your forces before you even know what's going on.

The resource management side of the game, while not having as pivotal a role as the combat, does make things a little easier. Through skirmish games, Divided Nation begins to unravel like any other Age of Empires inspired RTS. Taking a traditional route, here you build up entire colonies, gather resources and spend vast amounts of money on upgrades. There are no massive armies to worry about, as you have to train them yourself, and consequently the game eases you more gently into its complex structure better than the main campaign mode. The AI lets this down too though; the enemy in particular seems to have a frightening aptitude for building his settlements and armies faster than you, often launching full scale attacks before you've even had chance to begin building an army of your own.

It's not all doom and gloom though; while a very complex game, it's also very rewarding for those who crave a challenge and revel in historical detail. The campaign mode is vast and varied, allowing you to control the armies of both the Union and Confederate forces, while also covering the most famous of battles during the Civil War (including Gettysburg and Pittsburgh) and it even includes additional campaigns set around the battles leading up to, during and after the Alamo, letting you see both sides of the war as either the Texans or Spanish.

Divided Nation is a game that'll only really appeal to established American Conquest fans and strategy gamers looking for a more complex game with which to test their abilities. Casual gamers will find little entertainment here, unless they persevere and attempt to breach the virtually vertical learning curve.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).