I was never a fan of Age of Empires series and games inspired by them. It so happened that back in 2000s everyone in my circle was playing Stronghold games. I played also other RTS games back then but those were WarCraft III, original StarCraft, Command & Conquer 3, Red Alert 3, (then StarCraft II in 2010) and so on. So, after playing Stronghold I couldn't get into Age of Empires because with lack of city-building simulator part the city/town I was building just looked pretty lifeless/dead and it couldn't make me to be invested. I also missed Cossacks games back then. But this particular case really captured my attention and I quickly fell in love with it. It has absolutely unique atmosphere which I can't describe with word any other than "cozy". Things like graphical style, music, artworks and texts/dialogues in the campaign created this feel for me. In terms of gameplay this is a very retro RTS game which reminds of 2000s games and some people even called it a remake rather than a proper sequel. But from my understanding it has some nations which did not present in previous Cossacks games, as well as unique campaigns. So, I don't get why this game can be called remake then. People did not call original CoD Modern Warfare 2 a remake back in the day, you know, while gameplay there was basically like in the first CoD Modern Warfare game. Also changing original formula often can ruin everything - just look at Stronghold series. So, concluding this review I must note that all games of GSC Game World have this unique touch in them, be it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series or Cossacks, so they couldn't have been made anything else than in Ukraine, and this is one of reasons why those games are so loved by many gamers all around the world, me included.

best game

this game aged like wine, been playing it since it came out.