Theatre of War

[Corsair]

Well I guess if it's no good I will keep on playing Pbem Combat Mission as in the past years...

[Tikigod]

Tried the demo. Its not what I expected. The demo is not as bad as that guy made it out to be. It has very smooth frames, has a nice environment, and seems to be polished (no bugs, weird mishaps, or appearance that it was released too soon). The only thing I see so far that I don't like is that I thought the actual battlefield would be much larger. I was expecting something the size of WW2 Online that you would be able to jump around and manage. Instead, this game has restricted borders on each map that limit how far you can travel with the cam. The landscape looks like it goes on but, you are restricted to a square shaped border. You also have a storyline with objectives and waypoints that you have to follow as well as boring cutscenes that interrupt each time you reach a waypoint or complete a task or goal. I was expecting more open ended gameplay, over a huge european map, rather than being told to do A, B, and C within a small bounding box.

I hope this is just the demo functionality and not what the full game will have to offer. Otherwise this really isn't worth getting when you have games like Faces of War and Soldiers: Heroes of WW2 that do the same thing with much larger maps, better physics, graphics, and functionality.

The combat skirmishes do seem a little more realistic as far as hitpoints. The men and vehicles are more sensitive to bullets than in most games. A clear shot from a target standing out in open will usually result in a kill (rather than just damage) Also, there are many formations and behaviors you can put your squads into which is pretty nice.

Your infantry units also have various skill levels, characteristics, and rank which improve as they fight and progress through missions. So, you can place a guy in a tank gun with higher marksmanship to fire more accurately than an individual that is a rookie. You can also swap them around while inside a vehicle rather than telling them all to disembark and remount again.

[flintlock]

I tried the demo and quite enjoyed it. So much so that I ended up purchasing the full game. It really is a nice little wargame.

[GlobalExplorer]

Yesterday I could try the demo. While I could not play a lot, I think the negativity is unfounded. With some patches and mods, this is the right investment for fans of the Close Combat or Total War games.

In the present state, I was not happy with the control and the camera movement and performance, and from what is known, the game comes with a linear and dissappointing campaign.

But surprisingly, the game is very moddable!! All the missions are defined in xml files, and there is an additional skript for events and nice little things like emitters (environment sounds). I predict we will see the game completely changed by new campaigns and missions, editors and campaign generators.

The product is an up to date ww2 tactical engine, that comes with some mediocre missions data. And with the mods I am expecting, this game should rock.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by GlobalExplorer

The product is an up to date ww2 tactical engine, that comes with some mediocre missions data. And with the mods I am expecting, this game should rock.

That's really positive.

I was hoping they improved the code, etc. I never had any hands-on with it, but my friends from Russia where it was released last fall said it came out in one of those... marketed beta relese states

If the engine's solid, then I'll be very happy. I've indeed been looking for a good WWII tactical ground war fix - so if this one's a recommendation, then I'll get it. Else I'll go back to the beloved CM series

[GlobalExplorer]

Originally Posted by CCIP

That's really positive.

I was hoping they improved the code, etc. I never had any hands-on with it, but my friends from Russia where it was released last fall said it came out in one of those... marketed beta relese states

If the engine's solid, then I'll be very happy. I've indeed been looking for a good WWII tactical ground war fix - so if this one's a recommendation, then I'll get it. Else I'll go back to the beloved CM series

My observation was based on played a bit with the demo, I don't own the full game.

But I failed to see anything wrong with the engine, and the mod openness looks very promising.

I will wait a bit and see, and then probably order the game.

[CCIP]

I'm probably gonna order it this week unless someone tells me not to (in which case I'll just look at it more carefully and grab the demo before deciding).

Also, cheers to Battlefront for a good distribution method - if I do get it, I will be quite glad to pay the extra 10 bucks for the download + send provided the manual is as good as in CM games and is thus worth it.

Anyone got the game shipped? Is it worth getting the box version, even for the manual?