Combat Mission

Developer: Big Time Software
Publisher: Battlefront.com

 

System Requirements Pentium 166 Mhz, 32 MB RAM, 100 MB hard drive space

Recommended Pentium II 266MHz, 64+ MB RAM,

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics - 7: While not the most spectacular, they nicely convey the action and brutality of war. But they can be a bit grainy sometimes. Audio - 9: While music is absent, the sound effects are perfect...definitely crank up the speakers.. Interface - 8: A nice menu system similar to the Close Combat games. The stand out feature is the ease with which players can set up complex way-points..	Play Issues Solo Gameplay - 9.0: Wonderfully varied missions and lots of them. While the AI is a bit weak in some areas, it still plays a good game. Replayability - 10: How much more could you want? Random scenario generator, dozens of single missions and seven campaigns. Prepare to hibernate in front of your PC for awhile. Mulitplay - 8: I'll give it a good score for its cool hot seat mode. While I didn't play it online, however, I hear everything is just as stable. Learning Curve - 8: Quite easy to play, actually. The genre makes the perfect transition to full 3D.
Other/Notes Documentation - 9: I ordered it online and still got a thick, informative manual. Thanks Big Time! Pros: Innovative take on the genre that looks good and plays well. Cons: Graphics could be a bit better. Some AI quirks that will hopefully be resolved in the next patch. Other Notes: + .5 bump in the score for innovation. Overall: 9.0

A post I read in an online forum a few weeks ago really upset me. It concerned the future of war games, with most people being of the opinion that it is a dying genre. It certainly seems that way, being that new war games appear on store shelves in only a slight trickle, while gamers are deluged with products from every other genre. The truth is, not that many people play war games. Sure, dedicated grognards are in strong numbers online, where they can convene and discuss their favorite hobby. But you'd be hard pressed to run into many people that avidly play them in say, a software store. So how does a company keep the life support on this genre firmly plugged? Avoid the stores. Avoid the publisher content to throw out every piece of crap that plops onto their desks. In short, avoid a lot of the cost and concentrate on making a good game. Thus we have the philosophy of Big Time Software.

As you've probably guessed, Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord, a turn-based/real-time (more on this later) World War II game, is only available online and it has been selling quite well. Sales expectations simply didn't match the initial demand, and Big Time had to quickly print a second batch to fill their back orders. So what has everyone in a frenzy? Well, its the first true 3D war game. Forget Panzer General 3D, which was merely a 3D representation of a typical war gaming "board". In CM, you can zoom in and see the whites of your own soldiers' eyes. While the graphics aren't all that spectacular, what they represent elevates them to excellence. This is the first time gamers have been able to get this close to a World War II battle. If you zoom in on your soldiers you'll witness them looking around and making various motions. You'll see tank shells fly across the screen and explode in a shock wave, deforming the terrain or even smashing entire buildings into rubble. Best of all, you can see the bodies of soldiers lying on the ground. Before you accuse me of being insensitive, let me explain why this is a great feature. In Talonsoft's Rising Sun, I might throw a bunch of troops at the enemy in order to reach an objective. Even if half of them get mowed down in the process, all I see is their icons dissapear. While I have the knowledge that many of my men died, I don't feel much. I mean, its an icon. But I recall playing a scenario in Combat Mission during which I sent one of my Bazooka wielding troops scrambling to stop an incoming tank. On the way there the enemy shot him from a nearby wood. There he was, lying on his back staring at the sky. And you know what? I felt bad. I knew the chances of him making it were slim but I sent him anyway. Combat Mission feels like war. This is greatly helped by the excellent sound. Every weapon, tank, and truck sounds realistic, and various battle sound effects play in the background, increasing the sense of participating in something larger than your individual battle. You'll definitely want to crank up the volume while playing. Music is non-existent except for a typical war game song during the opening cinematic (which is just a bunch of clips of in-game scenes that are actually pretty exciting). You're better off turning on your own piece of music to play by, my favorite being the theme from Saving Private Ryan or Glory...they're appropriately epic.

The reason the gameplay succeeds as much as it does is because of its interesting mix between the excitement of real-time play and the depth and planning that turn-based games bring with them. Combat Mission does this by having both sides give their orders simultaneously. Then when the players hits "Go", the carefully planned moves play out in front of you in real-time (sixty seconds of real-time to be exact), sometimes succeeding, and sometimes going just plain wrong. This allows a level of drama that most war games are lacking. Send a squad over a hill to assault a fortification and you may see them come fact to face with a tank you didn't know was there and anxiously watch as they turn around and hightail it out of there. After the real-time portion is complete players can rewind it or view certain portions as much as they like in order to get a complete picture of what exactly occurred--especially useful on the larger maps. I'm not kidding when I say the game feels like an interactive "Saving Private Ryan". But grognards need not fear a lack of number crunching and true-to life game mechanics. Now, I don't pretend to be a grognard, nor do I have the confidence (conceit?) to say I know exactly what would realistically happen in every situation I encounter in a war game. I have, however, played a lot of war games and I can tell you with confidence that the realism in Combat Mission stands up to any other offering out there, save The Operational Art Of War (though there have been claims that TOAW is completely unrealistic...sigh). In addition, the very fact that Combat Mission is 3D makes it even more convincing, namely in the areas of line-of-sight and physics. In most war games there are buildings that merely add to the defensive bonus of troops, but in CM you can place them on a particular floor, allowing them to see farther--a perfect setup for sharpshooters. There is, however, one thing grognards may not be pleased with--the AI. Its not bad by any means. In fact, taking into consideration how much more tactical this game is than most war games, its quite good. But while it puts up a decent fight, players may find themselves getting at least a minor victory far more than they would like (sure we like winning, but I'd rather be beaten more times by a superb AI than I would win against and OK AI). The AI is better on the defensive, when it can remain relatively still and fortified. On the attack, however, the AI seems a bit uncoordinated at times. You may find yourself asking "Now why did they just do that?" Combat Mission, however, also has what the makers call TacAI. This is the artificial intelligence that determines what a soldier's reaction will be to the action. If a soldier is marching and comes under suppressive fire does he run away or take to the ground? I found this portion of the AI to behave very realistically and appropriately. In fact, I found no instance in which I could trick it into doing something "gamey". The TacAI gives CM a very dynamic feel.

In terms of interface there is little to complain about. Menus are easily navigated and there is a plethora of hot keys for all the functions. If you don't go with the hot keys, however, giving units orders is very similar to the Close Combat games. A right click on a unit will produce a list of orders ranging from "Move", "Run", and "Crawl", to "Ambush" and "Target". Once an order is selected a colored line extends from your unit so that you can tell them precisely where to go or even set up intricate way-points using a mixture of the movement commands. For instance, you can have a soldier crawl to a nearby wall then run to the cover of trees. When targeting enemy units or an area of the map, the colored bar indicates your units line of sight. Green indicates a perfect LOS, but if your sight is obstructed the line will be black starting at the point of the obstacle. This lets players easily figure out what exactly is blocking them, thus making the transition to 3D gameplay a bit easier. All in all, CM delivers an excellent amount of control, meaning players can put almost any plan into effect with just a few clicks. There is also a set of camera controls at the bottom of the screen that let you zoom, rotate, and pan the camera. You can have a top down view if you like or be right on the battlefield. Accompanying these camera buttons is your unit information. When a unit is clicked on this bar shows information such as unit type, morale, and location (woods, hill etc.). Furthermore, units can be right-clicked on to bring up a list of their stats, such as armor and weapon ratings.

One thing CM players certainly don't have to worry about is a lack of missions. Since the game takes place right after the D-Day invasion, scenarios are limited to that theater (sorry Rising Sun fans). You can, however, take control of a variety of armies including the Americans, Germans, French, British and Canadians. There are seven operations that link an average of six scenarios, plus a slew of single battles ranging in size from intimate city skirmishes to epic 70 + turn engagements. There is also a random scenario generator with a refreshing and suprising amount of customization (this is one of the things the Close Combat games are sorely lacking). You can customize the size and nationality of the forces, the mixture of troops, the weather, time of day, and size of the landscape, and even the amount of forests, buildings and hills you want. The best part is, it does a great job of randomly generating battlefields. You could easily find tons of value just playing some random scenarios. You can also play be email, hotseat, or through an internet connection. Though I didn't get to play online, the news in the forums is that everything is stable.

So what's wrong? Well, as I mentioned the graphics aren't up to par with the latest 3D offerings, but that doesn't really concern me that much. I also mentioned the sometimes lacking AI. There are two more complaints that come to mind. First, when combat is in very close quarters (like in a building) it can be hard to give accurate orders--the game just doesn't feel as responsive to your input as in other instances. Second, even with the ability to rewind the real-time portion, it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of every unit. Having to rewind to know what happened to different platoons can take away from the immediacy that the typical war game perspective has. But, in order to help you keep track you can do things like increase the size of units, take away some of the terrain graphics, and put bases on the units. Also, the game has already been patched, but there is going to be another update soon, and from what I hear it significantly improves the AI.

Please, go to www.battlefront.com and buy a copy of Combat Mission and support Big Time Software (plus get a fantastic game :-). They're willingness to innovate and love of war gaming ensures that the genre will continue strong. I've already picked up copies of some of their older games (Flight Commander 2 and Over the Reich) and absolutely love these as well. War gaming will never be the same after this game, so you might as well play the superb grandaddy of what will hopefully be the next big thing.

If you like to comment on this review, please post a message at the forum.
Reviewed by Anthony Micari