Combat Mission Anthology

The most realistic WWII tactical level simulation for a low price - what more could one ask for?

User Rating: 10 | Combat Mission Anthology PC

By Faipar | Review Date: March 27, 2008

Combat Mission Anthology is one of the best bargains one can make in games. It contains not only the 3 games of the series, namely Beyond Overlord, Barbarossa to Berlin and Afrika Korps, they are actually the "special editions" of the three, originally separate games, but it also comes with a fourth CD filled with mods. "Special edition" means they are patched with the last patches and come with hundreds of additional maps. Add to this the mods and the random map generator, and one has basically endless possibilities with the games.

The games are absolutely bug-free and are accompanied by a clever, though unintuitive interface. The manuals are in pdf format on the CDs, and although they are over 150 pages long, they should be read by people new to the games, because there is no tutorial and little is self-explanatory in the game, giving it a steep learning curve. However, once one gets over that, and the gripping realism, both this and the interface become allies.

The realism and detail in these games are astounding, they are more of a simulation than a game actually. Forget "hit points" and machine gun-blood-fests. Everything happens as if one was controlling real units. I will not go into game mechanics, they are unique and hard to explain. However, the astonishing detail of everything in the game should be indicative what to expect: a vehicle's armour is measured by quality, slope and thickness everywhere, the shots are fired by realistic speed, they lose velocity due to air resistance, etc. It showed me a totally different aspect of war than any other games, even despite it does not contain any blood or gore, it still is very rough and breathtaking - because of realism.

The graphics are basic, but true 3D. A lot of people are turned off by the graphics, not being able to realize the true gem this game is. It also lacks music, which actually is quite appropriate for such a realistic, historical war simulation. The sound effects on the other hand are perfect, and they have a major part in immersion. The three games have some differences, mostly in graphics and interface (getting better and better), but the gameplay is basically identical, which is a good thing. My only complaint would be the lack of a campaign mode, to be able to carry over one's units from one battle to the other, which does not exist in the game, but Combat Mission Campaigns, aimed at solving exactly this problem, is in the making fortunately.

If You are interested in the World War Two European theaters, and looking for realism, You need to look no further. A true strategy simulation, complete with the good immersion of being the leader of the troops and detail down to the lowest levels mean that Combat Mission Anthology is THE World War II simulation.