For the first time, famous Combat Mission series tries to score in the big league... and fails.
That's mostly why I never ever read a review that praised Combat Mission series.
But still, it managed to make a name of itself. Well done, boys! And now we finally have a game that tries to break the series' budget-price-title tradition and become a blockbuster. Did it have any luck? Well, keep on reading, my friends...
As all the previous Combat Mission titles were set during the WW2, it was painfully obvious that it became dull. Gamers were really getting tired of liberating Stalingrad for the 100th time or rolling Panzer tanks through hedgerow hell in Normandy over and over again. Heck, for a while, it seemed that the only decent games released in Europe and America were WW2 strategies. So our dearly beloved programmers of Paradox Interactive decided that enough is enough, and did what everyone else is doing these days - made a strategy game based on modern warfare. Speaking of which, did you notice how there are practically NO decent games based on modern warfare AT ALL?! People like this whole modern warfare concept, they really do, and will gladly give money for it, but for some reason there just don't seem to be any single game that's worth our hard earned money. Sad...
Anyway, as I was saying, this new Combat Mission game is based on modern warfare. Abrams tanks, air strikes, Marines, etc., etc. Well, this time the good and honorable US Army is off to Syria. Why? Evil terrorists, bombs, stuff like that. I read it in the manual, by the way, since there are no intro movies, or any movies at all, to fill you in on the details. It's like playing some beta version of release-date-to-be-announced project. For a full-priced game, that's just disrespectful. Moving on to the game options... oh, wait, there are none! Adjust a few details' level, turn the sound on and off, and that's about it. I mean, what the heck?! Is this a demo?! No, I paid too much for it to be a demo. Ah well... moving on. No tutorial either... so, I guess I'll just go with the campaign. I'll figure it all out as I go (Poor, naive little me!). Starting on with the first mission, I can't wait to send my M1 Abrams tanks to do some serious butt-kicking. But the first thing I notice is the absolutely abysmal and horrific camera. That's right, the first and the most important thing in any 3D strategy game - camera control - is busted to hell. Slow, unresponsive and confusing, it nearly made me send this game to trash can. OK, the game looks nice, considering the fact that my computer is not nearly powerful enough to let me even start up, let alone play modern games such as Gears of War. But it's so damn slooooooow!
At first I tougt it was because my hardware is a stone age class, but no, everyone experienced those same problems. The game's engine, altou ambitious, is simply not capable of keeping up with all that's going on in the game. Even with my hardware far exceeding recommended system requirements, I simply couldn't run this game smoothly with full details. But even pumped up to the fullest, the game doesn't look nearly as good as it should be if it wants to score a blockbuster status.
OK, moving on with nearly-maximum settings, I tried to figure out how to order my units around. If you ever played a turn-based game before, you'll figure out the basic concept pretty soon. But mastering some more advanced commands, such as calling air strikes, artillery or reinforcements are still unknown to me. Heck, this is a game! Just let me click on an air strike icon and choose a location to blow up so I can sit back and enjoy the show! So, I order my units to move, one by one, which they do so damn SLOW, and with such a horrible pathfinding issues, even in the flat-out, wide open terrain. A Bradley infantry carrier who can't figure out how to move around a bush?! Just drive over a damn thing! So, off to attack you go! No problem, just send your tanks forward and hope for the best. They destroy dug-in enemy tanks with ease (a little bit of propaganda, eh?) but for some reason can't do a thing against entrenched infantry. I mean, that's the whole reason why tanks were invented in the first place! Come on!
As for the enemy AI, there is simply none. They just stand around in their trenches and bunkers, waiting for you to butcher them. They don't even move! Oh, and let's not forget the thing that literally sends this product crashing down. There is no way you can know just what the heck you are facing, so there is no need to adjust your strategy depending on a situation, just send your strongest tanks ahead and hope it turns out OK. Yes, recon units are pretty much useless. You don't even know what's going on as they move, since there is no way in hell the game will let you know just who's firing at your units, and how much damage they're actually taking. Once your tank gets immobilized or destroyed, you can only guess how that happened.
Wanna try this game? I really don't know what to tell you, I'm currently downloading a 1.10 patch for this game so maybe that will fix things up a bit (The patch alone has about 250 MB. Enough said about the bugs and rough edges in this game?). The game certainly has potential, and looks and feels kind of cool. Especially with the camera shaking as your tanks drive near it. That's kind of sweet. But a few cool features are not enough to make the game itself cool.
Borrow it, try it for a few minutes, then return it to whoever you borrowed it from and punch him/her in the face for wasting your valuable time with yet another budget-priced piece of junk.