The Close Combat series has been in development just about as long as World War II lasted. In that time, the series went from the hedgerows of Normandy to the floodlands of Holland, out to the snowy steppes of Russia, and into the snows of the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. The fifth Close Combat game takes the series back to where it started: in Normandy during Operation Overlord - the D-Day invasion. However, Close Combat: Invasion Normandy isn't actually billed as Close Combat 5. It's very similar to its predecessors, and longtime fans of the series might just as easily mistake its contents for those of an expansion pack to the existing games. Then again, because the gameplay is mostly identical to the preceding games, all the intensity of the Close Combat system remains in Invasion Normandy - and it's this hallmark of the system that will bring players back for yet another round of real-time World War II combat.

The basic Close Combat system is notable for its attempts to portray the effects of morale on soldiers in battle. The game is played in real time, and you issue orders using a conventional mouse-driven interface, with the caveat that your units may simply refuse to do what you tell them if your orders would lead them to their destruction. Units that take excessive casualties (or become isolated or are simply inexperienced) will bolt for the rear, often leaving your lines in disarray. It's this depiction of the human element in warfare that makes the Close Combat series so interesting, and Invasion Normandy is no exception.

The first three Close Combat games offered linear campaigns, while Invasion Normandy's predecessor, Battle of the Bulge, introduced a strategic layer to the tactical combat. This changed the game from just a series of individual encounters to one where you had to manage a strategic overview and account for things like maintaining supply lines and keeping your units from getting cut off. Close Combat: Invasion Normandy doesn't change this in any fundamental way but does slightly alter the way in which you choose your forces for an upcoming battle. In the previous game, battle groups (the grouping of up to 15 individual units) were fixed. In Invasion Normandy, there is a force pool for each battle group from which you can select which units will fight in a particular battle. This allows for much more flexibility than in the previous system.

One of the most glaring flaws in Close Combat: Battle of the Bulge was the poor artificial intelligence for vehicles. Tanks were often completely incapable of carrying out simple movement orders or of finding their way from one side of an obstacle to another without excessive micromanagement. A subsequent patch corrected some of the most egregious behaviors, but the tank pathfinding remained problematic. Unfortunately, it seems that Close Combat: Invasion Normandy hasn't improved the pathfinding any further, as tanks in the game will still become hopelessly confused by simple move orders. A tank will often just move back and forth over short distances while turning from side to side, unsure which flank to present to a potential enemy. At worst, this can paralyze your vehicles and prevent you from extricating them from dangerous situations, or it can delay crucial reinforcements while the tanks dillydally in another part of the battle.