Overview
Strap on the tank helmet and pull on the coveralls; this is first-person WWII tank fighting at its finest. SSI provides an up-front, in-your-face tank simulation that will have you smelling of gunpowder by the end of the day. In this unique simulation/strategy game you can be a tank commander in either the German, Russian, British or American army. With the different countries, Internet play, campaigns and scenarios, you will definitely be busy for a while. Just imagine blasting away your best friend over the Internet or daring him to invade Germany. The question is whether you'll be a battle-scarred victor or a burning piece of scrap metal.
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Gameplay, Controls, Interface
Panzer Commander is fairly easy to master; using the online tutorial is the best way to learn all the functions of the game. With the different views of the tank compartments, you get to fully interact with your tank crew, making this game fun and enjoyable to play. A joystick is highly recommended for easier gameplay and control. Learning to use your tank crew will turn you into a fighting machine even faster. In the main screen section of the game is a View Tank button. Clicking on this allows you to view and read about specifications or each tank in a given country's arsenal. This really helps you identify tanks during gameplay. While playing Panzer Commander, you have the option of playing a single scenario (of which there are 40 to choose from) or trying your hand at a military career.
Panzer Commander Review. Someday, there will be a World War II armored warfare simulation with the essential features that fans of this genre want. Until then, we'll have to settle for Panzer. From the Panzer IVs and daunting Tigers to Russia’s formidable T-34s and the monstrously peculiar Churchill tanks, Panzer Commander boasts an impressive array of vehicles, letting you drive and shoot them as part of a squad during the Second World War. Nov 01, 2009 Panzer Commander can be immersive and fun if your expectations for realism aren't too high and you can learn to tolerate its frustrating flaws. While the armored vehicles themselves look good and are modeled with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
The one down side to Panzer Commander is that while playing scenarios, you have no control over what tank you will be using. Each scenario is based on actual WWII battles, so you are given the tank that was used in the battle, depending on what country you pick. One thing that game players will notice is that the German and Russian tanks are far superior to the American and British tanks. I must say that I felt very manly and indestructible riding around in a German King Tiger or a Russian T-34. Early in the war, though, before the King Tiger or Russian T-34 were used, British armor was quite fierce. So if you are a die-hard Anglophile, you can mount successful attacks and be having tea inside Berlin by noon.
Multiplayer
Panzer Commander Gameplay
Panzer Commander allows you to play with other people via modem or Internet play. Some of the missions feature head-to-head play, while others require you to work in cooperation with another player, making team play critical in achieving mission goals. The multiplayer option also allows you to chat with people while playing, so you can plan missions and battle formations.
Graphics
Realistic tank movements make you feel like you're right inside a rumbling King Tiger tank. When driving the tank, you get to feel the jarring bumps and inclines, just like the WWII tanks of old. Buildings and enemy tanks look real and are sized well (for proper identification when on the battlefield). Terrain is very believable, providing roads, hills, hedges, sand, mud and snow. The graphics for the crew compartments are great, with accurate views of the driver area, main gun area and the machine position, making for a very eye-pleasing game.
Audio
SSI has taken the time to make the sound fit the graphics like a glove. When you are in the German or Russian tanks, the crew will speak in their respective native languages. You're in the heat of battle, getting blasted by armor-piercing shells, and your driver responds to your commands with 'Jawohl, Commandant!' It makes you really feel that you are part of a German tank crew.
In the different crew compartments, the sound changes accordingly. If you're in the main gun compartment, you get to hear the shells being loaded and the gun being fired. The driver view has all the sounds of the motor and treads, while the machine gun view has the rat-tat-tat of your fifty-caliber machine gun.
System Requirements
Windows 95, 4X CD-ROM drive, 16 MB RAM, Pentium 133, 2 MB SVGA card, mouse, 28.8 KBPS modem (for Internet play)
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Documentation
The instruction booklet is typical for SSI, covering all the basics of the game: getting started, tutorials, troubleshooting, game options and tactics. The online tutorial provides excellent instruction; it puts you right inside the game and gets you going quickly. SSI also provides a foldout that contains all the different views, how to get to the views, and what buttons to use in each different compartment. I found the foldout very useful until I had all the views memorized (just a few sessions is all it takes).
Bottom Line
After getting my butt kicked in Africa and being victorious in Russia, I can say that SSI has done a fine job making this a realistic and very fun game. It's appealing because you can sit down and be playing in a few minutes. If you are looking to experience what it was like to command some of the fiercest machines of WWII, then this game is for you. Good luck and good hunting.
Overall rating: 7
Experience the Panzer Command series of tactical wargames. In Panzer Command: Ostfront, you are a company-level commander on either the Soviet or German side, fighting on the Eastern Front. Preserve your men and defeat the enemy, there is no other way! Panzer Command: Ostfront is part of a series of 3D turn-based tactical wargames including single battles, multi-battle operations and full war campaigns with realistic units, tactics and terrain and an informative and practical interface.
A war is not lost until you consider it lost. - Field Marshal von Manstein
Many say that World War II was decided on the Eastern Front. From the initial Blitzkrieg in the Summer of 1941 through the final battles for Berlin in 1945, this was a land war that dwarfed all others in its scale and brutality. Through countless small skirmishes and large operations involving multiple armies, with increasingly deadly and advanced weaponry, the Wehrmacht and Red Army were locked in a fight for national survival that consumed a generation of soldiers and left half a continent in ruins.
Each decision you make as a commander must be weighed carefully. You will find that the gameplay is balanced to reward historically successful tactics while the AI will punish rash choices. The victory system for scenarios and campaigns rewards multiple strategies and evaluates your performance and rank after each battle.
After you have played through the 70+ included scenarios and 10 campaigns (including updated versions of all of the previous Winterstorm and Kharkov content), the Random Battle and Random Campaign generators allow you create new content with just a few clicks using the provided presets for nearly infinite replayability.
For scenario designers and modders, an innovative new Map Maker allows you to create your own realistic 3D maps from 500m to 2km scale based on actual historical locations with auto-generation features that help you create natural 3D landscapes quickly and easily. In conjunction with the powerful Scenario and Campaign Editors and the fully open unit data and models, this means that you have unprecedented access to modify the existing campaigns, maps, units and scenarios or create your own. There has never been a more open 3D tactical WWII wargame.
© 2011 Slitherine Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Panzer Command: Ostfront, Slitherine Ltd. and their Logos are all trademarks of Slitherine Ltd. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.