Codename: Panzers

Written by Phillip Ellis on 10/11/2004 for PC  

While the entire continent of Europe has been enjoying a special game in Codename: Panzers, Phase One, from CDV, the United States has been missing out on an excellent and intricate real-time strategy game. Finally, on October 1, CDV will be bringing Codename: Panzers, Phase One to the United States, much to the delight of its American supporters, and people who have been following this game since it was announced. Real-time strategists will not want to miss this one, as Codename: Panzers offers a stellar helping about real-time combat, with a very friendly interface.

While almost every game that has been released in the United States and North America recently has been based on World War II, CDV is able to separate Codename: Panzers from the rest with amazing gameplay features, good graphics, and sound that will make you feel like you were in Normandy in 1944. The game features three campaigns, which can be played from the sides of the Germans, Soviets, or Anglo-American Allies. Each of these campaigns has a particular hero you play as, to lead your side to the ultimate goal of victory in your missions. The campaign system features some of the largest battles during World War II in thirty challenging missions. You can take the game online with a Gamespy in-game browser, and battle it out with your friends in four different game modes, including team-deathmatch, domination, assault, and coop mode. Over the course of a campaign your troops will gain prestige points. With these points you will be able to buy more units, and make upgrades. The more experience your troops have improves their combat performance. Thus, sending your troops in on suicide runs is no longer a smart thing to do in order for a victory. You must strategize what you wish to do, because the more experience a unit has, the more effectively and efficiently it will fight. Through this unique idea no two battles will ever play out the same. Every unit in Codename: Panzers has been designed with realistic fields of vision, or fog of war, shaped by sound, experience, and external conditions. Your troops will make use of objects such as bandages, field telephones, binoculars, flame throwers, Molotov cocktails, grenades, and rubber assault boats. Infantry can be used to capture enemy tanks, support vehicles, artillery pieces, and anti-tank guns. These are just some of the countless features available to you in Codename: Panzers. There is quite simply, too much to name in reference to the game.

The gameplay is stellar in terms of strategy, and realistic warfare. Some of the weapons have been toned down from realistic levels to make the game feel more balanced, and to provide with more strategy to win the battles. The different missions offer extensive objectives, and varying victory conditions. In one mission you may be asked to attack a city, and then soon after capturing the city, you will move to the defensive to protect the city from the Germans. This offers a very realistic battle scene, as this is the case in real combat the majority of the time as well, and was especially true during World War II. As I stated earlier in the review, your troops will gain experience through the more battles and fights they encounter, and survive. So leading your troops on a suicidal tear through the map, will most likely hurt you in the latter stages of your campaign. This is something that is very true to combat, but has been missing in many real-time strategy games. After each mission is fought, you will earn prestige points for how well you did, and with those you are able to buy more units to grow your Army. You will need a balanced Armed Forces to counter any type of weapon your enemy will possess.
CDV was no slouch in putting many different units into the game. A real-time strategy game with more than just four units? No way, you must be kidding me. As seen in the past many RTS games will just give you infantry men, airplanes, tanks, and boats. This is where Codename: Panzers separates itself from many real-time strategy games. The sheer number of units, and equipment available is amazing in terms of other games. It seems as if CDV did its research in the strengths and weaknesses of each unit, as they are clearly found in the game. You will need to know these strengths and weaknesses before you send a tank into a complete Army only to get decimated. Stormregion and CDV has worked diligently to get almost every vehicle known to mankind in this game, and in a nutshell, they have succeeded enough to where you will not miss if a few tanks are left out of the game. At times during the game you will be able to call in strikes from off the map. Such as, you can have troops to paratroop into the area to help you combat, call an artillery strike, or have a bomber take out an enemy position. The amount of vehicles found in this game is completely amazing, and a reason Codename: Panzers has managed to separate itself so well from other World War II RTS games.

The visuals in the game are extremely superb. Outside of the fact that there are no facial expressions during cut scenes, and a few other lacking areas such as that. Aside from that, all units, tanks, planes, etc., realistically follow their real-life counterparts. The crew did a wonderful job of modeling the units to match their counterparts. The graphics are so immersive, however, despite the flaws, that you feel completely wrapped up in the battle, and in the time of war. The graphics will have you on the edge of your seat as you see your soldiers getting pounded while hiding in a building from German tanks. This is just another area of the game where Codename: Panzers shines. The graphics engine re-creates explosions nicely, and watching a building topple to the ground on top of the soldiers you left in there can be a horrifying scene.

The user-friendly interface should be easy for anyone who has played a real-time strategy game in the past to pick up. All of the basic controls are there, and everything is listed in an easy to find area. Easy accessibility definitely helps RTS games, and games in this category missing that easy to use interface seem to get lost in the shuffle. Here Codename: Panzers definitely does a good job of making everything very easily accessible, and easy to use. However, if for some reason you cannot figure out for the life of you what you are doing, the tutorial mode is a great place to start in learning the interface and basic troop movement, and commands. So between the tutorial, and the easy to use interface, playing the game is extremely easy to understand, well, considering you are a good strategist.

When it’s all said and done, bringing this game to the United States should have been no difficult decision. The game has been receiving rave reviews in Europe, and deservedly so. CDV and Stormregion have come together to create a fascinating real-time strategy game that will completely immerse you in the action. Be careful though, if you play it too much you may find yourself barking out orders to your family and friends. The game plays just like you would expect a World War II real-time strategy game to play, and if you are looking for a challenging, and fun game, then do not miss Codename: Panzers, Phase One, from CDV and Stormregion.