Active Reviews

Written by Edward Hankins

"Perpetual peace is a dream, and not even a beautiful dream. War is a part of God's order. Without war mankind would stagnate and lose itself in materialism. In war man's most noble virtues are displayed: loyalty, courage, self-denial, devotion to duty, the willingness to risk one's life and to sacrifice it if necessary."

Field Marshall von Moltke

World War 2 was the largest and most brutal war fought in the history of mankind. When the peace treaties were finally signed more than 20 million people lay dead and all of Europe was in ruin. Codename Panzers, from CDV Entertainment, places gamers in command of the armies that ravaged Europe. From the opening shots of the war to the final days of the third reich, you are there commanding your troops and hoping for final victory. With recent games of the same genre such as Stalingrad, Blitzkreig, and World War 2 Online, CDV faces some stiff competition in this highly aggressive market. Does Codename Panzers stick out of the crowd or does it belong in the trenches?

Codename Panzers is a real time strategy game with some RPG elements thrown in. An example of this would be your unit production. Unlike standard RTS games, there is no barracks or city hall to produce new units. One must use the units given from the start to complete the mission. While new units can not be created, through battle victories your military unit's hit points and killing power will increase. This is a big change from most RTS games where players simply build more and more units to throw in the meat grinder. Codename Panzers requires an active cooperation between your tanks and infantry, each protecting the weaknesses of the other while you advance. Assigning one or two infantrymen to guard a tank is always a sound strategy, this protects the men from small arms fire and the tank from close infantry attack.

Another big change from standard RTS games is how the economy is managed. CDV eliminated the production/consumption economy (an economy where one must harvest or collect gold to purchase items). Instead players earn prestige points to purchase new units at the end of a mission. The more enemy units and buildings you destroy, the more prestige points you will earn. The more prestige points you earn, the more units you can purchase, seems simple enough. You can purchase soldiers, tanks, artillery, and supply vehicles; be sure to keep a variety of units and you can never have enough supply and repair vehicles.

Once the game begins you will find yourself in familiar surroundings. It uses a similar menu system as most RTS games; left and right click to designate units and click where you want them to move or attack. The bottom menu controls unit strategy (attack, defend, advance) and shows your units vitals (health, armor, attack power). From the bottom menu you also control you air force, you can radio in everything from your basic recon to high altitude strategic bombing. Be parsimonious with your air power though, particularly your bombers as their availability is extremely limited.

Another very important function in the game is unit selection. Besides selecting units with the mouse, players can use hotkeys set up in the options. By using ctrl-A you can select all units, ctrl-T selects all tanks, and ctrl-S will select all infantry. These hotkeys will not only save precious seconds in battle but will prevent you from losing units.

Once the battle has started a good idea is to send some scouts out to find the enemy. The best unit for this is a jeep or fast tank but a infantryman will do the job, just a little slower. Once the enemy is found it is time to formulate a strategy and attack. Artillery should be set up towards the rear to provide fire support for your tanks and infantry. Likewise your infantry or at least a few units should be placed on guard duty on the tanks. The tank is your primary offensive unit in the game, the light and medium tank's power is in their speed and the heavy tank's power rests in its heavy armor and powerful gun.

It will take a few missions to get all of the various controls down, so if you are still losing your tanks to a few enemy infantrymen don't worry. Just remember to protect all of your units and attack in force using your tanks as a spearhead. Also be sure to cycle your units at the front, repairing your tanks and giving medical care to your soldiers. One veteran infantry group is more effective than two green units.

With over 30 missions and multi-player options Codename Panzers guarantees hours of action, and plenty of time to perfect your grand military strategies. It is easy to sit down for short game and find yourself getting up three hours later wondering where your evening went. All in all this game is a definite keeper, two thumbs up for CDV and Codename Panzers.

Go back to the Codename: Panzers page.

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