Reviews / previews
Most tank sim aficionados would agree Panzer power returned in 1998 with the release of a handful of simulations, but unfortunately, many of them were disappointing, namely I-Magic's awful iPanzer '44, Microprose's buggy M1 Tank Platoon II and NovaLogic's mediocre Armored Fist 2: M1A2 Abrams. The only arguable exception (besides M1 Tank Platoon II following months of patchwork) was SSI's Panzer Commander. A fifth tank sim was also scheduled for release, but the publishers held off until it was truly ready to roll out onto retail shelves. The game was Panzer Elite, developed by a small German group of game designers known as Wing Simulations, and I'm pleased to report it was certainly worth the wait. Here's the skinny
Psygnosis' latest pits players in heated skirmishes between American and German forces during World War II. In particular, these battles take place throughout North Africa, Italy, Sicily and Normandy, from late 1942 until D-Day two years later.
As a commander of a tank platoon, it's the gamer's role to follow--and assign--orders to subdue enemy forces, while protecting the lives of the troupe. One of the greatest achievements of this sim is the sense of being part of a larger picture, with infantry running by and planes roaring from the heavens. In other words, though the 40+ missions are linearly placed one after another throughout the three campaigns, it feels like an active war is going on, which adds to the all-important immersion factor.
Even before the action, wingmen in your platoon can be exchanged, ammo loads tweaked, and the like. As a minor RPG-element, the latter missions allow for more skilled crewmembers, tougher tanks and better weapons, and so forth.
Alternatively, there's the option to play a single scenario from the campaigns, an "instant action" mode (unlimited enemies and the length of survival determines the score) or a multiplayer game via TCP/IP or over a LAN. I experienced mixed results with the latter in playing a two-player game via the Net.
Missions range from unleashing sheer brute force on a village or defending a weapons base to protecting a convoy and supporting an allied platoon.
Cunning tactics play a very important role in this game, unlike some past tank sims that seem to forget there's a lot more to successfully accomplishing a mission than driving these behemoths straight on into enemy territory. Some missions are a bit stale, or repetitive, but overall, they are well conceived and executed.
Graphically, Panzer Elite is quite attractive, with resolutions topping 1600 x 1200 (16-bit color, with a 3D-accelerator card). The game is played from a default third-person perspective, but there's many camera angles to toy with to view the action (i.e., for aesthetic or functional purposes). Depending on the mission, the landscape will likely hold roughly five square miles of terrain, complete with trees, buildings, fences and other vehicles. These objects often serve as protection from enemy fire, as well. There's some random clipping problems and isolated collision detection issues with some objects but the patch released by Psygnosis in November cured most of these graphical niggles. Overall, though, the 3D polygonal tanks look quite impressive, as does the rolling terrain, convincing explosions and atmospheric weather effects.
Believe it or not, but players may not even need to touch a game controller for this game. Panzer Elite tried something different with a control scheme known as MouseTank. This is a small top-down transparent view of a tank in the upper left-hand corner of the screen where the player can maneuver his tank and control his platoon simultaneously. Combine MouseTank with some keyboard commands and by the fourth or fifth mission it should be second nature. Of course a solid flight stick may be preferred, plus nearly all the options can be tweaked to suit both novice gamers as well as seasoned players in Panzer Elite, including tank (in)vulnerability, the gunnery model, enemy spotting, temperature/weather effects, and so forth. This should widen the appeal of the game.
As fun as a game Panzer Elite is, it does lack polish. Indeed the recently released patch (v.1.07) repaired many of these issues, but I found the game still contained a few bugs. It's not uncommon for the game to freeze or crash altogether (i.e. kicked out to the desktop), plus the AI of both the wingmen and enemies often act strangely or don't (re)act at all at times. Other recurring problems include sound popping and occasional graphical problems such as black squares appearing on the terrain. Once again, the patch helped alleviate many of these unfortunate shortcomings.
That said, Panzer Elite definitely deserves serious recognition from both simulation fanatics and strategy/wargame gamers. Rarely does one indulge in a historical sim that really does a great job in making the player feel like they're smack-dab in the middle of heated combat. While the mouse-based control takes some getting used to and downloading the patch is a must, the end result makes it all worth while. I look forward to a sequel to this game, perhaps with beefier multiplayer support and better graphics. Well, they've got the atmosphere and gameplay down now anyway, and that's the most important, right?-- Marc Saltzman / GamePro
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