Tannenberg
You know what bothered me about Battlefield 1? How every single player got automatic or semi-automatic weaponry, as if Europe had been magically blessed by the Glorious Murder Cube as soon as Franz got shot. Sure, there were semi-autos and submachine guns in WW1, but only in extremely limited numbers, and most were about as reliable as an alliance with Italy.
I’d hoped for a more deliberate kind of shooter, and BF1 wasn’t it. Then I found Tannenberg, a game set in the eastern front of WW1, and it was like finding the game I’d hoped BF1 would be.
– Real player with 228.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric First-Person Games.
So, after spending some 20 hours in Tannenberg and roughly the same amount of hrs in Verdun, I decided to write a review here. This may seem as a somewhat subjective opinion of the game, because of the fact that I am a history enthusiast, but I highly recommend this piece (and Verdun as well, of course) to anyone who’s interested in historically accurate, semi-realistic, squad based semi-tactical FPS shooter - that’s what WW1 Game Series are. The squads are well made, equipment is on point, graphics are nice, sounds believable - same goes for the maps in both games. Immersion is the biggest pro of this game, it really makes you believe you are there, bullets whizz by your ear, men are screaming for their lives same on both sides, you shoot as many foes as you can before someone on the other side of the trench/field with more luck shoots you dead. But the vicious cycle goes on and on, same as it did in the actual conflict and more men die by your side. The tactical part may seem minimal but it has a huge impact on the game results. I could go on and on listing pros of this game… The one and only thing that makes people write bad reviews is the player count. At peak hours in EU and US it’s roughly 200 players in Verdun and 70 in Tannenberg - not ideal, I know but it got as high as 600-800 when the game was on sale and during the free weekend - it needs to be advertised, put on sale (I know Tannenberg is sorta new but still, gotta make cuts when you want a stable playerbase). It doesn’t have any gamebreaking bugs or flaws, it just deserves more polishing and content. And advertisement…and ads…and sales :)
– Real player with 175.9 hrs in game
METRO MP
In the hour of gloom and monsters, when the world has already plunged into chaos, you can go on a fun and fun adventure that will blow up your imagination and you will certainly get a lot of fun. If you dare to plunge into this world of blackness and madness, then in addition to pleasure, you can also get endless adrenaline that will boil in your blood.
You can do absolutely anything:
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Go to the surface for new supplies – donuts are already waiting for you!
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Go for equipment - the tire iron is your life!
Read More: Best Atmospheric Hidden Object Games.
Syrian Warfare
«What kind of Arab would I be if I didn’t have a RPG buried in my yard…?»
- Random guy in first mission after being asked to help defending the village
Wheew, what a ride. Definitely my personal surprise RTS of 2017 so far!
Syrian Warfare is a classic Real Time Strategy game brought to you by tiny Russian developer Cats Who Play. Since some members of the team also worked at GFI before, you could say the game is an unofficial sequel or spin-off to the 2008 RTS Warfare. Judging from videos or screenshots (and even the title font) the similarity is evident.
– Real player with 128.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Military Games.
Syrian Warfare is a modern-day real-time tactics game with some excellent core gameplay, a surprisingly well-made campaign and complex, detailed mechanics that will be familiar to those who have played Men of War, another Russian-developed strategy game series, albiet with a significantly more user-friendly interface.
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I had heard of the game last year but didn’t purchase it until now. I had recently been playing the Modern Combat mod for Company of Heroes which got me going back to playing some older modern day RTS/RTT games. I replayed a bit of World in Conflict (which was still as good as I remembered it.) but couldn’t quite maintain my interest in Act of Aggression. Given my experience with the latter I felt that I wouldn’t have much luck going back to the Wargame series since I had never been able to maintain interest in any of the series.
– Real player with 98.2 hrs in game
Crush Depth: U-Boat Simulator
Disclaimer 26.04.2021 the reviewed game is subject to heavy changes and will soon be outdated because Crush depth receives everyday small updates and every thursday a larger one.
The Crush Depth: Tech-Demo currently just a tech demonstration and exactly only that this tech demo is not for the mainstream user who expect to have instant action and a quick gameplay. The game is in its very early construction and lets you see how a game gets developed from the bare bone up and you will get all updates and the finished game if you buy it this demo.
– Real player with 30.5 hrs in game
“He who wants to be victorious on the sea must always attack!” - From The Submarine Commander’s Handbook, 1943.
Though there is much, much left to be done, and heavy optimization that needs to be done with what is already in play(the frames on modern hardware are not great), nonetheless what is already here should prove to be quite interesting for anyone who takes the risk and plunges in, as I did.
Crush Depth is not a game that holds your hand: It is a game that expects you to learn how to operate a U-boat, and to do so properly and effectively. I was under the false impression that the U-boat was not currently able to move–I was proven wrong a little while ago when a kind fellow of the community showed me how the engine worked in the museum exhibit that you can train on. I had to learn myself how to work the electric engine by looking at the valves that existed and doing what I thought was the way, and sure enough it was.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
DEFCON
One of those games that is both well programmed and well made to make nuclear war just another giddy joyride.
The game focuses on a world during the late 70’s and early 80’s, where nuclear war is taking place, and up to 6 nations can declare into it, the nations include The European union (and several other nations not currently in the EU) The USSR, (A and some parts of Kazakhstan) Asia (Not Ocenia, Australia, or Mongolia) Lain America (Not including Cuba) Africa, and North America including Canada and the United States.
– Real player with 113.2 hrs in game
This was my first game bought online on steam… years ago. It’s an an-and-off relationship, and recently I got back into it a little, and the old fever caught on again!
Pro:
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not much required in terms of specs (although it can blow the fan a lot in certain situations)
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UI has a great visual design
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soundtrack is fitting
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game mechanics depend on other players to work out one way or another: good online games are common
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interesting game modes, for example: diplomacy. Everyone sees everything at the beginning, being in one team. Who defects first? Lots of maneuvering and chit-chatting among parties and backstabbing! Oh the backstabbing! Boy did we have fun with that!
– Real player with 90.3 hrs in game
Combat Mission Cold War
I’ll quoted part from one of review in Shock force 2
– Real player with 89.2 hrs in game
New Combat Mission convert here. 8/10 would get my tank platoon massacred again, and again. This is a very good tactical wargame, if a dated engine at a steep price-point. The game is unforgiving though. Ironicly the NTC “training” campaign is the most unforgiving IMO. Forces you to learn the hard way I guess. If you want great graphics look elsewhere, and be prepared to deal with some buggy input lag too. But if you can get over that, and the (realistic) poor pathing choices your tank commanders sometimes make, the gameplay is really good. Now it just needs the rest of NATO and the Pact to be great.
– Real player with 63.2 hrs in game
Frontline: World War II
the animations are nice and the system is well made. Use the tactics of the era and you’ll do just fine.
– Real player with 33.4 hrs in game
IN A WORD: MAYBE
IN A NUTSHELL:
WHAT TO EXPECT: WW2 themed turn-based wargame. ‘Beer and pretzel’ play style. Attritional combat model. Chess-like battles. Unit class levelling and combat abilities. Tactical combat states. Tiny hex-grid maps. Good-looking combat models. No core force. Dynamically purchased order of battle. Some annoying bugs. GUI obfuscated game rules/mechanics. Incomplete scenario implementation. Active dev. Single-player only.
ACHIEVEMENTS: NONE.
– Real player with 21.5 hrs in game
Invasion: Neo Earth
Invasion: Neo Earth is all about turn-based strategic action, battling sinister alien invaders to a soundtrack of Synthwave and Metal.
The year is 2087- a freak meteorite shower brings unwelcome visitors. Take command of Earth’s defence forces to deploy soldiers, grav tanks, robots and jets on battlefields across a retro sci-fi style world. Customize the weaponry of every unit in your army with an array of explosive hi-tech guns. Choose your battles to direct your campaign against the insidious, alien Sectyds.
Key Features
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Turn-based strategic action, reminiscent of the 90’s
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Bombastic Synthwave and Heavy Metal soundtrack
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Campaign with branching mission choices
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Customize every single unit’s weaponry, choosing from an arsenal of futuristic guns.
Ratten Reich
Ratten Reich is a grim and unforgiving world, where war has continued for many years. The war is fought between rats, mice, roaches and lizards alike. Slum like cities, burnt corpses, steam tanks, soldiers in imperial uniforms and armor. And the soil, the mother of all, full of bomb craters and battle scars. Millions upon millions of fates, dreams — nothing more than ashes from the fires now.
This is the story we are trying to tell in an RTS game with interesting and unusual mechanics.
The Tzar army of roaches, monitor lizards, dozens of mice led countries under the flags of the great Franx and Angul will clash against the might of the Ratten Reich in an alliance with the lizards, who live in the land of the rising sun. This is Ratten Reich.
*** Destruction of the surrounding world**
*** Technique customization**
*** Units**
Combat Mission Black Sea
Combat Mission is a unique wargame that offers solid presentation while giving you granular detail to allow for interesting solutions to tactical problems. It fairly accurately allows you to simulate anything from Platoon to Battalion sized engagements at a high level of detail.
Presentation
While the animations and graphics do look a bit dated they get the job done. Where Combat Mission really excels at though is in the we-go mode that allows you to review a turn from multiple angles. This means that you can watch every engagement that is happening on the field and catch all of those cool moments. Where in other games if you aren’t looking then you’ll be left wondering “how did this tank get knocked out”.
– Real player with 166.4 hrs in game
Conditional recommendation only.
Black Sea in certain cases seem to be more unstable than Shock Force 2. I think it’s important for newcomers or potential buyers to take note of the fact that while the game itself is much better than it looks in terms of gameplay and depth, in certain instances it can either wind up unstable (crashes) or become very problematic performance-wise. It’s a toss-up whether you’d have to tinker with the game, i.e. setting up antivirus exceptions, overriding application settings for your GPU, or some other tweaks to not only get the game running, but also get the game to a stable point where crashes are few and far between. A zero-crash experience may or may not be achievable, and the factors that play into said crashes can vary so wildly from system to system as far as I’ve both experienced and researched.
– Real player with 97.2 hrs in game