Players always man the command tank in a platoon, and have the ability to
give orders to the other tanks. These orders include formation, targeting,
and destination commands, and are issued either to individual tanks or the
entire platoon. Additional assets such as infantry or other vehicles may
be part of a scenario, but the player will not be able to control these
units. The inability to take over other vehicles becomes a liability in
the case where the player's tank is destroyed or disabled. At this point
the only option is to quit the current scenario, since it can be difficult to
direct a platoon once the player can no longer move. This unfortunately
makes keeping the command tank functional the highest priority in any of the scenarios
played.
The AI in the game is generally pretty good - the player's platoon follows
orders well and acts intelligently on their own initiative as well. The
player will not be burdened by the need to 'babysit' each tank on his/her
side. The enemy AI makes a good opponent, and will often attempt to flank
or outmaneuver the player. Dashing straight into battle with guns blazing
is a good way to get quickly chewed up by the enemy AI.
The environment in Panzer Elite features some great terrain. Trees,
houses, and other obstacles can be destroyed by running them over with a
tank. The landscape itself can be quite uneven at times, making for a very
bouncy tank ride, but also allowing players to use the terrain to their
advantage and present the enemy with a smaller target. The tanks
themselves look good from a distance, and it is easy to distinguish the various
classes of tanks. When viewed from close up, though, the tanks are not
very detailed and the textures used on them are somewhat grainy. It is
also possible to sometimes see gaps in the seams of the tanks that allow the
terrain on the other side to show through. The game also suffers from
occasional frame rate issues, which cause it to appear choppy at times.
Can the game be recommended to anyone? Casual gamers will probably be
put off by the game's steep learning curve. Most gamers will find some
enjoyable tank combat action at the game's lowest detail settings, where it
plays more closely to an action game. Only hard-core sim jockeys will want
to attempt the game at its higher levels of detail though. The option of
controlling all of a tank's stations sounds appealing, but in practice it is
darn near impossible to worry about driving a tank, sighting the enemy, and
figuring out World War II era gun site optics. There is a reason why the
real things took four or so men to man them.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 68%.
Veteran tank sim players may appreciate the game's attention to details, but
most players will find the steep learning curve difficult to surmount.
System Requirements: 350 MHz Pentium II CPU; 64 MB RAM; 4 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 750 MB Hard Drive Space; Mouse.
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