The Wargamer

Introduction

CDV is rapidly trying to make its name synonymous with World War II strategy games. If last year’s stable of titles indicated that they were trying to corner the World War II strategy market, this year cemented that intention. CDV’s lineup of games at E3 was purely focused on World War II.

That seems like a sound marketing strategy. Despite the hue and cry of many gamers that there are too many World War II gaming titles, the Second World War has all of the elements of classic wargaming material: a preponderance of good guys and bad guys divided along fairly clean lines, enough gray areas to keep folks who like to blur those lines, complex heroes, weapons that are easy to understand and employ, and an evolutionary track of weapon systems that can continuously feed games with upgrades and still retain historical fidelity. The scope of the conflict gives gamers a wealth of choices: games can be made to simulate global conflict, operational conflict, or tactical conflict. In short, World War II has it all. Fads of gaming eras will come and go, but World War II has an enduring audience. And CDV is competing strongly in that niche.

And Tonight You’ll Be Having…?

The second installment in the Codename: Panzers series, Codename: Panzers – Phase Two has an interesting offering to wargamers. It is a real-time tactical game (though I will refer to it as an RTS since that seems to be the convention for games of this nature) that mercifully ignores peasant pushing and overemphasis on resource gathering. Focusing purely on combat, it compares favorably with Ground Control.

Set during World War II, the player has a choice of three campaigns: Axis, Allied, or Yugoslav. The first thing I noticed about Codename: Panzers – Phase Two is that it strikes a curious balance between a grognard and RTS level of realism. The diversity of units and tactical skill required to play the game suggest a game created with grogs in mind, but the scale, damage abstraction, concessions to gaminess, and occasional quest for limited resources suggest an RTS game.

The first game in the series, Codename: Panzers – Phase One, was immensely popular among game critics, but failed to sell well in the US. In Europe, however, it occasionally outsold DOOM 3, which makes it a hit, though perhaps not exactly a surprise given the uninspiring gameplay offered by id Software.

The Hardware is A-Changin’

CDV has clearly labeled the game as a DVD-ROM in the upper right hand corner of the front cover of the box, and the game requirements list a DVD-ROM as a hardware requirement for the game. Hopefully gamers with CD-ROM drives only catch the message, but if they don’t look carefully, they may be left with an unplayable game. DVD versions are becoming common in Europe (where CDV is based) and in premium-priced "Director's Cut" and "Collection's Editions" of certain titles here in North America, but the use of DVDs in standard releases struck me as a surprising move. While the adaptation of DVD-ROM drives is a good step forward, the shift hasn't been consistent for all PC games or even for all publishers. The popular Battlefield 2 has both a DVD and CD-ROM version and many games set for release this fall will follow the same format. But Panzers, Phase Two surprised me because it was CDV's first "DVD only" release.

Since I already have a DVD in my PC installation was a breeze for me and I have no issues to report. Codename: Panzers – Phase Two does use Starforce as its copy protection, and though Starforce’s bugs are well documented their rarity meant that this time my roll of the dice was without incident.