From: Bruce Rennie Subject: Panzer General II Demo Review I picked up the latest CGW today. Was pleasantly surprised to see a demo of Panzer General II included on the CD-Rom version. Here's a few of my impressions of the demo. I'll warn you of my biases up front. I almost never buy sequels. I find too often the designers add some flash but no real meat. I bought Red Alert mainly for the SVGA graphics (in retrospect I should have waited for Command and Conquer Gold, but that's another story). Bottom line: If I've played a game, I don't want to play it again with some new graphics or small features. Keep this in mind when reading this review. First, let's talk about what's new (it's a demo, remember). The graphics are "photo-realistic" (SSI's words). That means the maps and units look like pictures of the real thing. Overall, the visuals are very attractive. The overwhelming impression is of playing a table-top miniatures battle. The map is view from a oblique angle as opposed to PG's top down look. The units are also seen from an angle, but the aspect changes depending on the facing of the unit. So, each unit has 6 different "pictures". The maps are nicely done. The demo is based on the Dunkirk scenario map and includes roads, wheatfields, towns (complete with buildings), woods, hedgerows, rivers, and various other features. The impact of map features on movement and combat appears to be identical to PG. The preview video included in the demo shows other maps, including winter maps with snow, etc. Some of the previewed maps appeared to be considerably larger than PG maps. The old, chunky, PG control panel has been replaced by a smaller "toolbar" type list at the side. It seemed to be a little less intrusive than the original panel. Of course, only a few of the featured controls were enabled. A nice touch are the unit information dialogs which are invoked by right clicking on a particular unit. These dialogs show all the usual PG unit information such as soft and hard attack values, initiative, fuel, ammo, etc. As I feared, gameplay is almost identical to PG. The only change I noticed was that the tank units did not have to be adjacent to a target to attack. This, if I'm not mistaken about the whole thing, is a potentially interesting, but minor adjustment. Granted, the basic gameplay of PG is quite simple. It may not be possible to drastically alter the way the game works without destroying that elegant simplicity. But, I still want to see something a little different for my money. Perhaps the release version will supply more. The demo itself is pretty basic. Before the anal-retentive types start complaining, it's not based on a real battle. The demo has you, as the Germans pitted against French, British, and American forces in 1940 France. The tanks shown include Tiger II's, JagdPanthers, Panthers, Char b1's, Comet's, Greyhounds, plus armoured cars, etc. Only vehicles are available. Aircraft are not used. The objective of the demo is to take three towns, which are defended by a line of Allied tanks and artillery. The demo lasts exactly one turn, so there's no dallying. I managed to take all three towns on my third try. As usual with PG, if you attack the right units in the right order, winning is fairly easy. If you don't, you might not get through in 10 turns, or more. If you need a hint, well, the French don't have any artillery, do they? The most significant new features being added seem to be multiplayer support (of course) and a battle editor. Now, call me a heretic, but wargames seem to be the last place to put a lot of effort into multiplayer (except for e-mail, of course). First, it can take quite a while to play one scenario of PG. Secondly, there's a lot of sitting around waiting for the other players to finish their turns. Bring a good book. Anyway, I understand that the game will support up to four players on-line. We'll have to wait for the release to see how they've implemented it. The battle editor has promise. More companies should do this. A battle editor can extend the life of a game indefinitely (which is also why more companies don't do this. They want your money for the next game). Want to battle the Winter War (there appears to be a Finish scenario included in the release), or Operation Mars, or some other obscure battle? You'll be able to. Altogether, from the demo, I'm dissapointed. Not enough new. Considering the popularity of the original, maybe SSI thought that a few tweaks here and there would suffice. For now, though, I'll be saving my money. Bring on Road to Moscow! /bruce -- ******************************************************************************* * Bruce Rennie Q: Are We Not Men ? * * brennie@interlog.com * * * *******************************************************************************