Posted on: December 22, 2020
Toffeeviola
Verified ownerGames: 58 Reviews: 1
Dull Allied A.I.
I should preface this by pointing out that I own the entire Close Combat series barring CC1, including the remakes. I've been doing an Axis playthough in chronological order, and this particular version the as the absolute worst A.I. I've seen. Now the Close Combat A.I. has never been good, per se. But it's always been at least functional. Here, the Allied A.I. is passive to the point of tedium. On more than one occasion, during a beach assualt, I've literally had the Allied A.I. refuse to leave its deployment box. Bear in mind that there are 12-15 battles per part-day, and there are six days in the campaign. This means that often I will have to wait 20+ minutes of literally nothing happening before the Allies accept a truce and I can move on. I understand that most people will want to play as the Allies assualting the German entrenched positions, but that is no excuse. Close Combat has always allowed both sides to play, and the A.I. has always had some measure of aggression. Here, well-stocked American battlegroups with supporting tanks are, most games, afraid to advance 50 metres lest they run into a thin screen of low-morale, low-quality Osttruppen (i.e. Axis Russian conscripts). It's pathetic programming (and I say that as a professional developer). This is probably the worst in the series just because it's so tedious. I'm only giving it three stars because of the relatively high historical fidelity, and the games' strong core mechanics. But even if you are a fan of the series, I cannot truly recommend this one.
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