Being a Battlezone II fan, I bought Combat Commander instantly when it came out. I should have waited. There are many issues with the game. First of all, this is not a complete remake. They've remastered the graphics and added modern multiplayer support, but almost everything else is identical to how it played back in the old days. Controls are really sluggish even when mouse accel is off. Audio has NOT been remastered. By today's standards, the audio is low quality and that doesn't help immersion. The old voice acting is also not very good for 2018. With all that said, if you love the Battlezone games and want a sort-of remake, then you might consider getting this game. Just know that it is primarily the graphics and effects that are changed. Everything else is pretty much untouched for better or for worse. *Note: You need GoG Galaxy to play this online (if you need an external software to verify and play a game online, then I consider that DRM).*
Gameplay rating: 4/5 Campaign rating: 2/5 This review will contain some spoilers, but I will try to keep it as mild as possible. **The good** - The narrator is AMAZING. He perfectly embodies the wit and evil that this game is all about. - Gameplay is solid. Digging tunnels and designing a base is very entertaining. - The game has many layers of complexity due to rituals, potions, defences, etc. There are many unique buildings and units. **The bad** - The writing and story is low quality. [Spoiler:] you're evil and you want to invade the overworld. The humans/dwarves are like a caricature of the most dim-witted, naive, heroic, defenders you can think of. - Enemies always announce their intentions loudly and dim-wittedly: "Let's go lads! Attack now and destroy this evil lord!" (repeat x100 for most missions). It's boring even if it's intentional. - Unpolished game (see bugs below) - Wildly varying difficulty between levels, and the final missions are too easy. - 60% of the campaign feels like a long tutorial - You can finish the campaign in 7-10 hours. - Human enemy AI is very limited and predictable. [Spoiler:] The enemy Underlords are a little more creative. - [Spoiler:] Many missions are quite boring. For example, there are several defence missions where you can just build a door and some cannons, and the enemies will never get past, because they always attack the same place with the same units. - [Minor spoiler:] Lacklustre, anti-climatic, cliffhanger ending. I won't go into specifics, but you can google it. **Bugs** - Poor framerate (my PC handles other demanding games just fine). - Game will periodically (every 20-60s) freeze for half a second. - I spent a lot of time trying to fix the load bug (couldn't load games). - In the last mission, many of the enemy siege doors were placed sideways. - Enemies repeating their dialogue - Enemies mysteriously froze and stopped attacking in the final mission, even if the main boss kept announcing that they were coming
