WWII Tank Commander Review
14 February 2006 | By Alex Jeffreys
W.W.II Tank Commander, an arcade game for arcade people
If you're a fan of cheap and easy, this is your game. If cheap and easy isn't normally your style, perhaps you should reconsider. Cheap and easy does have its charms. W.W.II Tank Commander has the added advantage of being somewhat historically influenced, so you could add it to your war games of history collection.
Simple and straight forward. Start game, get tank, blow stuff up. You get a Sherman tank, a machine gun with ammo that never runs out and mortar capability. What more could you need to save Europe from the Nazis? Nothing, because the Nazis turn out to be by and large fairly soft and squishy. (Small boxes and fences are a different proposition, however.) Your missions will require you to rescue hostages, escort allied convoys and blow the hell out of anything with a swastika.
This is probably more suited to children. Children whose parents allow them to play violent games, or perhaps an elderly person who is learning to use the computer.
This game is exceptionally linear with almost no options or modes to speak of. No multiplayer capability, no difficulty levels. The term ‘difficulty’ level would have to be used ironically anyway.
It would also definitely have benefited from a multiplayer mode. As it is, this game involves merely blowing up infantry and hardware over and over. By yourself. So essentially it's an arcade title, or a FPS masquerading as an arcade title, which is as stealthy as this game gets. Oh, and no save mode either, unless you finish the mission. I guess it teaches you tenacity or something. Perhaps it's a way of subliminally programming people to work on production lines, doing the same thing over and over and over again.
The massive issue with the game is the way that everything is predetermined. This is more scripted than a professional wrestling match. You undertake many missions with fellow tanks, who are apparently impervious to harm unless the story line demands it. This means that you can basically hide behind them, occasionally rumbling forwards to shoot some enemy troops who apparently have not been made aware that they are at war and the big metal things will kill you. They have also not been informed that bullets from a gun don't stop a tank either, poor fellows, evidently Nazi training procedures aren't what they once were.
If some massive tanks are not enough to hide behind, you also have the omnipresent fog of war to secrete yourself in, though even that isn't needed at times because you have to get within a certain distance for enemy tanks to even notice you. Apparently the Nazi's employed people with cataracts to man their tanks, which they then made out of ultra flimsy material which can only take half a handful of hits before it bursts into flames.
So gameplay is deficient and overly scripted, but simple. There is some measure of saving grace though, and that is the developer spent some time making sure that this game looked fairly decent. That means that the tank moves like a tank, with the exception of being able to go through wooden fences, and that things look pretty as they're going boom. Environmentally speaking it's also rather good, with artillery effects interacting well with the landscape. Background noise is also seeks to recreate an authentic experience, with firing sounds and the general crunching of tanks. Jolly good work there chaps.
W.W.II Tank Commander, an arcade game for arcade people. If you like it simple, and you like a cheap price tag, this is definitely worth a look. If you're looking for something a little more in depth with more realism, controls and options, then look elsewhere friend.
W, A, S, D ... Go!
Top Game Moment:
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| Roll on the Allies! | One down, two to go |
Simple and straight forward. Start game, get tank, blow stuff up. You get a Sherman tank, a machine gun with ammo that never runs out and mortar capability. What more could you need to save Europe from the Nazis? Nothing, because the Nazis turn out to be by and large fairly soft and squishy. (Small boxes and fences are a different proposition, however.) Your missions will require you to rescue hostages, escort allied convoys and blow the hell out of anything with a swastika.
This is probably more suited to children. Children whose parents allow them to play violent games, or perhaps an elderly person who is learning to use the computer.
This game is exceptionally linear with almost no options or modes to speak of. No multiplayer capability, no difficulty levels. The term ‘difficulty’ level would have to be used ironically anyway.
It would also definitely have benefited from a multiplayer mode. As it is, this game involves merely blowing up infantry and hardware over and over. By yourself. So essentially it's an arcade title, or a FPS masquerading as an arcade title, which is as stealthy as this game gets. Oh, and no save mode either, unless you finish the mission. I guess it teaches you tenacity or something. Perhaps it's a way of subliminally programming people to work on production lines, doing the same thing over and over and over again.
 |
 |
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| Today we learn why we don't stand in front of enemy tanks | A snowy death for those who stand in your way |
The massive issue with the game is the way that everything is predetermined. This is more scripted than a professional wrestling match. You undertake many missions with fellow tanks, who are apparently impervious to harm unless the story line demands it. This means that you can basically hide behind them, occasionally rumbling forwards to shoot some enemy troops who apparently have not been made aware that they are at war and the big metal things will kill you. They have also not been informed that bullets from a gun don't stop a tank either, poor fellows, evidently Nazi training procedures aren't what they once were.
If some massive tanks are not enough to hide behind, you also have the omnipresent fog of war to secrete yourself in, though even that isn't needed at times because you have to get within a certain distance for enemy tanks to even notice you. Apparently the Nazi's employed people with cataracts to man their tanks, which they then made out of ultra flimsy material which can only take half a handful of hits before it bursts into flames.
So gameplay is deficient and overly scripted, but simple. There is some measure of saving grace though, and that is the developer spent some time making sure that this game looked fairly decent. That means that the tank moves like a tank, with the exception of being able to go through wooden fences, and that things look pretty as they're going boom. Environmentally speaking it's also rather good, with artillery effects interacting well with the landscape. Background noise is also seeks to recreate an authentic experience, with firing sounds and the general crunching of tanks. Jolly good work there chaps.
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| Invincible tanks taking hits | Pretty, isn't it? |
W.W.II Tank Commander, an arcade game for arcade people. If you like it simple, and you like a cheap price tag, this is definitely worth a look. If you're looking for something a little more in depth with more realism, controls and options, then look elsewhere friend.
W, A, S, D ... Go!
Top Game Moment:
WWII TANK COMMANDER VERDICT
W.W.II Tank Commander, an arcade game for arcade people. If you like it simple, and you like a cheap price tag, this is definitely worth a look. If you’re looking for something a little more in depth with more realism, controls and options, then look elsewhere friend.W, A, S, D … Go!
TOP GAME MOMENT
Destroying several tanks and then being foiled by a humble wooden fence. Isn’t life funny.
