Enter Theatre of War 2: North Africa 1943, the latest game from Russia-based 1C Company, the same people behind the recently released Men of War. Unfortunately, there’s already a problem within that small fact. What appears like a curious blend of Men of War and the classic Close Combat games, Theatre of War 2 is trying to deliver the same strategic action, but pulling away slightly from the more personal aspects delivered in Men of War. Men of War also set the bar for giving an intuitive context-based action/cover system, as well as some pretty decent graphics for what is essentially a low-key developer.
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| Unlike the last game, buildings are now enterable. | Should the crew of your guns die, you can always find replacements from elsewhere in your taskforce. |
Coming then to Theatre of War 2, so far the graphics seem sub-par and ‘bitty’, the command system, whilst giving its own set of commands, seems a bit limited and leaves a lot to the AI. The AI scripting can either be a good or bad thing, depending on how easy one finds it. On the one hand the computer does tell infantry to find the nearest cover, but on the other it would just be a whole lot... simpler, if you could just tell it where to go. For that, you would need some more direct control over the troops, which the game isn’t really set up for. The battle view is very much a 3D homage to the old Close Combat series, with a pulled back view that allows you take in a lot at once, but you can also zoom in to look at things from the ground.
Still, the game is an improvement from the first title in the series, as you can now have your infantry enter buildings for cover bonuses, and opposing infantry forces have ‘hand-to-hand’ fights when they encounter each other in buildings. It’s nothing special, but a nice touch. There are also more advanced commands and controls for your infantry units, such as ‘sneak’ and ‘ambush’, however given the nature of a lot of the missions, a few seem a little redundant. As for formations, they can be useful, but fiddly, especially since it resets itself to the default formation every time.
The game is a little too light on content at the moment, with only 15 missions spread across 3 campaigns: American, English and German, which is only 5 missions for each campaign. You expect those kinds of figures in an expansion pack, not an original title. On the other hand though, some of the levels are so hard, and require re doing so often, that it takes a while to go through the game as it is. Still, it seems a bit odd to see 1C come out with some great titles recently, and then to suddenly release this game.
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| I’ll say this about the game; it does carnage rather well... | Yes, there is also air support. Bombs ready buddy. |
One of the other ‘homage’s’ to Close Combat is the intricate pre-battle roster system that exists. Not only can you choose the composition of your forces before hand, but you can also swap out individual members of any given unit. A guy in one of your tanks not loading fast enough? Swap him out for someone decent. Want to give the rookies a shot? Swap out some veterans. Anyone who ever played that classic 2D series will feel a sense of familiarity in this section. Unfortunately, it seems to be a bit of a waste of time since the roster pool changes from mission to mission, thus ruining any sense of a ‘dynamic’ and consistent campaign mechanic. Not to mention the lack of mission means you can’t use it that often anyway.
There’s still a while yet until this game is released, however some of the problems that have been highlighted so far are more structural, and it is doubtful that things will change dramatically before release. If you like the first game, you’ll probably like this one, even if it is a bit light on content. Still, there is also a ‘Battle’ and ‘User Campaign’ feature that was not available to test in this preview, so maybe there is something there to prolong enjoyment. At the end of the day though, if you care to get more ‘in-depth’ with this time period, and don’t mind a bit of cheesy voice acting, you’re probably much better off going with Men of War, which is already out. As always though, stay tuned for the full review when the game is released. Who knows, things could get a lot better.
