WWII Tank Commander (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.2 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jason Ocampo
• Reviewed on: 02/07/2006
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 02/14/2006
• Originally published on GameSpot: WWII Tank Commander (PC) Review

If you're a simulation fan thinking of picking up WWII Tank Commander and thinking you'll get an M1 Tank Platoon out of it, don't. Despite its name, you don't really command a tank in WWII Tank Commander. This isn't a simulation of tank combat so much as it is an action arcade game of tank combat. In fact, WWII Tank Commander is almost like a first-person shooter, but instead of holding a gun and running around, you're firing a tank cannon and rumbling around the French countryside on treads. It's an incredibly simple game, which can be expected for a budget title that sells for $20, but the crazy thing is that, for all its flaws and issues, it also packs a simple charm.

WWII Tank Commander puts you in control of one of Patton's tanks during his romp through Europe, and the action is fairly straightforward. Using the familiar mouse/keyboard control scheme used for most first-person shooters, you'll steer your tank through a series of highly scripted battlefields, blasting away at German tanks, artillery, and infantry along the way. For all the attention to detail that the game pays to getting the sway and rocking motion of a tank's suspension right, this is very much a first-person shooter where all you have to do is put the cursor on the target and fire away. There's very little semblance to realism, as German tanks pretty much take three hits to kill every time, while your tank has a health bar that can absorb plenty of hits. And if your health runs low, just run over one of the many health packs that enemy tanks leave behind when they die.

There are all sorts of arcade-style contrivances in the game. For example, the perpetual fog in the distance ensures that all engagements take place from close to medium range. Enemy tanks don't really move much, and you have to get close enough to "trigger" them before they notice you. Enemy infantry stand in the open and wait for you to mow them down, or run them over. You'll be part of a platoon of American tanks, none of which will die no matter how many hits they take, so it's easy to let them get in front of you and soak up all the hits. They won't die unless it's scripted into the mission. You have the fastest loader in the history of tank warfare, because he can get a new round into the cannon in about three seconds. Missions are a bit like old-fashioned rail shooters in that each one unfolds the exact same way as the others.

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