World War II Tank Commander Review

I can’t say that World War II Tank Commander was at the top of my most wanted list this year. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of it until it dropped through the letterbox and onto my ‘games to be reviewed’ pile. Published by Reef Entertainment and developed by Sylum Entertainment it’s obviously a budget PC title, but it’s playable enough to make it worth a gamble if you fancy some arcade style tank commander action.

There’s not much to it really. You take control of a Sherman tank in General Patton’s Fourth Armoured Division – his best and most elite division. You and your division must fight in the war to drive Nazis out of France and Germany, and what ensues is mission after mission of destructive tank action.

This is where the game will put off lots of people. Tanks don’t really move all that fast, so it’s a fairly slow action game, which takes some getting used to. There’s also a limit to your manoeuvrability. If you’ve just come from a session of UT, switching to WWII Tank Commander won’t be easy, as for the most part it’s best to shoot while stood still. If you know that not being unable to quickly strafe an enemy is going to give you a headache, this isn’t for you.

The game’s arcade style is shown through simple controls and uncharacteristic pick-ups. This is as far from a tank sim as is possible, with tank control very easy to pick-up (there’s no huge manual to read and no precise tank controls to learn) and the landscapes are littered with health and ammo pick-ups. Conserving ammo is still wise as these pick-ups aren’t as readily available as you’d like, but you shouldn’t have to think about it too much.

Missions generally require you to take out all the enemies in the area, protect, follow, defend, or something similar. There’s not a huge variety to it all, but it is quite challenging. The opening mission isn’t all that hard, but the difficulty soon increases and is perhaps too steep a jump, with the second mission far more punishing than the first. It’s certainly not a game you’ll breeze through.

Playing through the missions can be a frustrating experience. The other tanks in your division help out, but stop when they sight an enemy. The problem is that finding the enemies they they’ve seen isn’t that easy, and you often have to wait for your squad mates to take them out before you can move on. Friendly tanks will also fire directly at you if you cross into their line-of-sight – you can sit in front of them for minutes and they’ll continue to fire at the enemy, hitting you in the process. Your machine gun is also pretty ineffective, and seems wildly inaccurate when trying to take out foot-soldiers.

Presentation is never the strongest point in budget releases and this is no different. There’s really nothing horrid, but nothing great either. Menus and pre-mission briefings are plain and lacking voiceovers, and in-game tanks are well modelled, but the environments are bland and lacking in geometry and texture detail. In-game audio is solid, with some adequate music and suitably devastating sound effects, but again, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

Overall, World War II Tank Commander is budget through and through. There are no stand out features, but there’s also nothing show stoppingly bad about it. The fact that arcade style tank games aren’t exactly common makes the game a slight novelty that brings it above the usual uninteresting budget releases, but I can only really recommend it if you absolutely must have a break from the norm.