Recent reviews by Grody

You might need to install two patches to get the game running.

https://aow.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=850

and after that I still had the game crashing whenever I tried to start a level so I had to install this one and it works now.

https://github.com/int19h/aow-patch/releases/tag/v1

Just drop them and run them in the place steam installs the game too. Right click on game in library> browse local files, then copy and run those patches in there.

Triumph, update the game with these, baka boys.

If only they knew I'd be using this software to create Lucky Star weight gain comics.

Shoutouts to Krita dev team and Snobby Lobby for making my ambitions of being a super specific fetish artist more accessible.

It's one of the best games you'll ever play.

Glad someone tipped me off to this, this game is great if you want a fantasy tactics game. My only real nitpick is that ranged units fire through others without penalty but the game is so much fun otherwise i don't mind it here. Theres one called "The Free World' which you can play to see if you'd want to buy. Totally recommend, the game is super fun.

One of the dumbest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ games I've ever played in my life.

Get 4 instead.
Or play Halo MP, it's free and it's better than this ♥♥♥♥.

Still better than half the ♥♥♥♥ they put out today.

It lets you play Shatterhand in 3D.

The straight poop: They are cool games if you can put up with technical issues and jank, despite the super generic name it's actually a pretty unique experience because of it being mostly a sim.

It's not a sequel to Shock Force either, it's an improved version of Shock Force but they slapped a 2 on it for some reason.

And if you want a wargame community where most of the members are usually pretty friendly, that plays Combat Mission here's one: https://discord.gg/cf8jenZ

I've played the game for a decent amount of time, I bought the game from their site a year or so ago, and redeemed the steam key today to leave a review, because their official community tends to play kiss ass and ignore any faults in the game, and that's probably one reason why the engine has seen little to no noticeable improvements in the OVER A DECADE they have been using it. The community doesn't simply care enough to ask for a better product. I suspect this is probably because most of them are older people who don't play many video games, but they are the kind to ignore imperfections, the only thing they care about is the soldiers pants being the right color.

The games are good but Battlefront is kind of a crappy developer in terms of actually making the game. They are a small developer, (I think it's less than 10 people and only a couple of them are programmers) and that's great. I love supporting small studios. The problem is, is that they made their own ghetto engine that runs like ass. I'm fine with games looking dated if they run fine, but that's an example right there. I've bought several of their games, and they all run playable, but poorly. I've run them on a $500 computer, and a $1500 computer, they just run like ♥♥♥♥. And I would be fine with that if they actually made efforts to optimize their engine, but they haven't and probably never will unless the recent partnership with Slitherine has Slitherine either assisting them or strong arming them into doing it. The performance issue isn't as bad if you play turn-based, but if I played real time mode I'd be annoyed.


The problem is, is that unless Slitherine Makes them fix ♥♥♥♥, it's never going to happen. I've had problems in this game that have been issues since Battle For Normandy, and they will never, ever release engine optimizations themselves.

Now we talk about the game itself. It's the kind of game you would be interested in if you are the kind of person who likes or liked games like Men Of War, but wanted the next step up in terms of realism. Combat Mission and Graviteam are probably the most realistic games you can buy at the tactical scale, and the cool thing about Combat Mission is that everything in the game can be played in either a pausable real time mode, or turn based WEGO. The way that the turn based mode operates, is that you have two phases. You have the part where you actually give orders, and then you have a one minute period of real time where the game plays and you cannot interfere with your guys during this 1 minute. So in other words, you give orders and plan for that one minute, and then you watch the game play out and you will not be given another opportunity to give or adjust orders until that one minute is up. I love this system and think it's a great way to give you a good amount of control, while one minute of action makes it fun to see how the game unfolds. It's also takes a long time to play, so when you do encounter some kind of bug/ issue it makes the game all the more infuriating.

And despite it being a sim, there are still abstractions, like buildings and forests, and then theres this weird mechanic where civilians are sometimes modelled but aren't actually physically there.

THe big reason I stopped playing is because I've had issues with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and when you spend 3 hours in real life time playing the game to lose a squad because they got seen and shot through a solid wall. I've had someone tell me it could be due to equipment, but I've had it happen in the WW2 games too. I've had soldiers ignore direct orders to fire somewhere where I KNEW someone was hiding, but they ignore it, turn the opposite direction and die.

My favorite is when you order soldiers to move out of the back of a house, but you get the one dude who decides to run in the front, into the middle of the street and get gunned down.

It doesn't happen all the time, but since the game takes so long to play, it infuriates me even more when I do have an issue.

I also believe that despite what the developer claims, Line of sight isn't actually true and is based off of variables and a dice roll. I've had soldiers stand 2 feet in front of a tank and not be able to see it. Also here's a pro-tip. All the foilage on the ground and tree leaves don't affect LOS. So if you have something like a really thick hedge it works, but all the tall grass and what not does absolutely nothing. This confused me when I first played it, since I figured a sim wouldn't put in details that do nothing.

So if you can deal with some jank, occasional bugs, and poor engine performance, but want something that's one of the most realistic tactics games on the market, I'd consider buying it. All the games have demos on Battlefront's website, so I would recommend going there, spending a good amount of time with the demo, and then buying it here or on Slitherine/ Matrix's site, as they will give you a download through their site, as well as a steam key.

Here is a link to the Shock Force 2 demo on Battlefron'ts website
https://www.battlefront.com/shock-force-2/cmsf2-base-game/?tab=demo

This was my favorite game when I was like 11, and this remake is shockingly faithful to the original in everything, from the music, voice recordings, the timing, levels, EVERYTHING, because they not only recreated it, they even used the same audio recordings form the original game, and tied to remaster is (which results in it being scratchy at time) but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this is so stupidly faithful to the game that it makes the differences stand out even more.

It isn't a "remaster" technically, because despite how close it apes the original game, they did make some changes that made a game that already wasn't challenging to begin with, even easier. But it should be said that not all of the changes are actually that bad, I played this game several times through back then, even more so free roaming, and the changes stick out like a sore thumb.

Listing some of the changes that come to mind immidiately:
Transmog for ammo, that wasn't in the original game, that was intorduced in the sequel.
The Anal probe functionality was changed, in the OG you charged it and shot, in this one i's differen't
I believe every single one of the boss fights has been changed, but I can't definitively say because all 3 of them are at the end of the game (yes I'm counting silhouette and robo-prez as two seperate ones, but they are on the same level) so that would be something I don't remember as well
There was a removed portion of dialog on the robo-prez fight (CRUSH HIM LIKE A TIN CAN IN A TRASH COMPACTOR)
There is one new mission
They don't allow you to free roam after mission completion, which actually kinda ruins the drive-in mission where the furon film turns everyone into zombies
The saucer can not only transmog, but you can sheild yourself from incoming missiles
The brain extraction "spreads"
They added a move that allows you to "skate"along the ground but levitating and moving quicker"
The entire game runs off a lock on system, which from what I saw, you can only disable if using a controller

Don't buy, it's already dead.