Gram w tą serię od 2005 roku, realizm nie do pobicia. Gra wymaga sporo nauki ale naprawdę warto.

Like all the rest of the Combat series of games, this is a great addition to the series. HOWEVER, it's time to update the engine guys, it runs like ass and while, we pretty much all enjoy the game, there's no excuse for producing 9 out of 10 games on (What the development team calls new) an Engine that has the same piss poor performance with ZERO updates... Great series, horrendous business practices.

I've played quite a few of the cm games and this one is by far the most laggiest and slowest of all of them.
The absolute awful lag combined with the out-dated engine and over-price of all of their titles leads me to down-vote this - do not buy this one, black sea is better performance wise if you're dying for a strat/tactical game with a good realism and fun.

they need to stop trying to milk the series hiding behind the bullcrap defense of "bUt ThErEs NoThInG eLsE lIkE iT".
No - there isn't anything else like it right now. But when someone does make something BETTER and more AFFORDABLE their titles will be FORGOTTEN and laughed at as a way to not do business.

Using all the tricks in the books from forcing vsync, turning the graphics all down to their lowest AND the arguably best way of increasing your performance - playing turn based (which i even prefer to the real time option) this still cooks your pc, stutters and feels like its going to crash every two seconds and the unit movement and so forth is far too slow so you'll end up spending half of an irl hour getting your troops to the engagement zone and then only to fight an 8 minute engagement. Not worth the time.

I've said this before but they need to stop this very (I very rarely use this cringe word) toxic business model and start making their games cheaper and more affordable to build a bigger fanbase and spread awareness - then they need to make a NEW engine for gods sake - bring it up to date with modern-day expectations from a strategy game features wise (start with adding an actual list on the side featuring all your HQs - then their subordinates in a nice easy to access way) and then streamline all the features currently in the game with more on-screen data (for example - calling in an artillery strike should tell you the rough time it'll take factoring in your units stress - suppression - how many units are spotting and helping etc etc) on screen in a simple little count-down and a percentage stating accuracy of said bombardment after your guys radio back saying "on target".
I have other complaints but cba to write them right now.
Ignore the steam time.
I am actually a fan of the cm series.

tl;dr:
Its the little things that count - this is currently failing at the bigger things and will not be fixed because of the limitations of the engine and the stubbornness of the devs (not the fantastic publishers ofcourse).

Oh this one is tough. On one hand, I think Combat Mission Cold War delivers gameplay that no other game has been able to replicate. Intense squad action, riveting battles. On the other hand, CMCW also feels like playing the 9th game in a series where they just never bothered to make actual improvements. The graphics are ancient yet the game runs terribly on larger maps. The units are heavily reliant on spotting and the spotting system, but actually "seeing" what your units see is a struggle, one that other games (like Steel Division 2) have solved a long time ago. The campaign missions are *brutal*, like there is no feasible way one is supposed to win any of those battles blindly, and as a complete newcomer to the series this has been both a beautiful and intensely irritating struggle, with reloading maps over and over again because you didn't know that the tree over there was see-through but this one isn't.

Also, for the price, it seems sorta weird that you only get two factions. The US and the Soviets, none of the other major cold war combatants. I have to say I have a real hard time with this game, and I don't know if I would recommend it. Perhaps the other combat mission games are better and the campaigns less bloated, but this one is just hard to recommend.

(I mean seriously, map 3 of the US campaign is so intensely overloaded with units and stuff that the game actually freezes repeatedly if you look in a certain direction during game start. It took me over an hour to set up my units because the game would constantly freeze out trying to overcome its own programming. And my rig is pretty modern, and it runs stuff pretty well, but that is just awful awful optimization.)

Addendum as of 09-08-2022:

I feel compelled to write this extra part after having finally engaged in the multiplayer aspect of this game. Through the board The Few Good Men I was able to start a couple of PBEM matches, and I also used the automated match finding feature baked into the game. I have to say, it is a wildly better product than the singleplayer part of the game, so much so that I would say to just skip the campaigns and just focus on the quick missions and multiplayer. Performance is infinitely better on the more normal sized maps, the issues with the AI cheating are of course gone as you are facing players, and there is a lot of strategy to sus out which makes the game more interesting.

If you intend to buy this game for the singleplayer aspect, then I do not recommend a purchase, but if you intend to buy it for the multiplayer, I do recommend it.

I want to get this out of the way for people who are looking at the "Mixed" reviews and are scared off by it. PAY THAT NO ATTENTION. The game originally released back in April on Battlefront.com so a vast majority of people playing on steam redeemed their keys in November December and are very happy with it. Steam does not count those who redeemed keys in the total reviews as an anti-corruption measure, which is good except in this case it skews the review numbers and doesn't count those people in the total review counts including this review.


Combat Mission is a tactical battle simulator franchise that aims to simulate real world equipment, battle doctrines, and soldier behavior in the context of various real and theoretical conflicts. Currently the three games available on Steam (at the time of this review) all cover eras between the end of the Cold War (this title) The War on Terror (Shock Force 2) and a now not so-theoretical 2017 intervention in the Ukraine (Black Sea). On Battlefront's website, they also offer several titles set during the WW2 era which are just as in depth and intense to play but with a quite different flavor. These are set to come to steam throughout the year of 2022 (hopefully).

Combat Mission has two primary modes of play, WeGo Turn by Turn. Where the player issues orders to the AI and then the AI plays out your orders over the course of a minute(turn). And Realtime which is similar to many other RTS's with the ability to give orders on the fly and stop time whenever you please. Turn by Turn is great for commanding large forces because it gives you regular 1 minute intervals to adjust your entire forces orders as needed. In addition, you can rewind time up to a minute and watch every aspect of the battle in detail. This does come at the cost of having no control of your troops while a turn is played out. On the other hand, Realtime is a lot more conventional but has a difficulty curve of trying to keep track of everything as things develop in well, REAL TIME. Ultimately it's up to you which you prefer.

(Let's get this out of the way first)

PERFORMANCE:
Combat Mission's engine is OLD I mean like, 2000's OLD. As a result much of its baseline coding doesn't take good advantage of advances in modern hardware. And as a result, the engine has a hard time rendering and drawing in large maps, of which there are quite a few in Cold War. There are some tricks to improving performance such as turning off in game shadows and shaders but it's still not great. Supposedly the developers are developing a new version of the engine that will focus on performance issues but I wouldn't expect that update for some time. For smaller maps and engagements the game runs fine but the larger ones are ROUGH FPS wise.

MULTIPLAYER:
MP for a game like this was designed back in the days when internet connections were not fast enough to permit a smooth multiplayer experience (some would argue we still aren't there). As a result, it uses a Play By Email system or PBEM. At its most basic level, PBEM works by sending save files back and forth between two players. There's a video tutorial which explains the system in full here: https://youtu.be/cVMBQrAwsEw Needless to say it's outdated but it does work. Now with Cold War, Slitherine games developed a new PBEM++ System which handles this process automatically, but the servers aren't stable and there are serious issues. Also there's no easy way to do coop against the AI. It IS possible but it requires some rather roundabout workarounds to get it to function correctly.

GRAPHICS:
Combat Mission is a graphically simple game. There are very simple and rigid death animations and tank turrets and systems do not detach when they explode. Unlike some games however, the game gives you plenty of feedback through penetration indicators, basic fire and smoke effects, and explosions and ground deformation to let the player know what is happening. So if you're looking for the best looking game series on the market you've come to the wrong place.


REALISM
You've probably read through a number of reviews and everybody comments on how realistic the game is. But what does that actually mean here? First off, if you attempt to play this game like you would most RTS's like Wargame, Men of War, or Company of Heroes, you'll quickly find that most "strats" common to those titles simply don't apply here. Weapons, vehicles, and capabilities are modeled in Combat mission titles to a T and NOT adjusted for gameplay purposes. As an example, an M1 Abrams can almost be considered cheating with how good it is compared to the much more common M60s the US is equipped with most of the game. This is a simulator not Company of Heroes: Cold War.

REAL TERRAIN
Terrain and how you use it plays a HUGE factor in whether or not you succeed. Essentially, look at the terrain as you would in the real world. If a ridgeline/wall is just a little too tall to keep units from seeing over it in the real world, it's likely that way here. Familiarize yourself with terms like dead ground, defilade, and cover vs. concealment as terrain will dictate everything you do.

REAL FORMATIONS & TACTICS
Ever wondered how all the various pieces of equipment in an army fit together on the battlefield? Well with Combat Mission titles, while it is possible to attach individual units, a vast majority of the time you will be utilizing real world formations. You are given units designed to work together in a specific and real world way. Utilizing them incorrectly or in ways they are not intended will often result in massive casualties for very little gained. If you have real world military training, approach this as one of your real world maneuvers and exercises and you'll find great success. If you're confused, I recommend checking out Usually Hapless's YT channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9egpHJiRis89uHkeyJiEug and looking through his Combat Mission Basics guides for more detailed rundowns on the games mechanics.

REALISTIC SPOTTING & INFO Sharing
Units in CM do not instantaneously see things that are in front of them, units need to spot enemies through a combination of many background soft factors. Eyeballs are great at seeing things close up in a wide field of view, but struggle at distance. Vehicle optics are often great at distance, but struggle with field of view and close range. Thermal sights are amazing at spotting concealed units, but are rare in this time period and only a small # of vehicles have them. But just because a unit sees something, doesn't mean everybody sees it. Which is why you have HQ teams to pass that spotting information to your units so people know what to look at and or roughly where something is. Command and control is critical to your success.

CM is the Dark Souls/Arma of RTS's, but if you want the most realistic representation of how real world forces fight, combat mission is as good as it gets for Battalion sized units or smaller. I cannot recommend this franchise enough. Id say more but I've run out of characters. Thanks for reading!

I played Battle for Normandy 10 years ago when it first came out. Earlier this year, I paid for CM engine upgrade 4 to bring the game up to date. This has renewed my interest in the CM series and when I heard about Cold War I jumped on the Super Bundle of CMCW, CMBS and CMSF2.

I was stationed just south of the Fulda Gap in 1975-77 when I served in the US Army (Combat Engineer), so this game is of special interest to me. I'm really enjoying it and have played 2 battles so far. Very challenging and rewarding. I'll play a few more battle to get familiar before I jump into one of the campaigns.

Like other CM games, it takes lots of planning and thought (time). Recommended for anyone who enjoys a deep, thought provoking game.

After Combat Mission Shock Force 2 and Black Sea that i like a lot i cant recomend ths game, Cold War has a lot of units on the board (total mobilization like IRL) but both the engine and gameplay isnt adapted for this type of scope.
Too many units that makes the game boring trying to play after 20 min micromanaging everyone (you need because the game dont have a good pathfinding).
Trying to apply Soviet tatics is a pain in the ass, if you try the move-stop advance tatics with the T-62 the TacAI will not obey you and will retreat after the first shell hit one of your tanks, sending BMPs 300 meters behind them have the same effect and then again you need to micromanage the orders all over again because they can follow orders under fire.
On this game Battlefront try to make the game scope big like Graviteam Tactics: Mius-Front but fails, Combat Mission was aways about small engagements and more platoon tatics and barely has the functions or the performance to go above this.

The same high quality as previous Combat Mission- titles. Not superb technically with modest graphics, choppy frame rate etc. However, as far simulating a tactical battlefield goes, this is as good as it gets to my experience. Extremely accurately modeled contemporary weapon systems, ultra realistic use of terrain and tactics and so forth. Rather steep learning curve if you have never played CM- games before, but easy to pick up if you have.

Very challenging, and requires you to be able to use the strengths of each of your units and the terrain under your control, efficient use of indirect fire as well as deploying and maneuvering your units so they are able to support each other. The AI seems quite capable of exploiting your mistakes and applying pressure.

There are not too many serious games depicting the Cold War era around, so also from that point of view this is a welcome title. In my opinion teaming up with Slitherine and coming to Steam has been a wise decision from the developers to reach new audiences in addition to the most hardcore wargamers. Prices are a bit on the expensive side as you could expect from niche titles, but Slitherine as a publisher has also improved this aspect.

I have bought both the other Combat Mission games and though they were laggy I really enjoyed them, they were a bit over priced for what they were but ok. This game will not even let me finish the 2nd lvl US campaign without the game crashing. I get an error message about memory and then it crashes. This doesn't happen when I play the Quick Battle ( with Battlion sized units) only the campaign and it doesnt happen with the other 2 games in the series. I paid you 60 AUD for a fully functional game. FIX IT PLEASE. As in it's current state it is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

I'm sure we're all wargamers here, and I'm not going to bash the work of the devs,
However, for £46 this is the same game I have already bought several times over. It's literally no different from all the others. I suppose that's to be expected being the same series and all. I don't know why I was expecting more.

I also, and this may be either a scenario or general fatigue with the series thing but.. it's a bit dull. The fighting bit is vastly overshadowed by the many, many minutes of maneuver, fiddly repositioning, sight-line checking and micro managing. 10 minutes of fiddly clicking. Bang. Dead. It's just not the type of game I want to play any more, 90% faff and 10% fun.