TL;DR:
A fun nostalgia trip for those who enjoyed the Squad Leader board game series, or the original Close Combat games. However, it still possesses many of the same flaws from the originals with few original elements, and 40 dollars for a slight remaster of a 22 year old game is absurd. Buy it on sale.

I grew up playing Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far (for brevity, CC:ABTF), and I loved it. Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem is an incredibly faithful recreation of A Bridge Too Far: literally. This is both a positive and negative; the best aspects of CC: ABTF, such as its grueling difficulty and necessary mastery of basic military tactics are beautifully preserved, as are the worst elements from the 1997 game. Needless to say, I was excited to see that the game had been remade, even if it was given an absurd, $40 price tag. Happily, I was not disappointed.

The best part of CC: Last Stand Arnhem is it's preservation of the most basic elements of the original Close Combat series: infantry tactics. Infantry combat is unlike anything given by most RTS games; you must pay close attention to the morale, physical condition, and ammunition of individual soldiers, and give these elements careful consideration when assigning your soldiers tasks. Better still, each individual soldier in every squad has stats for morale, intelligence, physical condition, and experience, all of which affect their likelihood to act on initiative, utilize cover properly, or break and desert the battlefield. You'll need to pay attention to these stats; sending a squad of low-morale Luftwaffe reserve troops against a highly trained, high morale American paratrooper rifle team that's down to four men is always going to be a bad idea, while Waffen SS troops might go berserk and decide to single-handedly take on an entire rifle company. And even on it's basic difficulty settings, even the most "hardcore" of gamers will find this game challenging; to succeed, you must master reconnaissance, fire and maneuver, and combined arms tactics unless you want to see half your command wiped out by a well coordinated ambush. If you enjoyed the grueling difficulty of the old Close Combat games, you'll be pleased to discover that CC: Last Stand Arnhem is as hard as ever.

The largest departures from the original series come in the forms of the maps available and how the campaigns function; almost every single map from the original game has been changed and there are a number of additional areas not included in the previous Close Combat series. The Graves Bridge, the Maas-Waal Canal Bridges, and the Best Bridge are now all included in the game, and add quite a fun element to the campaign when choosing the best axis of advance. Even old bridges which we are more familiar with have been fully rendered; Arnhem Road Bridge, Arnhem Rail Bridge, and Nijmegen Bridge are fully depicted in their entirety, allowing attempts to seize a bridge from both ends at once, or for defenders to focus all their efforts on guarding one side of the river.

The campaign mode of CC: Last Stand Arnhem has also undergone some welcome changes from the original. While CC:ABTF's campaigns were largely linear affairs, players managing each battle with little control over where units went or the actual strategy of campaigns, Last Stand Arnhem incorporates a strategic map allowing for movement of larger units and an overall customization of the grand strategy for Operation Market Garden. This allows for players to make riskier decisions on a higher level; an Allied player can choose to rush the British armored units to Arnhem as fast as possible at the potential expense of leaving the underarmed 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions to face German panzers all on their own, or leave the British airborne to fend for themselves north of the Rhine while methodically advancing up Hell's Highway to avoid the risk of having supply lines cut by panzers. This strategic map skillfully integrates the necessity of capturing (or keeping) bridges intact, while allowing players a number of opportunities to achieve these goals, including capturing ferry crossings, and to even attempt river crossings in assault boats, such as the 82nd's famed crossing of the Waal River to capture Nijmegen bridge. These offerings allow for a great deal of historical revisionism, so to speak; rather than rush to capture and hold Arnhem Bridge, an allied player might choose to instead capture the Driel Ferry, or attempt an assault crossing of the Rhine further south of Arnhem, and outflank the German panzers.

However, the infuriating aspects of the original Close Combat series remain unchanged, most glaringly apparent in the armor AI. It's incomprehensible that after more than two decades, tanks in the CC series still move in the same stuttering, uncertain manner, moving back and forth indecisively and taking agonizingly long times to turn to engage enemies. Micromanagement of tanks, or using them almost solely defensively, is a must. And in a game in which armor represented a major aspect of the battle being portrayed, the terrible manner of how tanks move, engage enemies, and find paths to the locations you want them to go is, frankly, unforgivable.

On a similar vein, not all the changes from the original are welcome ones; like most remasters from the CC series, battles now end when one sides overall force morale are too low, resulting in the unit losing some ground on the map, and, if too much ground is lost, either disbanding or being forced to retreat. This can be particularly infuriating in early phases of the campaign; my first allied playthrough had XXX Corps delayed over 24 hours in the very first map, not due to a brilliant use of German tactics slowing my armored spearhead, but rather from their pigheaded tactics resulting in almost instantaneous retreats and my seizure of a measly three victory points, forcing me to fight the battle again later to utterly clear them from the map, even though the Germans had little more than a command squad and single light machine gun left to fend off my armor. Similarly, if you don't beeline for a bridge when commanding the paratrooper units, you run the risk of the small German garrison being allowed to blow the bridge simply due to RNG determining that the ground you "captured" during their retreat contained a road, a windmill, and some building, rather than the actual objective; when you return to seize the bridge proper on the next round of RTS combat, the Germans have finished the demolition preparations, and will blow the bridge instantly. This mode can be turned off, but it will require either capturing all victory points, eliminating all enemy forces, calling a cease-fire, or turning on the battle time limit to end the battle.

Finally, and on the most nitpicky point in the history of nitpicking: what happened to the beautiful Bailey bridges of CC:ABTF? When the Germans blew a bridge in the original game, after it was "repaired," fighting on the map depicted a newly built Bailey bridge next to the remnants of the original bridge. This aspect is now gone; a repaired bridge is little more than hundreds of copy pasted "rubble" effects from the base game connected to "fix" the bridge, and it looks awful. Is this a petty and minor complaint? Yes. But I've forgiven the fact that all other graphics in the game have not changed from the original, 1997 version. C'mon guys, Atomic games managed to put in cool looking Bailey bridges 20 years ago, you can put in the same amount of effort there.

In any case, in spite of my complaints, it's still fun. As someone who was quite literally first exposed to videogames in the form of games like Close Combat, I love this game. I've played, well, far too much in the first week owning the game, and I fully anticipate spending even more time trying out new techniques and tactics for both pulling off, and defending against, Operation Market Garden.

Classic game and still very decent, however not worth the full asking price.
Wish the devs had put more work into the remaster, some of the AI is still very questionable.
Once you have worked out the angles on a map you can just lay waste to a larger enemy.
To be honest with you it's about time someone built a complete new game using the close combat series as they could be onto a winner. Just modernise the graphics slightly, give a few more command options, 'canon fodder' up the units so that if you lose one it really hurts, and improve the enemy AI.
New players will probably be put off by the aged graphics for these games, however I beg you to give it a go as the game is very satisfying. Memory lane for a lot of us ageing gamers.

Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem is a real time strategy game set during the Market Garden Operation during WWII. It is based on Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far which was originally released in 1997. This is modernized version of CC2 with improved AI pathfinding, improved graphics and effects.

You can play as either the Americans or the Germans fighting in single battles, operations or a full blown grand campaign. This allows you to move units around on a map and when a unit has contact with an enemy unit you then get to play the battle on that map in real time. On the map there are objectives for you to capture giving each battle a sense of purpose.

The game really shines in it's depth. Units have ammo, are slower when carrying heavier weapons and get fatigued if you run them all over the map without rest. They have morale and while they will follow your orders they also can act independently. If you send an infantry unit to assault a building with an enemy unit inside you will find once they get in range they will start throwing grenades and enter hand to hand combat while you watch on and hope your guys come out in one piece.

There is a wide range of units for you to choose from allowing you to try out new tactics. There are different infantry types for different roles. MG units are great for suppressing the enemy. Mortars rain hell down from afar, but be warned, the further away the more inaccurate they are. You can use a wide range of tanks and anti tank guns, just remember to support them with your infantry or they can be ambushed and taken out a lot easier. You also sometimes are able to call in off map support such as air strikes or artillery barrages. These can be game changes at taking out specific enemy targets or helping you clear an objective before moving in.

The maps are varied, with some wide open spaces and tight house to house fighting as well as fighting through fields and hedge rows. Sounds are excellent and you can make out the different weapons being used on the battlefield.

If you enjoy strategy games with a WWII theme then I highly recommend this game. It has plenty of replay value and should keep you busy for a long time. The game is realistic but has different options to allow the game to be easier or harder. Such as units always obeying your orders, or always being able to see where the enemy is. Being able to customize the game to suit your playstyle is excellent and I'm glad they continue to keep it in the series.

I'm happy to see more Close Combat games come to steam and this is a great addition to the previous ones we have. If you buy the game on the Slitherine website you can also claim a steam key. Currently they have a 75% off sale on their website for the holidays so you can get Last Stand Arnhem for $10 and claim your steam key.

This is one of my favorite games of all time. This game proves that looks and fancy graphics aren't everything. The game play is immersive. This is one of the deepest RTS games of all time. It may seem slow at first, but as you play through operations and campaigns its depth really shines.

4k graphics with no black border in full screen for an old classic, well worth the $10 on the Matrix site and a free Steam Key.

Started playing Avalon Hill Advanced Squad Leader in late 70's early 80's, so I'm an old Grognard. Have the first Close Combat game and all the other ones in the series. So my opinion may be biased. This is a slow moving, very tactical type of Infantry combat. What works in real life works in this game. You better make sure your advancing troops have an over watch and you are suppressing the enemy or you will get cut up good. The realism factor is high. A 60mm mortar or heavy MG will not take out a Tiger, but will do some damage on personnel carriers. Line of Sight is tricky. Not everyone in the squad can see the enemy, so placement of units is vital. Of course the opposite is true. If you can see the enemy he can see you. It is a game of timing. Know when to expose yourself and when to hide. Know when to rush the position and when to stay covered. Although human realism is also factored into your units. If a unit is getting pounded pretty good some soldiers will head for the hills or surrender. And they sure won't get out of that ditch and rush the position. But as with war and realism and based off of the ASL model you must keep your Platoon and HQ leaders close to your infantry units. And sometimes a hero will rise up and save the day. It's random and no scenario plays the same way twice. All the soldiers have names and gain experience as the campaign plays out. Was being real careful with some units and gaining experience thru a campaign when they got trapped by three Panthers and just destroyed. They were screaming to get them out and cries of Medic were ringing in my headphones. I swear I had tears in eyes in the absolute frustration of listening to their pleas not being able to do anything but watch. I could only imagine what that had to be like in real life. Watching your friends get slaughtered. But I think that is one of the reasons that a game like this resonates with a true wargamer. To become emotionally involved with digital and fictional characters is a high endorsement for any game. Spoiler alert: I cried in Red Dead Redemption II when Arthur's horse died in the end too. Yeah I'm an old sap.
Later.

Good re-issue of a CC classic.
There are some decent improvements to graphics with the CC5 era engine being used to remodel the A Bridge Too Far scenario. It all adds new maps and a branching strategic map to the operation as well as many new maps and variations of older maps. I also like that they still have the building of combat teams using the buy/sell point scale for adding new units / retiring old / injured / weak units. ...I wish the newer games like Gateway To Caen and Panthers in the Fog still used the point buy system. Maybe "The Bloody First" will bring back that mechanic.

Much good fun to be had in this remake, but...
I wish they had updated the AI for vehicle movement and targeting.
I also wish they had not released it at a full game price, not for my sake, but to get more overall interest in the series.
Get it, but get it on sale.

The best of the close combat re-releases so far. I cannot believe that this company has messed up this franchise so badly. The originals were awesome, the remakes are crap!

I still consider the original CC2 Bridge Too Far the ultimate, but the format is fantastic, the platform is endless, pick a theatre of the war you want to play and buy that version !!!

They could have modernized the interface and add more graphical options etc, they just put the old game as it was and made it work on newer systems, the prices are too steep for this little improvement.