Theatre of War

[Leet Eriksson]

Battlefront has it for direct download on their website, for all of those curious about the game here is the link:

http://www.battlefront.com/products/tow/

Basically the most realisticly simulated WW2 game ever, there are 6 nations in the game: France, Britain, USA, Germany, Russia and Poland. Its too complex for me to review and i hadn't put much time into it yet, just playing a few tutorial and campaign missions (speaking of campaigns all nations have their own campaign). So for those who bought it, what are your thoughts?

Also for those who didn't get the demo right here:

http://www.battlefront.com/products/tow/demo.html

[Zatoichi]

I'm enjoying this game immensely. It's not as 'hard core' as the Combat Mission games, but it's a huge leap from all the other WW2 RTS games on the market, and looks damn good too.

It's a very decent filler until Combat Mission: Shock Force is released later this year at any rate.

Anyway, try the demo - if you like it you'll really enjoy the full game. Battlefront has a good record for supporting its games, so some of the rougher edges will be polished in the near future. Also, there should be a lot of fan made scenarios and campaigns coming out over the next few months, so the SP side of things should have a long shelf life.

[CBR]

Its a nice game but IMO just has a bit too many of the rough edges to make it truely shine. And MP (which is what I really bought the game for) is horrible so I feel my money has been wasted on it.

But its great to see realistic RTT games are coming out, and right now it seems Battlefront are in the center of it all with upcoming titles like CMSF and Les Grognards. I can just hope ToW will be made much better with patches, expansions and maybe a ToW2.


CBR

[Bijo]

I checked out the demo. Beh! It was too unclear and ugly-looking. But I don't mind bad graphics (or it was just my PC ) as long as the gameplay is good and clear: this just looked confusing, therefore the gameplay experience was bad. I deinstalled the demo after a few minutes :P

[Zatoichi]

I deinstalled the demo after a few minutes :P

Well, no one could say you didn't give it a fair go then...

In my opinion it's worth sticking with - it just takes some getting used to. Sure there are issues (as you'll see on the Battlefront forums), but many of the complaints are coming from people who wanted it to be Combat Mission evolved - it isn't and it was never meant to be. I have heard MP is currently a bad experience, but I'm strictly a SP person, so this side of things doesn't effect my appreciation of the game.

Anyway, it'll pass the time until CM:SF comes out, which should be the best combat sim game ever (TM).

[scotchedpommes]

Overlooked this, not realising it was this game - which I've seen under several
different names over the years. Was desperately hoping it would be a 3D Close
Combat, but it looks like that was maybe being a bit too hopeful.

[Rilder]

Graphics look sweet (according to me) in the screenshots, it looks like its just focused on battles ans such which isn't much my cup- of tee for RTS's as I like to turtle in them and build up bases and such so I'l probably pass it up.

Besides 2gigs recomended RAM =/

[Bijo]

Well, no one could say you didn't give it a fair go then...

In my opinion it's worth sticking with - it just takes some getting used to. Sure there are issues (as you'll see on the Battlefront forums), but many of the complaints are coming from people who wanted it to be Combat Mission evolved - it isn't and it was never meant to be. I have heard MP is currently a bad experience, but I'm strictly a SP person, so this side of things doesn't effect my appreciation of the game.

Anyway, it'll pass the time until CM:SF comes out, which should be the best combat sim game ever (TM).

I don't know about those particular issues and such: I just know that it -- yeah -- probably takes some time to get used to

Just like TW was really something to get used to at the start. Man, that was really hard back then.

[Martok]

Graphics look sweet (according to me) in the screenshots, it looks like its just focused on battles ans such which isn't much my cup- of tee for RTS's as I like to turtle in them and build up bases and such so I'l probably pass it up.

Besides 2gigs recomended RAM =/

2 Gb's RAM?? Good lord, and here I thought my new PC was at least a little towards the upper end....

It does look pretty cool. As you said, however, it doesn't really seem like my style of game. Not that I play RTS titles that much to begin with (I don't include the TW series as RTS); and of those, I prefer the traditional base-building variety more so than not. Still, it might be worth keeping an eye on -- only time will tell.

[hrvojej]

Looks nice. But it also looks like the campaign is just a bunch of missions stringed together, which means I'll most likely pass. I don't know why the developers shy away from implementing the overarching campaign in which each battle means something in a bigger picture - which is the biggest strength of TW games IMO, and games like Jagged Alliance.

[Rilder]

2 Gb's RAM?? Good lord, and here I thought my new PC was at least a little towards the upper end....


(I don't include the TW series as RTS); .

Yea my computers close (1.5gigs) but still...


Yea I also don't include TW as an RTS, its more like TBS with an RTS element.

[CBR]

And it would be more precise to class it a RTT since RTS implies the wellknown style of resource gathering, basebuilding etc.


CBR

[a_ver_est]

has the full release better performance than the demo ?

In my old pc the demo plays too slowly to be enjoyable. I gonna buy more RAM but I don't think it gonna be a lot of deference.

Also does the game have problems with AMD micros ?

TIA

[Zatoichi]

Apparently there are issues with AMD processors - a patch has been announced that fixes a whole bunch of things, with both performance and gameplay issues addressed. So it's probably worth waiting for the patch before buying the full game if you're struggling with frame rates on the demo.

I'm still enjoying the game though, it runs very well on my system - I expect the patch will make it even more fun. I'm also hoping that some user made scenarios will start rolling out soon too - I've not touched the editor yet.

[Bob the Insane]

Picked this up from Amazon the other day when i saw that there is a big patch for it in the works...

Been playing and while I was confused at first, once I twigged how you are supposed to play (extra cautious) I started doing better and enjoying it...

The upcoming patch looks very deep so if you had issues with it previously (but didn't completely hate it) it might be worth giving it a go again after the patch is out...

http://www.battlefront.com/products/tow/index.html