Codename Panzers: Cold War Demo Impression

Codename Panzers: Cold War is the continuation of the Codename Panzers series that were previously set in the World War 2 era(Phase One and Phase Two). The new game in the series moves it into a modern day setting, during the cold war period. The Codename Panzers series is known for being more of a tactical game rather than a straight out RTS. With the demo out, I had the opportunity to try it out for myself.

There is no base building in the game. You pick the units you want to purchase before the start of the mission or bring the some units from the previous mission and you're off. Using the units at your disposal, you must use tactics and cunning to outsmart your enemies and complete the objectives.




While you don't build bases in the game, you can purchase units in a mission. A mission takes place on a map that has connected points of interests. These points are not very different from the points system in Company of Heroes. But unlike company of heroes, there are points that can bring you reinforced troops and armour.

To use these utilities, you need to have them connected to your HQ which in the demo mission, you don't start out with. You need to capture that point(you won't have it on the outset). Having captured the points and connected it to the HQ, you can then reinforce your troops and armour like any other RTS. Be careful not to lose the point though.




There are a lot more units in this game than Company of Heroes and each unit has a lot more special abilities which should be key to victory. Using your paramedics and engineers correctly will give you the upper hand as you are able to heal units in the front line and repair and supply ammo to your tracks(and of course half track and other vehicles).

Yes, you heard me right. You need to supply ammo to your vehicles for them to use their primary weapon. In the case of tanks, they have limited number of ammo for their main gun, and once it has run out of it, it can only use its machine guns.

This makes battles a lot more methodical as you probably have to build a medic tent and supply depot(using your medics and engineers) to supply and support your armies battles. These are actually a special ability of the medic and engineer and you will have to constantly move them just behind the front line together with your troops.




Codename Panzers: Cold War has all the fancy effects you would expect from a modern day strategy game. Destructible environments(watch artillery shells create craters in the ground), dynamic weather that affects line of sight, cover using buildings and craters in the ground. On the issue of cover, it is not as well communicated what is good or bad cover. Troops in craters and even buildings will still take damage(more than I expected).

Flanking becomes important as you need to attack the enemies exposed flank or rear to really do damage to an entrenched enemy. It becomes really tough to destroy an enemy when they are supported with a medic and engineers. The key is to use the environments(cover), flanking, and unit special abilities. You constantly have to keep an eye on your units health and your enemies position and react accordingly.




Technically the game is a mess. It looks no where as good as Company of Heroes and runs many times worse than Company of Heroes. Zoomed out the game chugs on an average machine and runs mediocre even on a beefy machine. Loading times in between mission are very long(go have a snack while waiting for it). InnoGlow(taking over from Stormregion) claimed in a preview that they are spending much of the time to the run up of its release polishing and optimising the code. I don't see it being optimised at all frankly.

I had a lot of fun playing this demo. There is a lot of depth in the tactics and with co-op mission in the retail package, this will be an really cool strategy game. Not for those that like to rush into a game. Sit back, read the unit descriptions and abilities, protect your flank and make sure your line of supply isn't broken.




For those that may prefer games to run at an optimal frame rate will be appalled. But for those that would like to take it slow and have patience to put up with the poor performance, you will be rewarded with very addictive and exciting gameplay. Codename Panzers is back!

Get the demo here or here

Codename Panzers: Cold War arrives 10th March 2009 for the PC.