The player has more control with the mouse than the joystick. A Homeworld -like free movement is achievable by right-clicking. The idea was impressive, but overall, the controls lacked fluidity. The graphical scenes look great from a distant perspective. As one draws closer, problems begin to appear.
Tanks bleed into each other -- ugh!!! Surprisingly, objects from outside even protrude into the inside views gunner, driver, etc when close. The houses and foliage possess obvious 2D, sprite-like appearances when scrutinized. I liked the gun and engine sounds very much. The voices seemed a bit contrived and chatty at times. The American briefings contained a voice that was obviously performed by a foreign actor. I'd sure like to know.
Besides the Mousetank, Panzer Elite: Special Edition prides itself on the use of realism in the game. Each tank gets realistic damage, which results in different systems like the main gun or the radio or different people getting hurt.
The box claims 30 different systems can get damage, but I think that may be a stretch. The guns have realistic ballistics as well, so that makes the game harder.
There is a multitude of realism settings that you can make, including engine overheating, manual shifting, showing spotted units, and enemy experience. Finally, the AI sometimes needs some work. Your platoon will take the shortest distance between two points, even if that distance is through a forest, house, or river, instead of following the road. However, driving seems to be the main defect of the AI, as the gunner AI seems pretty good, as the AI tanks will engage enemy tanks as long as you order them to.
All of these features add up to a game that may be technically correct, but it just isn't fun. Is this because of the game or me? I'm not really sure, but it's more of a chore to play the game rather than an adventure. It's an important characteristic to make a game enjoyable, and Panzer Elite: Special Edition just does not seem to deliver here.
As I have stated earlier, Panzer Elite: Special Edition was originally published in , and it seems that absolutely no graphical upgrades were made since that time.
The graphics would be passable, but still not great, back then, but they surely don't cut the preverbal mustard now. The graphics fail because of one primary reason, and it's because the graphics are very pixelated. It just looks bad, especially when you compare them to the graphical adventures seen nowadays.
The ground connects at severe angles, rather than any curved surfaces like in real life, and running over trees and bushes in an exercise in disappointment. Or perhaps it's a science. Whatever it is, it's damn hard. This is where the game encourages you to "cheat" a bit by turning on the AI gunnery. Once given the "fire at will" orders, your gunner and loader will cooperate to the best of their abilities which vary in engaging the targets you select.
In fact, playing the game like this maneuvering your platoon but allowing the computer to control all gunnery, including your own tank's is a good way to learn the interface without the frustration that's bound to result from taking fifty shots and missing with every one of them. If I have any quibbles whatsoever with the way the game models combat, it has to be the damage model.
Tanks seem a bit too durable under repeated hits, and then all of a sudden start taking damage and expire in short order. My understanding of armoured combat is that even hits which did not penetrate were dangerous because they could pop free rivets within a tank which would then ricochet inside with the lethality of bullets. Yet tanks take hit after hit with no effect, only to suddenly give up the ghost after a catastrophic avalanche of damage.
This isn't to say that tanks shrug off hits which should disable or eliminate them: the armour penetration effects seem pretty dead-on. While the modeling of vehicle and ordnance performance is superb, its representation via the 3D graphic engine leaves something to be desired. Overall, it appears to me that the extra time spent on development of PE was not spent on the graphics engine, as the graphics, while excellent in places, end up somewhat uneven.
In some areas Panzer Elite might suffer in comparison to Panzer Commander , such as in depiction of the tanks themselves. On the other hand, Panzer Elite has infantry even if bitmapped which Panzer Commander left out entirely. Terrain can sometimes be seen through a tank's body, though, and the black-out hulks of destroyed tanks look less than convincing.
When two tanks collide, they sometimes look like one is stuck "inside" the other. I could go on with a number of similar examples, but the point is that the perceived realism of the graphics takes a hit when you notice things like this happening.
The terrain in Panzer Elite is a similarly mixed bag. On one hand, things like bushes and trees are modeled individually, and much fun can be had crushing this vegetation with one's monstrous metal machine. On the other hand, the ground often suffers from a tiling effect where the "seams" between these ground tiles are noticeably visible.
In general, though, the terrain is attractive to behold, and cloud and smoke effects add an excellent bit of atmosphere. And the buildings are beautiful.
A couple things jump out as annoyances during gameplay. First of all, if your tank is immobilized, the game ends. There is no way of transferring your platoon leader to another tank even if he is perfectly healthy. Thus, if you throw a tread or become mired, the scenario is over.
Nothing is more frustrating than having the enemy on the run and having to stop playing because of a lucky hull hit on your command tank. There should be in my opinion a provision for the commander you to move to another tank of your platoon and continue the game. I don't know if this would be historical or not thus it could be an option which could be turned off but it would certainly make for a better game.
Let your subordinates keep your immobolized tank company while they wait for the prime mover! Second, the AI for the platoon leaves something to be desired. Wingmen often run into you and each other as they maneuver to change formation. When I first got the game, I jumped in my tank, put my platoon in column formation, and took off down a long, straight road.
After some distance I looked back and saw that three tanks of my platoon were missing! Apparently my drag-racing start had left them in the dust and only one tank had caught up. Or perhaps they simply wandered off somewhere else, unwilling to follow a rookie panzer commander on his very first mission.
Whatever the case, controlling one's wingmen is occasionally rather bothersome, as they have a tendency to go places and do things you didn't intend for them to do. Even so, there is room for improvement. I've spent a lot of time talking about the individual aspects of the game, perhaps without giving an adequate description of the overall playing experience. Once the player has truly mastered the interface and is comfortable controlling both his tank and his wingmen, the game is a lot of fun to play.
Gameplay can be quite tense, as you and your platoon roll down a road into a hamlet or crest a ridgeline in search of the enemy. Combat is an intense experience in the game, and it is quite rewarding to direct a well-coordinated attack by your platoon.
Killing enemy tanks with manual gunnery is especially satisfying. The only caveat is that the game will frustrate impatient gamers, and playing with the realism settings turned way down robs the game of much of its appeal at least for me. Last revision More than a year ago. Ok We use our own and third-party cookies for advertising, session, analytic, and social network purposes. Any action other than blocking them or the express request of the service associated to the cookie in question, involves providing your consent to their use.
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