My favorite RTS of all time

The close combat series has always been my favorite real time strategy game. Better than Warcraft, better than Starcraft, I haven't played Company of Heroes but I'm willing to bet it's better than that too. All this being said, the game is eight years old.

The game is a turned based strategy game, yes, but it's more complexed and realistic than that. Instead of highlighting a group of enemies and pointing and clicking, you select different teams and place them accordingly. Example, The mortar team would be placed in the back so not to get killed, also, they should be placed in a forest or bush to be concealed. There are plenty of teams to move around from infantry to assault, I also haven't even touched on the vehicles, each with it's own unique sound and movement.

The sound in the game is terrific, you don't get the intense, battle hardened music blaring during battle like other RTS games. Instead, everything is quiet at first, and when the battle begins, it's like nothing else. Each weapon has it's own distinct sound, rate of fire and ammo. The enemy however also has the same. There is some music though, mainly at the pre-planning period. Every weapon and vehicle has it's own sound, mortars, rifles, sub machine guns, even the cries of pain of your men when they die.

The great thing about Close combat is that it emphasizes planning. It doesn't just drop troops infront of you and say "You have five minutes to place your troops, hurry up". You can take all the time in the world before the battle begins before starting. Battles start when you literally click the "begin" button, at which case the enemy moves in on you. The great thing is, you can't always see the enemy, and the enemy can't always see you. When in buildings for instance, you're invisible to each other, but as soon as you open fire, you give your position away.

While in battle, you can move your troops around, however, you have to manually tell your specific teams what to do, and they do alot. You can tell them to throw smoke, to get in an ambush position, to move slowly, to move fast, and plenty of other things, it's all laid out in a simplistic drop down menu to avoid confusion. Aside from ordering your troops around, you can also call in air strikes or artillery strikes. Usually you don't get many of them per battle, one of each, if you're lucky.

There isn't much to say in the way of graphics, the game is eight years old as I mentioned. The soldiers look like soldiers, the tanks look like tanks and the environments are nice. Since the game is called "Close combat: Battle of the bulge" almost all the maps are snow covered. The explosions are great even for this day. The game is zoomed out though not far enough for the action to be microscopic.

Usually one side has an upper hand in most of the battles. The cinematic before the battle explains whether the allies are on the defensive or the Axis are on the offensive. The one on the offensive usually has more and better troops, and better vehicles. Still, if you place your troops in the right spot, there's no telling who will come out the winner. That's one of the best things about the game, if you use your men correctly you can come out victorious. However if you're being slaughtered there's always the surrender button.

Wait, it gets better though. Instead of just giving you a heap of random men, close combat actually recycles some of the men you had before, so you may recognize the sniper you had in you're first battle, in the third or fourth, or whatever battle. If you're wondering, that's dozens of individual names as well, each soldier is A SOLDIER, not "soldier #21". Unfortunately that meens if they die, they don't come back. The game also gives you a little stat tracking as well, for each individual soldier. Kills, shots, what guns they use. EVEN MEDALS AND RIBBONS. so you could potentially get a very decorated soldier.

It gets even better though. The allied campaign provides a long and lengthy experience but you can also switch it around and play as the Germans, THROUGH ANOTHER CAMPAIGN, so you're getting two campaigns in one. All different names, all different stats.

I also haven't mentioned the soldier reaction and emotion system. You see, if you keep giving orders to your men to rush a position and get killed, or if you're seriously outnumbered or out gunned, your troops might not follow your orders, they may bunch up and become scared or they may even surrender.

There's also never any confusion and chaos because messages are constantly being shown at the bottom of your screen. Squads are telling you just about everything from "Low ammo" to "So and so was killed".

The only knack I have against the game is that sometimes you have to play through maps several times before one of you takes control of it. But honestly, even if you're getting beaten to a pulp or have to play through missions more than once, the game is so fun that you never get frustrated.

The game would be considered hard to find today, but if you do find it, get it immediately, it shouldn't be any more than ten dollars, I got mine for 5.99$ you'll get your money's worth with all the hours you'll put into it. Seriously, put down Warcraft for a week and try this game.