Combat Mission Shock Force Review

Technically, the game runs well on a mid-range XP machine, with some of the details turned down. Shock Force is stable with no crashes or major game stopping bugs. Some players are reporting problems running on MS Vista and dual core machines, so gamers with those rigs should stop by the Battlefront technical forums before taking the plunge.

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Shock Force is a solid game. But, it does have some weak points. The biggest of which is the TacAI. This is the intelligence that units use in reaction to events on the battlefield. If left alone, the player’s units, and the enemy sometimes do strange things. For example, after blowing a gigantic hole through a wall, an M1 Abrams is ordered to drive through the breach. Instead, the tank crew decides to drive around the block and over to a gate. As it turns, a T-62 on the other side of the wall tags the M1 by putting point-blank rounds through its thinner side armor. Path-finding in general terms is sometimes bizarre, with vehicles sometimes taking joy-rides into the desert when they should be helping their platoon. For the most part, the player can overcome the TacAI and path-finding problems by micro-managing his vehicles in the complicated parts of the map. But being mother hen to several platoons of vehicles does get a little tiresome. Another frustrating issue is that enemy units can occasionally see and shoot through the walls in urban environments. While these irritations do detract from game play, Battlefront has a reputation for providing solid support to its released games, so it should not be long before these problems are addressed.

In the final evaluation, Combat Mission Shock Force is a highly recommended wargame. Its detailed 3D depiction of modern company level combat has no peer. Gamers with an interest in tactical ground combat will find this game to be a must have.