Combat Mission:
Fortress Italy, developed and published by Battlefront.com.
The Good: Detailed units with realistic
weapon ballistics and damage, authentic behavior and communication between
units, lots of specific orders, real-time or turn-based gameplay, decent number
of battles and campaigns, enhanced editor, capable AI, range of realism options
The Not So Good: Some cumbersome
interface elements, bare multiplayer features, non-interactive tutorials,
assorted graphical shortcomings
What say you? Satisfying strategic
gameplay that lacks some feature polish common in contemporary titles:
6/8
MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION
While D-Day and Normandy get all of the attention, Allied
forces invaded mainland Italy a full nine months before that other, more famous
amphibious landing. The mountainous terrain proved difficult for the invading
American and British armies, but a tough victory was eventually earned. This
relatively novel landscape is the setting for Combat Mission: Fortress Italy,
the latest entry in the series of simultaneous turn-based/real-time tactical
strategy games. In addition to having locale-specific units to play with, new
engine enhancements include improved graphics, moveable waypoints, and enhanced
editing capabilities, plus a $55 standalone price tag. Is Combat Mission:
Fortress Italy worth the investment for newcomers and veterans alike?
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
While the graphics of Combat Mission: Fortress Italy are
improved over its predecessor, there are still several areas in need of
improvement. The new version of the game engine has introduced better shaders
and bump and normal mapping, along with better performance. While these are
nice and all, far more noticeable problems are still present. The most common
of these is clipping: units pass into the ground and through each other on
uneven terrain and when moving near one another. It really hurts the immersion
of the game, since the unit models are very detailed and the terrain is
passable (the textures could be less “grainy”). Units also have occasionally
spastic animations and can appear to slide across the terrain during animation
transitions. The cowering animation is just plain silly as well. The command
lines also pass through hills, which can make them difficult to see in Sicily’s
mountainous setting. Weapon fire and explosions are canned, but sometimes
effective during the chaos of war. The map detail is better than previous games
in the Combat Mission series of games, but the maps still float against a
monochrome background that looks terrible. On the sound side of things, the
battle sounds are convincing yet repetitive, and the sporadic unit voice work
adds some life into the game. The menu music is generic, but the background
sound effects (distant gunfire and explosions) are done well. Overall, Combat
Mission: Fortress Italy offers up some good graphics along with areas that fall
short.
ET AL.
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy covers the Allied invasion of
Sicily during Operation
Husky. Like previous entries in the series, the game features both
real-time and turn-based modes; I prefer the turn-based mode where a minute of
action plays out with no interaction, since it gives you an unlimited amount of
time to plan between turns (useful for large scenarios) and you can skip
through the replay if you wish. The standalone expansion offers three campaigns
covering the U.S., Germany, and Italy; each campaign features five or six
missions and occasionally offers variants based on user decisions and past
performance. In addition, damage, ammunition, and morale values carry over for
“core” units (the identities of which are not disclosed to the player) from
mission to mission. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy also has two three-mission
tutorial campaigns; while it’s nice to have tutorials, you have to print out
the documentation for them from the manual and read along, as none of the instructions
are actually in the game. Seventeen standalone battles are also present, as are
250 quick battle map layouts, which is not as good as randomly generated
content but close enough with so many options to choose from. Each battle can
have a different environment (forest, rough, town), time of day, temperature,
duration, size, and type (assault, attack, probe, engagement). Victory
conditions include holding terrain, destroying or spotting units, and causing
casualties and wounds to enemy soldiers. In the quick battle maps, you can also
specify the units or have the computer pick random orders of battle for you.
Multiplayer options in Combat Mission: Fortress Italy are
disappointing: there are hotseat, e-mail, and internet options, but PBEM is
manual (there is no central service to handle transferring data like in Decisive
Campaigns) and online play requires an IP address in advance, so
matchmaking leaves a lot to be desired. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy is
certainly behind the times in offering painless multiplayer to the masses. The
game features five levels of realism that alter friendly and enemy spotting,
morale, healing, and artillery time. The middle setting (“warrior”) has
realistic times without annoying friendly spotting rules, so it’s the option I
choose. While having flexible realism is nice, the settings to not adjust the
difficulty: you are still at the mercy of the scenario designer, who must give each
side the right number of units for players of every skill level, obviously an
impossible task. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy does allow you to make your own
battles, however, and new features include the ability to use a map overlay for
more realistic terrain and painting linear features like roads and fencing (no,
not that type of
fencing). Finally, Combat Mission: Fortress Italy is available for
both Windows and Macintosh, so that’s nice.
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy has an occasionally
cumbersome interface that hasn’t changed in five years. It starts with the
obtuse camera controls that have become very obsolete. It took me a bit to
figure out why I dislike the camera controls so much, and then it hit me:
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy does not use the mouse wheel to zoom towards the
cursor, a mechanic that most strategy games employ nowadays. This feature would
make navigating the landscape so much easier, but instead you must rely on
increasingly outdated and inefficient methods like the WASD keys and moving the
mouse to the edge of the screen. You also have to shift-click to box select
units and right-clicking controls the camera instead of issuing orders to
units. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy places a floating icon above each unit
that gives quick reference as to its type; it flashes when the unit is under
fire, but the game never gives other pertinent information using the icons like
the morale level. Also, the game never clearly shows where the bullets are coming
from or if your units are firing, both of which may be helpful things to know
in a strategy game. Accessing units can be difficult, as there is no master
order of battle where you can select and zoom to units. You can click unit
information boxes to zoom to their superior commander and vice versa, but that
means you have to fine the unit or its HQ first using the aforementioned camera
controls. The game is also very inconsistent displaying tool-tips: weapons and
items have them, but ranks and leaders do not. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy
also lacks a minimap or easily accessible overhead perspective. Frankly, it’s
surprising the number of areas that need improvement in the interface,
considering the same game has had several expansions in the past five years of
development since Shock Force.
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy features a wide range of
orders to give to your units. The series is simply not satisfied with “move”,
as there are a number of speed and organizational settings you can choose
between: quick, fast, slow, hunt, assault, and reverse, along with marking
mines and blasting gigantic holes in somebody’s house. “Attack” is also
insufficient, as you can target, target light, set an arc for armor, deploy
smoke, or change facing. You can also split infantry units into fire and
assault teams, deploy weapons, bail out of a wrecked vehicle, or pause to
coordinate actions. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy finally adds the ability to
move waypoints (I can’t believe that wasn’t in there before), and you can stack
orders of different types on the same waypoint, like moving fast, then
targeting an arc while hiding. The tactical AI will also do some things
automatically, like using nearby cover (very handy), healing wounded soldiers,
sharing ammunition, and surrendering to the enemy (not handy at all). Artillery
and air strikes are simple to use: pick a target (a point, area, or line), the
rate of fire, duration, and a delay. Some scenarios have target reference
points that can be placed before time starts for increased accuracy. Combat
Mission: Fortress Italy certainly has an impressive array of specific commands
to issue to your troops.
Combat Mission: Fortress Italy features all of the units
that were involved in the invasion of Sicily. Highlights include the American M4
Sherman tank, M3A1 armored car, M1903A3 Springfield, and M1918 BAR, the German Panzer
IVH tank, StuG IIIG self-propelled gun, Messerschmitt BF 109G6 fighter, and Karbiner
98K, and the Italian Renault R35 tank, Obice da 100/17 howitzer, and Breda M37
heavy machinegun. The game keeps track of individual rounds for every weapon
each unit holds, adding to the realism Combat Mission: Fortress Italy offers.
Units can have performance modifications based on their leader, current
condition (tiredness), and morale. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy also features
an impressive communication model: units outside of voice or sight range of
their superiors will have reduced effectiveness and also be unaware of nearby
enemy (and friendly, if you chose one of the higher realism levels) units they
cannot see. The sporadic use (or complete absence, in the case of the Italians)
of radios means keeping units organized is very important.
Morale is an important cornerstone of most strategy games,
and Combat Mission: Fortress Italy is no exception: each unit can become pinned
and eventually panic when under duress. Detailed damage reports are also
available for armored units, informing you whether an incoming round penetrated
the hull and what important piece of equipment is now destroyed. The visible
bullet deflections when rounds hit the side of a structure is sometime most
games do not model, and it’s effective here. The AI of Combat Mission: Fortress
Italy continues to be solid, with pre-programmed strategy scripts (usually
multiples per scenario) and on-the-fly tactical decisions. Units behave
plausibly and the AI will sometimes use some nice strategies to break through
defenses or encircle your forces. The computer will also surrender if you have
a significant lead and destroy most of their troops, so you’re not stuck
playing through thirty minutes of dead time.
IN CLOSING
While Combat Mission: Fortress Italy features minor
enhancements to the game engine (moveable waypoints, armor target arcs, 2-D map
editor overlays) that should really be patched in instead of being touted as
new features, the amount of new content, in the form of the three campaigns,
various battles, hundreds of quick battle maps, and the new theatre-specific
units, justifies most of the standalone $55 price tag for fans of the genre. I
say “most” because there is still room for improvement, starting with the
increasingly outdated interface. The interface suffers from being essentially
five years old, and I found the camera controls to be especially awkward: the
inability to use the mouse wheel to zoom towards the cursor position really
needs to be fixed. Finding specific units could also be improved by adding a
master order of battle list. The graphics still have some areas of concern, and
finding and coordinating multiplayer battles is difficult. Luckily for Combat
Mission: Fortress Italy, the strong features of games past return: outstanding
unit detail, accurate morale and damage, and realistic communication between
units really make the game feel true to life. The AI is also strong, offering
up varied strategies and plausible tactics during combat. While the amount of
gameplay contained within the campaigns and battles is commendable (and can be
expanded with the editor), the difficulty cannot be tweaked and the tutorials
require a read-along with the manual instead of placing the instructions within
the game. Overall, Combat
Mission: Fortress Italy continues the strong aspects of the game engine but has
several areas that need further enhancements beyond new content.
