Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy PC
Metascore
81 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
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  1. NZGamer
    Jul 18, 2011
    90
    Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy is a game for history buffs and war game enthusiasts. If this is your bent, you will not find a more enthralling and historically accurate game.
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 19, 2011
    84
    Return of the premier tactical wargame series to World War II is marred a bit by clunky camera and some big UI issues (no grand unit list after ten years, really?). But the game beneath is solid steel, and the additions of new Combat Mission engine good. If only the game would cover more than three months of combat. [June 2011]
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  3. PC Gamer UK
    Aug 6, 2011
    80
    Too fiddly and unforgiving for the popular palate, but those after reality-rooted WWII challenges should clearly investigate. [Aug 2011, p.94]
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  4. PC Gamer
    Oct 12, 2011
    73
    CMBfN is a very good tactical wargame saddled with pre-alpha looks and controls. [Dec 2011, p.74]
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.3 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 13
  3. Negative: 4 out of 13
  1. justaplayer
    9
    There is simply no better tactical wargame available. This is as close to a simulation that a game can be without losing focus on gameplay.


    The demo is free. Try it yourself. If you have any interest in tactical WWII gaming, you'll be hooked.    … Full Review »
  2. ACanadianCat
    8
    Combat Mission Battle for Normandy (CMBN) is an amazing update from the original CM games. I came to this series late and only played Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin and Combat Mission: Afrika Korps after CMBN was announced. I learned fast that using real tactics worked better then just throwing your guys around. I had plenty of fun waiting for CMBN. But wow CMBN is soooo much better than the original series. The modeling down to each individual soldier makes the immersion during battles amazing. Using real life tactics is even more important now. You cannot just order a platoon to cross an open field against enemy fire. They will take casualties and decide to save their lives and return to cover. But if you prepare your assault with supporting fire and suppression against the enemy you will succeed.

    The new spotting model is amazing I have spent plenty of time with no idea what my opponent is doing or what condition his force is in. If your guys cannot see the enemy then you see nothing. If they see and hear gun fire from behind cover all you get are contact icons. Only once your men see the enemy soldiers do you have any information about what you are facing. It creates a great effect as you try to decipher what your enemy is doing. It also means that even though the eye in the sky (i.e. you) might know information about the location of an enemy unit, you will not necessarily be able to get every unit under your command to fire on that enemy. Only those units that can see the enemy's location can fire and those of your units that have not spotted the enemy yet will only be able to fire at the general area instead of directing fire at a detected enemy.

    This truly is the ultimate war game. I used to play miniature table top gaming and hex based cardboard games but gave them up many years ago. The realism just was not there. CMBN has a feel to it that you just cannot get from the "I can see all your counters" games of the past. No game is perfect and neither is CMBN. Many people criticize the UI but I do not find many things that are an issue - I am sure improvements can be made. There have been many defects reported and many defects have been fixed by the development team. In fact this is one of the best supported products I have ever used. There are going to be times when something happens in game that you will think is ridiculous and may be it is. Take it in stride as the fortunes of war and carry on. The great strength of this game is that it is not deterministic - lets face it neither is real life. Bad luck can befall you and you might get caught in a corner case. Just treat those incidents as bad luck and go make some good luck for yourself by paying attention to real life tactics and take care of your men. The biggest short coming I find with CMBN is the scenario / map editor. That could really use a UI face lift. There is no way to overlay images in the editor to help create realistic contour lines and building / road positioning. Plus the AI planner is pretty difficult to follow and offers no ability to copy and paste. I tried to create a map and gave up. I still do not get how to control the AI's actions it just is not intuitive. But as far as playing the game goes I am very happy. I have been playing multiple games and multiple opponents sine the moment CMBN came out. I see no sign of my interest dropping. I am getting better a playing but still have opponents that are challenging.    … Full Review »
  3. Probst
    9
    I have no idea what game the other reviewers were playing that gave them such a bad taste in their mouth, but I have been playing CMBN for almost 18 months now and am still thoroughly enjoying it. If you are on the fence or just really unsure after all the negative waves, try the demo, it's free. I am betting you'll be wondering what they were playing as well.

    First of all the focus is Normandy obviously. It's worth a few minutes to become familiar the concept Battlefront has for game releases. A specific game is called a family. It is made up of the base game and additional modules to add material to round out that particular game. The game itself could be a campaign within WW2 or as in CMSF a modern (if fictional) campaign. Why not just cover an entire theater like the CMx1 series did? Simple, there is just far too much material in the newer engine and game to be able to do so. The module concept is key as you will note the previous reviewers decrying the lack of material. Apparently they decided to ignore all the statements from BF and critique what they already knew would not be in the base game. Don't sweat it, the SS, Luftwaffe troops etc etc are all included but not necessarily in the base game. As to the Amphibious, Para and glider landings - this isn't an RTS toy. It is a tactical combat simulator and no you can't be shooting at paras as they glide to earth for the few hours in a 90 day campaign that this actually occurred during. BF doesn't build games to try and cover every aspect of what someone MIGHT like to see a couple times. They focus on the big picture and where the gamer will spend 99.9% of their time. Thank goodness. Lord knows what kind of garbage other folks would have designed into this game that would have make the engine virtually unusable for a few gimmicky flavor items.

    It is also worth noting BF this summer made a commitment that to continuous upgrades of all CMx2 games going forward with CMBN so as they continue to develop the game engine and enhance the UI and AI, CMBN will benefit from those developments.

    For those of you who like me are not a grog, but love world war 2 gaming, the ongoing debates on the BF forum are actually fairly interesting though at times they give me a bit of a headache. The development of the game is part of an ongoing discussion. How should mortars function, how should machine gun fire best be reflected, how is that best accomplished with the game as at heart it is still a game. I think this is one of the things I like most about Battlefront. They understand they have to balance the ability of the game to provide entertainment for all the folks who only play against the AI. Unfortunately for folks like myself who have become more addicted to playing human opponents, there can be trade offs from that. Tanks firing on the move and the sheer speed of acquisition and fire are just some of those. Are they game breakers? Certainly not but it would be nice if there was some way to differentiate the AI in human to human play. I get though that trying to write 2 levels of TAC AI is just a way too much. Perhaps in a future iteration that would change.

    Most of the reviewers seem to either be unaware of that ongoing discussion or chose to ignore it and instead decry everything as "popularizing" the game. Pure rubbish. BF does require a fairly high level of detail and some kind of verifiable information before they will change the mechanics of the game, but given that they will in fact do so (as long as it isn't going to completely break the gaming experience). It is a fairly rigorous process that I personally feel enhances the effort to make the game function as close as possible to realistic combat tactics. Note I said as close as possible. It is still a game and as such will never be able to produce the fog of war 100% nor would we want it to. So if you are looking for a WW2 tactical game that will help you feel what Normandy was like about as much as any game will, this is it. 18 months in and I am just as addicted as day one and the first version upgrade should be coming soon to make it all that much better.    … Full Review »
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