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- Battlefront.com
- Battlefront.com
- Battlefront.com
- Battlefront.com
Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy
Released On: May 17, 2011
Metascore
Generally Favorable
81
5.5
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 Critic Reviews
81
75% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
25% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 Critic Reviews
81
75% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
25% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
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.
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]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 47 User Ratings
5.5
49% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
11% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
40% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 47 User Ratings
5.5
49% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
11% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
40% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
There is simply no better tactical war simulation game available, and I've played most all of them. I do not understand anybody who tries to discredit this game for a bunch of nit-picking factors, those are the only negatives I have seen, both personally and from others discussions. If you can find a better tactical wargame, please do tell me what it is and I'll play that. Good luck.
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PC
Too fiddly and unforgiving for the popular palate, but those after reality-rooted WWII challenges should clearly investigate. [Aug 2011, p.94]
CMBfN is a very good tactical wargame saddled with pre-alpha looks and controls. [Dec 2011, p.74]
Never before have i played a WW2 game with so much attention to detail or that was so intense, and unforgiving. The game has a steep learning curve, but once you learn it you will be rewarded. I have CMbn and both its modules (expansions) and there is no other ww2 game like them in the world.
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PC
CMBN is a fantastic wargame - it is a serious wargamer's wet dream.
However, the negative reviews aren't suprising, because there are things for the casual wargamer to dislike. It is tough to win. Well - toughen up princesses, war _is_ tough to win. This isn't a pretty packaged feel good game. It's the real thing: tough. It takes actual experience on the game to start winning it. Complaints like "men die too easily" or "its a battle of question marks" are a sure sign of a casual gamer experience - someone who expected it to be easy. Actually, real men do die easily, and scouting is tough. But if you play it right, you keep your men alive and scout properly, turning the oppo's ? into proper sightings, and leaving him with a sea of confusion: realistic.
It's also definitely the case that the initial incarnation of CMBN had some bad bad flaws. The most notable was that cover in buildings was broken (a fact noted in another review). However, this has been fixed and now it plays "just fine". If you're looking to spend 50 bucks and have a quick nice time, it's not for you. If you're looking to spend 50 bucks and have a game you can spend years playing, learning how to master, and getting fun out of, it is.
GaJ
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PC
I played the first Combat Mission games up till 'Barbarossa to Berlin', and I was very impressed at that time by the attention to detail and the effort that went into making the game as realistic as possible. It was truly revolutionary. I still buy Combat Mission games and modules, despite the VERY stiff price. However, what strikes me after playing this series for so long is that there hasn't really been any real progress in terms of the game's(or simulation's) ability to produce realistic results that are comparable to real life scenarios. The FIDELITY of Combat Mission is unprecedented, but there is more to war than ballistics. Take the casualty rates, for example. They are still hilariously out of range. There are probably good design related reasons for that, but again: where is the next wargaming revolution?
Sorry, Battlefront, you kept me entertained for 13 years, but now it is time for something new.
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PC
It got this game after a friend recommended it to me, but I can't help but feel disappointed after playing it for a while. I thought this was going to be a super-realistic simulation, but as a student of military history, I've found many oddities. The main gripe I have is the casualty rates and the lethality of small-arms fire and light mortars. If you look at the actual data of the effectiveness of these weapons, you'll see that they were far less effective than what is modelled in Battle for Normandy. Artillery is also way too precise and overpowered compared to what it was historically. I also can't help but laugh a little when I see some of the tanks and half-tracks in Combat Mission taking half a minute just to turn 90 degrees, when you can easily find Youtube videos of these vehicles in action showing how agile they really were.
Add to this the broken TCP/IP multiplayer and issues with graphics and DRM, I don't feel like giving this game a better score than a 3, despite some its better qualities.
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PC
Though the game is a nice upgrade over the old version of this game, the game still lacked a playability of friends that would make this game really good. The small battles done with my friend always seemed to go one way, really quick, and half the time felt like little of the enemy was seen but a lot killed. Now giving you a total feel of the battle at hand. Larger battles that might give this much needed feeling, are impossibly to play, as was hinted by the smaller battles with occasional pauses to let the data pass through, but with the bigger ones, larger play with a friend is nearly if not impossible. With such problems as these, I'd think this game falls short of what it could and should be.
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PC
Summary Combat Mission - Battle for Normandy (CM:BN) faithfully recreates the experience of tactical land warfare in Western France during World War Two. Using the unique Turn-Based (WeGo)/Real-Time hybrid game system of our proprietary CMx2 battle engine, the first installment in this new series covers the three months after the Allied D-Day la...
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: May 17, 2011
Developer:
- Battlefront.com
Publisher: Battlefront.com
Genres:
