Metascore
  1. First Review
  2. Second Review
  3. Third Review
  4. Fourth Review

No score yet - based on 1 Critic Awaiting 3 more reviews What's this?

User Score
tbd

No user score yet- Awaiting 1 more rating

  • Summary: Fortress Italy is a new "family" of Combat Mission games covering the Allied struggle to knock Italy out of the Second World War. This initial release deals explicitly with the battle for Sicily and sets the groundwork for future additions to simulate the hard fighting in the rugged terrain of "Europe's underbelly" up until the war's end in 1945. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Aug 24, 2012
    86
    If you are an aspiring armchair general then we highly recommend this game.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. The next installment in the Battle Front Combat Missions series Fortress Italy (CMFI) brings all the good features, relative spotting, full one to one representation of soldiers on the battle field real ballistic modeling found in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy. And then adds excellent new features to the map / scenario editor.

    The main game gets a few features that customers have been asking for - ability to change movement way points and set a "shoot at armor only" order. The real enhancements to the game come with the work on the scenario / map editor. Now that you can put an image overlay on top of the map editor it is easy to create realistic maps from areal photo graphs, topographical maps or Google Earth images. Plus the AI editor allows copying and pasting. I am still struggling with how to get the AI to do what I want but creating a map is now a joy.

    In short all the great things from Combat Mission Battle for Normandy plus more good things.
    Collapse
  2. 9
    The Mediterranean as a Theater of WW2 has not held near the interest for me as any other. Not entirely sure of why that is, but probably has some to do with the reading that I have done that has peaked my interest in WW2. So much more is devoted to the Western and Eastern fronts or even the Pacific. So when CMFI came along, I was interested but not as much as I was for CMBN when it came out. However CMFI came with a few improvements and while those will be ported to CMBN shortly, I wanted to see them sooner and frankly I wanted to understand the fighting in Italy better. CMBN as a game gave me a far better appreciation for the sheer grueling nature of hedgerow combat and I figured what better game to understand Italy than this. I am extremely glad I took the plunge. Getting to see the version 2 engine enhancements alone was a nice treat, but even more Italy is a completely different experience than Normandy. Combat occurs at far longer ranges and studying the topology becomes even more critical. Trying to find covered routes across what at first looks to be open ground, having to fight your way uphill against an entrenched enemy, having to take on enemy armor with far fewer AT assets and let's not even mention trying to organize an attack by an Italian army largely functioning on a WW1 command arrangement. It is all there.

    Keep in mind the family system that is the core of BF games. The base game consists of US, Italian, German Luftwaffe Pz (Herman Goering Divison ) units. This is not a full Husky campaign. Follow on modules will include the British and other forces as well, as extending the timeline into 1944/45.


    As to the version 2 enhancements, as the previous reviewer had noted the new mapping tools are outstanding. Also in response to player feedback and discussion BF has brought back the Armored cover arc. A clear example of the continuing positive relationship Battlefront has with it's user base. The UI has also seen some enhancements. I personally have never had any real issues with it, but I have to say I did like the additions.

    All in all while it is still probably my least favorite theater/topic of WW2 combat. CMFI has turned out to be far more interesting than I might have expected. As usual there is a free demo to try out and see if it gets the same reaction from you.
    Expand