In the Panzer Corps, we will change the course of the Second World War again. The second installment of the strategic series succeeded even without significant innovations. Most importantly, it is bigger and nicer than last time and lasts a long time. [Issue#303]
Hundreds of hours of concentrated fun for every avid strategy gamer - but Panzer Corps 2 is surprisingly welcoming even to the newbies of the genre. The complexity is served up gradually, mercifully, but in the end, the game will challenge even the most experienced generals.
A joy to play. Supports some additional and important tactical options than before, and still in an approachable system with loads of depth. Looks great.
Looking forward to the traditional expansions for the US/UK campaigns, but what you get already is of course plenty of content.
A treat for all strategy fans. Much improved graphics over Panzer Corps 2. Many new mechanics like encirclement, supply and core slots make this a fresh take on the series which . It is challenging and there is a lot of content. More will come in the form of dlc’s and mods.
Panzer Corps 2 has some noticeable flaws with regards to in-game mechanics and performance woes. Likewise, it doesn't try to reinvent age-old systems. Though it can be a little tedious the further you are in the campaign, the game makes up for it with a ton of playable content.
A great turn-based strategy for VS or Co-op multiplayer. You can play it "via e-mail": make your turn and upload. You do not need to wait for your opponent in-game.
A major improvement over Panzer Corps 1: the game is faster, good to look at and at the same time is more rewarding and tactical.
Waited it so long to be disappointed so much…. I don’t expect miracles from the industry these days, but to screw up a perfectly fine game, in exactly the same way SSI did it with PG2/3 – one would expect devs to do their homework. Who on Earth asked you to do a classic wargame in 3D? Oh, oh, I’m so happy my PzIV turns its turret, wohoo! C’mon. Air units sometimes are barely visible unless you hit the Tab key, especially if located above multiple land units. Ok, my eyes are not what they used to be, but still. For me the only way to visually discern, say, Dorniers 217 from U-88 from Bf110 at normal viewing distance was to put different liveries on them. All in all, graphics are a step (or two) back. Thanks, thanks a lot for that. No, really, PG1, released 25 years ago, with simple, but reasonably detailed, unit icons and nice animations, looked better.
Amount of content is, well, underwhelming. Ok, I understand, guys plan to sell lots of dlc like '39-’40-you name-it campaigns, Africa-corps 2, allied/soviet/pacific/alien-vs-predator corps 2 and so on, and live from it for years, but hey – for people to buy a dls to the game they at least have to remember it exists, which is not the case here.
Balance seems… not really thought out. FlaK 18, the acht-acht, in terms of core slots costs as a Tiger, while lacking armor, ability to use it offensively, unless certain heroes are embedded, and decimated by “support fire” trait. Captured units, that provided so much fun in PC1, became almost impossible to obtain and operate, unless you are fine with severely reduced unit headcount and minimal to no reinforcements available. Artillery pieces cost sky high, and you need lots of them cos they’ve been nerfed compared to PC1. And remember – LeFH 10,5 will support your units against attacks of soft-type enemies, PACs – against hard types, SFH-15s – against both, and K-17, costing a small fortune – against none of them. Don’t mix it up, soldier!
What else? Encirclements? Fine, but I can swear I’ve seen it somewhere nearby. Heroes fine, but mostly useless. Constant rush to capture all victory points in time while trying to figure out, whether you have to draw reinforcements and pay extra or can make do and save prestige, feels like work, not fun. Different types of objectives? Nope, never heard. When you move a unit there is no indication of terrain in target hex. Thank you very much, it cost me half of Tiger prototypes cos that hex turned out to be town.
All in all? I’ve returned to PC1 to never look back. Game is not that bad on itself, it deserves 5 or six, but gets only 3 because most of the effort was put into wrong places. Let’s consider it “supporting fire” trait.
This game's a rip off and a bad one at that. Even disregarding the price, it's still not very good and a major let down.
First of all, the content. This game costs premium, but all you get is only the Wehrmacht campaign yet again. Yup, same old campaign that you've played dozens of times already if you're a fan of the genre. Panzer General had German campaign, but Panzer General 2 had 2 German campaigns, 2 Allied campaigns and a Soviet one to boot. This is just ridiculous. They claim the campaign has 60 scenarios or something, but of course in reality it's about 20, as it's a branching campaign just like in PC1 that you won't play more than once, cause you'll be bored out of your mind anyway.
You now have two currencies to manage your army, as core slots aren't the number of units anymore. Different units have different core slots prices now and you need to mix and match. This sounds fine, but then you look at the system and immediately realize that the devs were either drunk, trolling or have extremely vague idea about their own game. For example fairly useless AA units can cost same, or sometimes even more, amount of slots as a full fighter unit. Just lol. Who in their right mind will use the AA units then? Congrats on completely invalidating an entire branch of units with their own models, stats, etc. Don't even get me started on other things, such as artillery pieces costing same as 2-3 tanks and other idiocies. This will probably get patched as time goes on, but still a massive rotfl and "you just have no idea what you're doing, do you" badge for all involved.
The new graphic engine ****, but everyone knew that already. Shooting for 3D in a niche strategy game when you don't have resources to make it look good, because you think it will bring more sales. Let's think how many times this has worked. Oh, right - never. All you get is poor readability and strategic overview when compared to 2D. The graphics are simplistic, blurry and some assets are just absolutely hideous - ships, for example. Some animations seem to be completely missing: destroyed tank will blow up and leave a wreckage, but artillery just vanishes into thin air. The music and sound design is poor as well. The production values are nowhere near the money demanded for this game.
The game is also streamlined and a lot of features were stripped. There's a lot of that, so let me name a few: no different victory types based on performance, no SE units, smaller maps, lack of differentiation in objectives, copious amount of turns to complete each mission, lack of new equipment summary at the start of a mission...
There are some things I like:
- Heroes are now impactful with unique abilities like in PG2, not boring +number to a stat like in PC1
- Units have new special abilities, which are often quite interesting, for example parking recon near an enemy unit will give accuracy bonuses to all attackers
- Point buy system to customize your game with positive and negative traits
Other changes are just meh/whatever, like splitting units in half when it costs additional slot and time or the need to re-base your aircraft to provide more air coverage, which again costs time.
Overall, avoid this game now and maybe come back in a couple of years when there's some full dlc edition at like -60%. Even if you like what you see it's a horrible deal for the current price.
SummaryPanzer Corps 2 is the ultimate Second World War strategy game! Enjoy the time-proven gameplay formula which has been appreciated by millions of players over the years, brought to a whole new level of refinement up to the latest technical standards.