Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Publisher: CDV
Developer: Stormregion
Release Date: July 25, 2005

Buy 'CODENAME: Panzers - Phase Two': PC

Codename: Panzers - Phase Two is a real-time strategy game set in the ever-popular time period of World War II. There are no doubts why many games are set in this era; it's simply a wealth of exciting battles, tactical situations, and historical figures that you can both love and hate. Codename Panzers: Phase Two builds on the gameplay of the first entry in the series, allowing the player to control the Axis or Allied powers in their bid to take control of North Africa and Italy during World War II.

The first game met some fairly positive reviews and was a solid strategy title. The second game picks up where the first left off. There's really not anything new about Phase Two, but the storyline and new setting provide the main draw for gamers looking for more of the same. If you haven't played through Phase One, you don't need to worry about it, as Phase Two will provide all of the enjoyment of the original. If you'd rather play in the European theatre of World War II, then Phase One might be a better choice, as the African campaign is the primary focus of Phase Two.

The presentation of the game is really top notch. The menu screens are layered on top of a 3D landscape that shows various units coming and going, helping to set the tone for the game you're about to play. As mentioned earlier, you can choose between the Axis or Allied powers, and eventually you'll get to play as a third party after you've accomplished the goals of the first two. You won't be overwhelmed and forced to control tons of units, but will be given a manageable amount and asked to perform with what you've got. It tends to simplify things and also make it easier to see what's going on. This is a good thing, because the field of view isn't always the best. It always seems to be just a little bit too zoomed in, and although you can rotate the view 360 degrees and change the viewing angle, you can't ever really zoom the view out too far.

Graphically, the game is showing its age a bit. The tanks and other vehicles look pretty good, and the weapons and explosions are also pretty nice, but infantry and the animations in the cut scenes seem to be a tad stale. Outside of the cut scenes, however, animations on the tanks and other vehicles are superb. It's a little difficult to see them sometimes, but zoom in close on the action, and you'll be able to see the treads moving, tires rotating, and guns recoiling with each shot. Textures are unfortunately pretty bland, even from a fair distance away. However, during an intense firefight, things really look good and are quite exciting. Tanks can roll over trees and other items, pushing them over realistically and leaving destruction in their wake. Rarely do you see a game where you can get a sense of just how powerful these steel behemoths are. In this game, you know that you'd want to run away if you saw a tank coming.

So how does the game sound? It won't win any awards for best score, but the soundtrack is suitably epic, and for the most part adds the right amount of intensity to each situation in which you'll find yourself. Sound effects are also solidly done, and you can really feel the punch of the main gun of the tanks, as well as the quick staccato of the machine guns. Infantry will yell out when they are under fire, and the roar of the tank engines and other vehicles as they charge into battle is also quite exciting. One thing that really gave me mixed feelings was the voice acting. Some of it was good, mostly on the Allied side, but the Axis side left me feeling like I'd gone to a bad play where the actors overdid their accents and were hamming it up for the audience. I just couldn't feel attached to the Axis characters and get involved with their story as much, just because of the way they spoke. Overall, though, sound is certainly solid and doesn't really detract from the overall experience.

Gameplay in Codename Panzers is fairly simplistic but also involved. You take control of your units and are thrown into a mission, given a goal, and set loose. You can accomplish this goal in a number of ways, and along the course of the mission, you may discover secondary objectives and hidden goals as well. It becomes important to complete these secondary goals as you come across them, because you are awarded points based on your mission performance, and with these points, you can purchase new combat troops and vehicles to aid you in your next mission. While you can definitely race through and complete the main objective rather quickly, it becomes quite apparent that completing the secondary and hidden objectives is worth your time.

Combat, while at first seemingly simple, definitely has a lot of strategy and depth. In a night mission, choosing to light your headlamps to help guide your way can lead to earlier detection by an enemy lying in wait and your untimely demise. Infantry with flamethrowers can overheat a tank, forcing the crew to bail out and allowing you to take it over. Positioning and maneuvering your tanks and infantry to make use of the landscape and to flank or surround the enemy becomes important as well. Positioning your snipers on a hilltop can certainly help to save you from a flamethrower unit that is trying to make things uncomfortable for your tanks.

You'll definitely find a lot to keep you busy in Codename: Panzers - Phase Two. There is an editor that you can use to make your own missions or just to design a quick play scenario that pits your favorite units against each other. There's a skirmish mode that you can use to jump quickly into a battle if that's what you're looking for, and, of course, there is a multiplayer mode that will keep you and some friends busy for quite a while. Add all that to the considerably lengthy campaigns provided in the game, and you'll be set for quite a long time. If you get sucked into Codename: Panzers, you'll have a hard time finding your way back out again.

While the overall package feels a bit dated, the game comes together to form quite a nice little real-time strategy game. The basically unexplored African and Italy campaign serves to add a bit of spice to an otherwise overplayed time period, and the sheer variety of the missions and goals add a lot of replay value to the game. It might not be for everyone, but if you found yourself playing Phase One and longing for more, you'll be doing yourself a favor by picking up Codename: Panzers - Phase Two. While there were certainly a few quirks that just didn't sit right with me, the game came out on top. With more vehicles, more missions, and a touch more polish than the original, Phase Two is an enjoyable romp in the RTS genre.

Score: 8.0/10