I think the first time when I saw some news bit on www.combatsim.com or www.simhq.com (pages of what is on my daily routine) that this game sucks, based on the graphics which definitely looked ugly and non sexy to me at least. It was not until some time later than I tried the demo (gold demo v1.02), and playing both missions, I was sold. This game is excellent! So next one to try was DVN release (didnt get to try the iso yet, will make update review for it), which was 17 disks. Installation was a snap, just unzip, unace and also grab the DVN v1.01 cracked update too, works great. Rip unaces to about 230mb.

What is it?

Its wargame, its kind of turn based, but not any gay hexgrid wargame. Its full 3D rendered game. Its based on European scenery of WW2. It includes all kind of land units you can think of, from the various allied forces and the badguys, the Axis.

The demo

There was first beta demo (which I never tried out), then they released Gold demo v1.02 and to my knowledge it was far more improved than the beta. Okay so how was the demo? (err, is this game review or some demo review... ehh, dorkme:) There you'll have two missions, first one is not the smallest but really good smallish meeting engagement between Allied & Axis forces. Second mission is Allied attacking to Axis strongholds. The demo is 1:1 the game, except its only two missions without editor.

Scenario & Map Editor anyone?

Oh yeah baby, this editor rocks. You can edit the Map, including height of the terrain, what the terrain is (plain, water, road, bushes, trees... you name it), you can add houses and so on. Size of the map can be also changed from default 800meters x 800meters to hogging about 2000m x 2000m which definitely will be enough, if not... too large. There is nice preview option for the map/scenario building, you can zoom into the map and check it out, just like in the normal game. Great stuff.

How does it play?

Its turn based... but not same kind of turnbased as you've learn to see on other war/strategy games. One turn will feature 60seconds worth of battle. When you make your orders, you can see them on the 3d screen as lines where the color of the line indicating movement (crawl, move, run) or perhaps targeting information. All this is based on Line of Sight (LOS), if you have LOS to the enemy, you can shoot him (if you're in range of course). The battle map can be viewed from gay top view to the nitty gritty down and dirty view just behind your soldier, tank or other entity in the 3d world. The view can be rotated anywhere in the map, no limits. When you're orders are set, you hit "GO!" and the computer calculates the outcome of the battle, then you can view the battle for that already calculated 60sec time. There is this kind of VCR type of operation so you can fast forward, rewind, pause or totally start from the beginning of this 60sec battle. You can view it as many times you want, and usually its good to view from all kinds of perspectives on 3d battlefield to get an overall understanding of how the battle unfolds. Simply great way to see some specific units taking fire from each other, from each others point of view.

       
example of the forrest.

Graphics?

Like I said in the beginning, my first impression from a screenshot was like "oh shit, what lame graphics!", but really after playing the Gold Demo I came to realize that this game is absolutely awesome, even tho the graphics arent match for qUaQe r0cKeT aRenA 32bit fancy glitter & chrome. What does this mean, that the graphics suck? oh no, they dont suck but gotta admit that for example the infantry troops are quite "bulky" or othewise pretty weirdlooking. Of course, you can only see this if you to go the extreme closeup. Tanks and houses for example, looks just ok for me. Tracer fire and ammunition general is a bit bulky too, it doesnt however no way effect the battles. There are also very nice things like when 240mm artillery hits the ground, it leaves a crater that is somewhat house size and the explosion (if not 32bit glitter&chrome) is so awesome you will almost shit your pants everytime it hits !
The landscape in the maps if just great, all you can think of its here. forests look awesome and even in treetop level when you zoom into your troops hiding among the forest, it looks cool. There are hills, very large hills (all can be defined from map editor), water like lakes & rivers, cities look very nice with lot of different houses. Farmland fields, roads (paved or dirt), bushes, green grass... aah, it has everything and its so beautiful to see battle ruined landscape houses on fire here and there... aaah baby ! Muahaha!

Realism or Quake Sim?

How realistic is the game you ask... its real, its so real that you duck for cover when you hear gunfire coming behind the hill let me tell you! Because its turnbased with 60sec battletime, all your fancy pentium hardware is doing what it does best: number crunching. I'd bet that if this game would be realtime, it would not be possile (or would be extreme laggy on 1000ghz pc) to run the battles. Armor with every thickness, angle, and shape is taken into account for all armored vehicles, armor penetration is just too complicated to get in here. But I've seen a german Tiger thank get hit multiple times with too weak weapon before getting like its track broken down, so it came immobilized.
There is morale on troops, there are platoon leaders whos presense is needed for good morale and lots of other things like orders going "thru" to the soldiers for example.
The already mentioned LOS means your tank is worth of shit if it sits behind hill with no LOS. Also if your tank is wide open and your infantry sits behind the tank, then they are safe from enemy gunfire otherside of the tank. Oh and some of your infantry soldiers can take a ride on the tanks or other vehicles, extreme coolness is to see .50cal machinegun dude a get a lift from tank!
Artillery is portdayed like it should, when those bigboy shells starts to drop, you better get the hell out of dodge or youre deadmeat pal, its so goddamn massive. Or what do you think of the house sized craters it leaves the bounded ground with? ;)
If you get into close fight with two infantry men and they have grenades, you can rest assure that these guys will toss them to the enemy positions. Tanks have also secondary weapons which usually are machineguns alike which they fire on infantry positions.

Multiplayer?

At this moment there is only Play-By-Email, where you exchange the game "saves" with your friend as you play the game against him (only 2 players supported). There is word that internet support will be free update in the future, when will this be I dont know but hopefully very soon. Its pain to do PBEM exchange. But even so, the game against your friend is extremely cool and works just fine as turn based 60sec combat thing.

                                                        
                                     River crossing.                 Eeeww winter.                 Tracks are snowy.

Artillery example

Here is small example of the artillerys magnitude, I've captured a screenshot "gallery" of few artillery spotters bounding a small city, see for yourself, is the artillery deadly or what...

                                        
   City starts to gets it.                  Bounding...                     Bunker point of view.        Aaah das is good!

So what about the bunker, how did he came up?

He didnt.

Aftermath of the onslaught of the deadly artillery strikes in Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord...

deadly...

Conclusion

Not many times you get a game that INSTANTLY from the beginning suits your "mouse hand" like a glove. Instanly you feel like home with the game and dont want to leave the screen even for fast trip to toilet, you stay awake until the morning playing the game... Combat Mission is awesome title. Do not miss it!