Battlezone: Combat Commander is a Wing Commander-like experience in a tank. It features a neat story, updated graphics, and some gameplay that might not quite achieve the longevity of entertainment that it desires. It does contain some interesting features to try and keep the gamer engaged, but depending on expectations of the gamer will equal out to whether that engagement holds up.
Born from a 1980s arcade game, reimagined for a 1990s gaming experience, and remastered, at least graphically, for a more up-to-date PC playthrough, Battlezone: Combat Commander tries to do a lot to make itself known in a large PC world that is teeming with other first-person experiences. Does it accomplish this and stand out? Let’s find out.
Battlezone: Combat Commander’s concept was simple — get in tank, follow orders and follow a simple storyline to wreak havoc on ‘edge of the galaxy’ locations. Along the way, at least in the single player experience, you’re provided with a storyline, supporting characters and personalities that try to make the Battlezone experience more than just a simple updated version of Battlezone. It’s odd and more like playing Wing Commander in some respects than playing just a straight up Battlezone game.
Staying with that last sentence briefly, that’s not an insult at all. If you know anything about Wing Commander, than you know that it was one of the most entertaining and successful series to come out of the 90s. It was a flight simulator in space with a story built into it. Not the greatest acting in the world, mind you, but enough to get the moment and point across, especially when Mark Hamill starred in it. It was also a game that made RAM matter. A whopping 8mb of RAM.
Anyway, Battlezone: Combat Commander is in the same vein. You get some good storytelling mixed with okay acting on top of what ends up being simple gameplay design that is just a tad faster, and much prettier than the original Battlezone title that came out in the arcades in the early 80s, as well as the original version from the 90s. Of course, Battlezone: Combat Commander does a good job of offering up even more with the availability of single/multiplayer, something that the original game couldn’t feature, as well as a variety of tanks, locales, the ability to build (got some RTS in there) and including interesting weapons.
As for the core gameplay, once you strip away all those interesting layers, the leftovers are basically the same as the 80s game (though a little faster). You point, you shoot, you switch weapons and roll over hills to take down enemies. Outside of the hills, because the original game was just a flat vector graphic-based gaming experience, the initial point/shoot is the same as it always has been. It’s simple, it’s easy to do and doesn’t require a complicated set of keys on a keyboard to enjoy. In addition, the experience works well with a keyboard/mouse. It was born for such devices. Again, it’s harkening back to the 80s legend that was simple, while pushing a PC agenda to make it better. I can dig that quite a bit.
That said, the result of this tank game is that it’s easy to play and incredibly easy to lose interest in quick, especially for younger gamers and for those expecting a bit more depth to their sci-fi tank warfare. It does have the 90s mentality of game construction attached to it, though the experience is a bit shallow, even with story. I’m sure that hardcore PC fans will fine some simple delight in the LAN/multiplayer gaming, but, as I said previously, this is probably going to be a hard sell for the gamers that haven’t experienced this game or this game type, or 90s gaming before.
The biggest plus to this release is the updated graphics, which look gorgeous. The addition of attention to lighting and the gorgeous textures that run well on a gaggle of different system configurations (I ran this on a 1080 card computer and my Intel Iris chipset on my MBP (had to install Windows)) without a hitch is pretty impressive. I very much appreciate Rebellion’s ability to perform a graphical overhaul that doesn’t require a 1080 to run the graphics. Of course, Rebellion isn’t new to remaking classics, see their Rogue Trooper Redux for details, so give them some credit for spreading the graphical joy for a larger audience that doesn’t want to spend $1000 on a GPU. Long story short, the graphics are another huge plus for this game, though I wouldn’t expect an Overwatch-esque visual experience from this title. Rebellion does a good job of maintaining what made this game fun in the 90s, but spruces it up to feel modern.
Overall, Battlezone: Combat Commander is a Wing Commander-like experience in a tank. It features a neat story, updated graphics, and some gameplay that might not quite achieve the longevity of entertainment that it desires. It does contain some interesting features to try and keep the gamer engaged, but depending on expectations of the gamer will equal out to whether that engagement holds up.
