Battlezone Combat Commander is the remaster of Battlezone 2 Combat Commander from 1999, same thing as before, the info on the side is from this remaster, not the original game.
It crashed on me once, that’s about it, although I did feel like loading took too long in a few missions.
For the sake of fairness, and to be as objective as possible in this review, I will be leaving the comparisons with Battlezone 98, to the final thoughts section.
The original Battlezone 2 didn’t do well sales wise, having to compete with RTS juggernauts, and having to live in the shadow of the first game, with the game in on itself being withing the FPS-RTS hybrid niche, well…
Anyway, let’s move on to the review.
Story and Setting
Its the 90s, almost 30 years after the end of the Biometal War, now known as the Biowar, and a lot has changed since then.
Since “the incident” which brought an abrupt end to the war, The US and USSR have made the final decision of working together for the future of mankind.
In order to avoid a similar incident from happening, they have decided to make biometal known to all countries, and, in order to avoid misuse of this resource, a few organizations have been established.
First, the International Space Defense Force (ISDF), originally composed of veterans of the Biowar, their purpose, to extract biometal, to enforce the proper use of biometal, to oversee the distribution of biometal, and to protect humanity (optional).
On the political side, there is the Alliance of Awakened Nations (AAN), with the strict purpose of making sure each member country gets their fair share of biometal, and to use the ISDF to handle the more “special” cases.
For a time, it seemed as if world peace had become a reality, yet, any member of the ISDF would say otherwise.
Now however, there have been some strange happenings in Pluto, a satellite being shot down by an unknown force, and an ISDF base going dark all of a sudden.
Suspecting foul play, veteran of the Biowar and former commander of The Black Dogs Squadron, General Braddock of the ISDF, sends a battalion to investigate.
There, they are met with a strange force, an alien like force, and, they have opened fire.
We got hostiles.
The Scion Convergence have made their presence known in the galaxy, their intentions are unknown, and, for some reason, Braddock seems quite intent on destroying them.
Orders are orders soldier.
Since “the incident” which brought an abrupt end to the war, The US and USSR have made the final decision of working together for the future of mankind.
In order to avoid a similar incident from happening, they have decided to make biometal known to all countries, and, in order to avoid misuse of this resource, a few organizations have been established.
First, the International Space Defense Force (ISDF), originally composed of veterans of the Biowar, their purpose, to extract biometal, to enforce the proper use of biometal, to oversee the distribution of biometal, and to protect humanity (optional).
On the political side, there is the Alliance of Awakened Nations (AAN), with the strict purpose of making sure each member country gets their fair share of biometal, and to use the ISDF to handle the more “special” cases.
For a time, it seemed as if world peace had become a reality, yet, any member of the ISDF would say otherwise.
Now however, there have been some strange happenings in Pluto, a satellite being shot down by an unknown force, and an ISDF base going dark all of a sudden.
Suspecting foul play, veteran of the Biowar and former commander of The Black Dogs Squadron, General Braddock of the ISDF, sends a battalion to investigate.
There, they are met with a strange force, an alien like force, and, they have opened fire.
We got hostiles.
The Scion Convergence have made their presence known in the galaxy, their intentions are unknown, and, for some reason, Braddock seems quite intent on destroying them.
Orders are orders soldier.
Presentation
3D FPS-RTS hybrid, you can switch to a more traditional RTS view with a building I am going to cover in the mechanics section, and you can switch to 3rd person whenever.
Excluding Pluto, for most of the game, you will be fighting on planets outside our solar system, but they do follow a 1 theme per planet pattern, lava planet, snow planet, swamp planet, and tech planet.
Excluding Pluto, for most of the game, you will be fighting on planets outside our solar system, but they do follow a 1 theme per planet pattern, lava planet, snow planet, swamp planet, and tech planet.
You can drive most vehicles in the game, and they each have a modeled cockpit, although some can be a bit samey, specially for attack vehicles, its quite a nice touch that serves to get you immersed. ISDF and Scion vehicles follow very different aesthetic styles.
Excluding your cockpit, the HUD itself is quite simple, radar, health and ammo, and unit groups at the top, with an orders menu only appearing when the unit is selected.
There is a little model of your vehicle on the side, this is mostly so you know what form you are using while on a Scion vehicle.
You can also go inside most buildings, but they don’t have much decoration, its mostly utilitarian, and I can understand the decision gameplay wise.
Excluding your cockpit, the HUD itself is quite simple, radar, health and ammo, and unit groups at the top, with an orders menu only appearing when the unit is selected.
There is a little model of your vehicle on the side, this is mostly so you know what form you are using while on a Scion vehicle.
You can also go inside most buildings, but they don’t have much decoration, its mostly utilitarian, and I can understand the decision gameplay wise.
There are some nice models and animations, both for your on-foot weapons, and for vehicles, some Scion vehicles can morph, and you can actually see them as they do change to a slightly different model.
Working scopes are a nice addition.
Environments for the different planets have a decent amount of detail, with some planets even having flora and fauna.
Although a quite frustrating thing, is that trees aren’t solid, and enemies can see and shoot you through them, you can shoot through trees but they still obscure your vision, even if you destroy the trees, they respawn after a while.
For the tech planet, there is quite a lot of clutter, which sure looks cool in 1st person view, it does get in the way in RTS view.
Both the ISDF and the Scions look and play quite differently, with the ISDF being more of your standard futuristic army (kinda reminded me of the Terran from Starcraft), and the Scions looking like a mix of ants with technology on both appearance and naming conventions for their units.
Resources wise, biometal pools are hard to miss, and biometal scrap shows in your radar, and you can see it in the battlefield quite easily.
Working scopes are a nice addition.
Environments for the different planets have a decent amount of detail, with some planets even having flora and fauna.
Although a quite frustrating thing, is that trees aren’t solid, and enemies can see and shoot you through them, you can shoot through trees but they still obscure your vision, even if you destroy the trees, they respawn after a while.
For the tech planet, there is quite a lot of clutter, which sure looks cool in 1st person view, it does get in the way in RTS view.
Both the ISDF and the Scions look and play quite differently, with the ISDF being more of your standard futuristic army (kinda reminded me of the Terran from Starcraft), and the Scions looking like a mix of ants with technology on both appearance and naming conventions for their units.
Resources wise, biometal pools are hard to miss, and biometal scrap shows in your radar, and you can see it in the battlefield quite easily.
Your radar shows you the landscape near you, and you can switch to a full map view if you desire, units that show on the ping of the radar are mobile units, with static dots representing stationary units (usually buildings).
Maps are mostly utilitarian, with little venue for experimentation, and you can kinda tell from where the AI is going to attack, and where the designers are expecting you to attack, although its an ok design philosophy, I found it a quite boring approach.
Most units standout quite well, you can tell at a glance what kind they are, the only exceptions being ISDF scout types looking too similar to each other, and for Scion lancers looking too similar to warriors.
Each building does stand out on its own.
Units and buildings are color coded (in some missions).
There are a few cutscenes taken from the original game, and they were left in their original resolution, albeit with some creative presentation to get around the issue.
You also get to see some concept art of the planets and some units in the loading screen.
During the pre-mission briefing, you can see some 3D models of the planet you will be deploying on, and the 3D model of a unit which might be important in the mission.
Maps are mostly utilitarian, with little venue for experimentation, and you can kinda tell from where the AI is going to attack, and where the designers are expecting you to attack, although its an ok design philosophy, I found it a quite boring approach.
Most units standout quite well, you can tell at a glance what kind they are, the only exceptions being ISDF scout types looking too similar to each other, and for Scion lancers looking too similar to warriors.
Each building does stand out on its own.
Units and buildings are color coded (in some missions).
There are a few cutscenes taken from the original game, and they were left in their original resolution, albeit with some creative presentation to get around the issue.
You also get to see some concept art of the planets and some units in the loading screen.
During the pre-mission briefing, you can see some 3D models of the planet you will be deploying on, and the 3D model of a unit which might be important in the mission.
Sound wise, I can’t for the life of me remember much of the music, it was ok, but memorable it was not, it kinda blended in together and became white noise after a while, with my ears more perked for sounds of weapons. Its the same for ambiance, for which I only remember the hum of vehicle engines.
Weapon sound is tied to the type of ordinance, you can tell a rocket, apart from a cannon, apart from machine guns (or equivalent for the Scions), etc. With a minor alteration on pitch for different weapons of the same type.
The variation does help to identify what you are fighting against, and to mount a proper response.
The morphing sound for Scion vehicles stands out quite a lot, so you can tell when they are vulnerable when you are fighting them, or to tell when you are done morphing when playing as them.
The announcer voice, and the beeping for when a unit gets attacked will be your best source of information, you can also see the approximate health of a unit at a glance at the top.
Something that was kind of a problem, was on the Scion side, with the announcer referring to both buildings and support units as “Scion” so when I heard “Scion lost” I wasn’t sure if she meant a healer, a builder, or a building until I checked myself.
Unit chatter wise, ISDF and Scion units do sound differently, the most notable difference, is with the Scions having some modulation in their voice.
Units have unique voice overs, tied to their group type, so, most offensive units sound the same, all defensive units sound the same, at least they made sure to make support units different from one another so it isn’t too confusing.
During briefings, you will get audio messages from allies, and sometimes from the enemy, there is no text to accompany them, but you can replay them as needed.
During loading screens, your character will give his opinions on the situation and the mission through a monologue, that the game let’s you listen to, even if loading is done.
During missions, there will be quite a lot of chatter in missions in which you have allies (which did annoy me a lot), and the usual, receiving orders and being scolded for failing, the game has no subtitles however, so listen well.
Trust me, you come to appreciate when all your allies finally shut up, I actually came to like the hum of the engine of my tank over whatever mostly useless chatter was clogging comms. You have no idea how many times I found myself muttering “Shut up, I know what I am doing,” or, “I don’t care, give me my orders already.”
Weapon sound is tied to the type of ordinance, you can tell a rocket, apart from a cannon, apart from machine guns (or equivalent for the Scions), etc. With a minor alteration on pitch for different weapons of the same type.
The variation does help to identify what you are fighting against, and to mount a proper response.
The morphing sound for Scion vehicles stands out quite a lot, so you can tell when they are vulnerable when you are fighting them, or to tell when you are done morphing when playing as them.
The announcer voice, and the beeping for when a unit gets attacked will be your best source of information, you can also see the approximate health of a unit at a glance at the top.
Something that was kind of a problem, was on the Scion side, with the announcer referring to both buildings and support units as “Scion” so when I heard “Scion lost” I wasn’t sure if she meant a healer, a builder, or a building until I checked myself.
Unit chatter wise, ISDF and Scion units do sound differently, the most notable difference, is with the Scions having some modulation in their voice.
Units have unique voice overs, tied to their group type, so, most offensive units sound the same, all defensive units sound the same, at least they made sure to make support units different from one another so it isn’t too confusing.
During briefings, you will get audio messages from allies, and sometimes from the enemy, there is no text to accompany them, but you can replay them as needed.
During loading screens, your character will give his opinions on the situation and the mission through a monologue, that the game let’s you listen to, even if loading is done.
During missions, there will be quite a lot of chatter in missions in which you have allies (which did annoy me a lot), and the usual, receiving orders and being scolded for failing, the game has no subtitles however, so listen well.
Trust me, you come to appreciate when all your allies finally shut up, I actually came to like the hum of the engine of my tank over whatever mostly useless chatter was clogging comms. You have no idea how many times I found myself muttering “Shut up, I know what I am doing,” or, “I don’t care, give me my orders already.”
Mechanics
Difficulty wise, I didn’t bother to check, I played the whole campaign on medium, dogfighting is ok, but some weapons have hit-scan when used by the AI.
There is only 1 campaign, but at a certain point you are allowed to make the choice of staying with the ISDF or joining the Scions. Thing is, with how the campaign is structured, you only get 5 Scion missions, with 2 being an extended tutorial on their faction, and in 1 in which you use ISDF units.
Don’t worry, once you are done, the game tells you how to easily play the other choice if you wish, do bear in mind that the Scion side is harder.
For resources, there are 2, Scrap (biometal) for building everything, and power, for making buildings work.
Scrap wise, both factions work the same, ISDF has a Scavenger, and Scions have a Harvester, they pick up biometal from the ground which is a quick short-term source, and they build extractors on biometal pools, which are a slow but infinite long-term source that you must defend, and each extractor also increases your maximum capacity for biometal.
The biometal bar works like this, while on yellow in grows at medium speed, while on red at a fast speed, and while on green at a slow speed. Extractors give yellow, and upgraded extractors give red.
Power wise, the ISDF needs to build generators, Scion buildings come with generators on them called lungs, both are vulnerable, and without them, both buildings and defenses are rendered useless.
There are quite a few differences gameplay wise, but I won’t go too in-depth for the sake of brevity.
Both factions need specific buildings to access certain higher tier units, which also requires a steady source of biometal.
Once you have built a relay station (ISDF) or an Antenna Mound/Overseer Array (Scions), you can go inside and open RTS view, which is quite helpful for big operations and complex base building.
There is only 1 campaign, but at a certain point you are allowed to make the choice of staying with the ISDF or joining the Scions. Thing is, with how the campaign is structured, you only get 5 Scion missions, with 2 being an extended tutorial on their faction, and in 1 in which you use ISDF units.
Don’t worry, once you are done, the game tells you how to easily play the other choice if you wish, do bear in mind that the Scion side is harder.
For resources, there are 2, Scrap (biometal) for building everything, and power, for making buildings work.
Scrap wise, both factions work the same, ISDF has a Scavenger, and Scions have a Harvester, they pick up biometal from the ground which is a quick short-term source, and they build extractors on biometal pools, which are a slow but infinite long-term source that you must defend, and each extractor also increases your maximum capacity for biometal.
The biometal bar works like this, while on yellow in grows at medium speed, while on red at a fast speed, and while on green at a slow speed. Extractors give yellow, and upgraded extractors give red.
Power wise, the ISDF needs to build generators, Scion buildings come with generators on them called lungs, both are vulnerable, and without them, both buildings and defenses are rendered useless.
There are quite a few differences gameplay wise, but I won’t go too in-depth for the sake of brevity.
Both factions need specific buildings to access certain higher tier units, which also requires a steady source of biometal.
Once you have built a relay station (ISDF) or an Antenna Mound/Overseer Array (Scions), you can go inside and open RTS view, which is quite helpful for big operations and complex base building.
Once you get the appropriate building, (Armory for ISDF, and Stronghold for Scions) you can go inside your production buildings, and modify the blueprints of your vehicles, do bear in mind this will affect their biometal price. You can also use that appropriate building to deploy upgrades, which it yeets into the air and takes some time to fall back down.
Units require ammo as well, and both factions have a building and a mobile unit which restores and repairs them as needed, to be honest, I almost never ran out of ammo, unless I was actively pushing it.
You can use your sniper to kill the pilots of most vehicles, in order to take the vehicle for yourself, do bear in mind that the enemy can take them back if its still left without an occupant.
Pilots can eject from their vehicle when its destroyed, and become a minor annoyance as they shoot at your vehicle, you too can lose your vehicle, and its game over if you are killed while on foot, so be careful, you can order a friendly unit to pick you up tho.
You can use your sniper to kill the pilots of most vehicles, in order to take the vehicle for yourself, do bear in mind that the enemy can take them back if its still left without an occupant.
Pilots can eject from their vehicle when its destroyed, and become a minor annoyance as they shoot at your vehicle, you too can lose your vehicle, and its game over if you are killed while on foot, so be careful, you can order a friendly unit to pick you up tho.
The game has a heavy type of vehicles, which struggle with hard terrain, and dies if it goes into deep water/lava, This is the major aspect on chokepoints within the maps, in the ice planet there is even a gimmick in which units can fall through ice to a lake. You can’t snipe the pilots of heavy vehicles.
Heavy vehicles use tank controls, if you wish to drive them.
There are also some flying units, with the Scions having the archer which flies as it moves but must be deployed to attack, and the ISDF having flying APCs which deliver infantry, and a bomber for destroying buildings (its too slow for CAS purposes).
Scions can build wherever there is flat terrain, but the ISDF must deploy close to their recycler, or a relay station.
The common loop for any given map is: Early game with you spread thin defending your base and eco, and harassing enemy eco, middle and late game with you in RTS view giving orders.
Some Scion units can morph between 2 modes, each one offers a different main weapon, in 1 of the modes they passively regenerate health, and in the other, they do the same but with ammo. Its too slow to ignore deploying a healer, or using the dower, but it can be a good way to squeeze some extra mileage from units.
Scions upgrade most of their building to access their units, while the ISDF only upgrades their extractors, but has more buildings available, some of which are only there to access extra units.
Besides some extra minutia for faction specific behavior and strategy, that’s pretty much it.
Heavy vehicles use tank controls, if you wish to drive them.
There are also some flying units, with the Scions having the archer which flies as it moves but must be deployed to attack, and the ISDF having flying APCs which deliver infantry, and a bomber for destroying buildings (its too slow for CAS purposes).
Scions can build wherever there is flat terrain, but the ISDF must deploy close to their recycler, or a relay station.
The common loop for any given map is: Early game with you spread thin defending your base and eco, and harassing enemy eco, middle and late game with you in RTS view giving orders.
Some Scion units can morph between 2 modes, each one offers a different main weapon, in 1 of the modes they passively regenerate health, and in the other, they do the same but with ammo. Its too slow to ignore deploying a healer, or using the dower, but it can be a good way to squeeze some extra mileage from units.
Scions upgrade most of their building to access their units, while the ISDF only upgrades their extractors, but has more buildings available, some of which are only there to access extra units.
Besides some extra minutia for faction specific behavior and strategy, that’s pretty much it.
Final thoughts
Alright, now its when I am going to be harsh with this game, if you are interested in trying it out, everything above this paragraph and in the scoring is me being fair with the game, in this section, I will be saying why I like 98 more, so, you can stay if you are interested.
The motto with this game is, 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Which is why i titled it as so, the game didn't know what to actually go towards, either RTS or FPS, and trying to balance both didn't work.
First and foremost, the ISDF has no personality whatsoever, the units became standardized, its just NSDF but boring, no decals, nor wear and tear, and the unique unit chatter was surely missed, having units color coded in some specific missions isn’t enough.
Sure the models look nice, but it was at the expense of personality.
Scions look ok, but their gameplay is… I wasn’t a fan of their gimmicks, and overall, they just felt weaker than the ISDF, specially with my preferred playstyle favoring ISDF.
Some Scion cockpits had some really bad designs, which actually get in the way or were distracting.
The game leaned more towards RTS, at the expense of loosing what made the first one so much fun and unique, with the eventual part of the game loop of having to switch to RTS view already taking away a big chunk of the FPS side.
Sure you can just not use it, thing is, with the sheer amount of units, and focus on map control, it just ain’t feasible, the focus on staying mobile and quick action from 98 are now lost, in pro of being a standard RTS.
The unlimited resources bit… Wasn’t a fan, I no longer have an incentive to take care of my units, nor their pilots, just use the Zapp Brannigan strategy, until one side buckles.
Combat wise, I didn’t like the inclusion of heavy and flying units, the amount of times I either forgot, or for some reason the pathfinding sent the units to water for them to die were a few too many times.
Flying units only have a tiny problem, the game doesn’t give much venue on dealing with them, besides spamming defensive units, and hope they target the big flying thing approaching.
The power thing is whatever, it was in the first game, but it was only used for gun towers.
There is just too much yapping, in the first game, you only received messages giving you your missions, or giving you sitreps, in Combat Commander… They sometimes just like to talk about whatever, or just be annoying overall while you need to be focused on something else.
The first game had a very good high risk high reward design regarding its units, all you needed was a factory and resources, and no unit truly felt broken, in this one however, the having to go through a bunch of buildings just to have access to something specific, makes pacing of missions slow down considerably.
All in all, after I was done, I just wanted to play the first one instead.
With this, I have covered the Battlezone PC games, although Urban Assault and 3DO’s Uprising series are on my list, first I am going to play something else, I am still in a sci-fi mood, so next, a RTS with spaceships.
The motto with this game is, 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Which is why i titled it as so, the game didn't know what to actually go towards, either RTS or FPS, and trying to balance both didn't work.
First and foremost, the ISDF has no personality whatsoever, the units became standardized, its just NSDF but boring, no decals, nor wear and tear, and the unique unit chatter was surely missed, having units color coded in some specific missions isn’t enough.
Sure the models look nice, but it was at the expense of personality.
Scions look ok, but their gameplay is… I wasn’t a fan of their gimmicks, and overall, they just felt weaker than the ISDF, specially with my preferred playstyle favoring ISDF.
Some Scion cockpits had some really bad designs, which actually get in the way or were distracting.
The game leaned more towards RTS, at the expense of loosing what made the first one so much fun and unique, with the eventual part of the game loop of having to switch to RTS view already taking away a big chunk of the FPS side.
Sure you can just not use it, thing is, with the sheer amount of units, and focus on map control, it just ain’t feasible, the focus on staying mobile and quick action from 98 are now lost, in pro of being a standard RTS.
The unlimited resources bit… Wasn’t a fan, I no longer have an incentive to take care of my units, nor their pilots, just use the Zapp Brannigan strategy, until one side buckles.
Combat wise, I didn’t like the inclusion of heavy and flying units, the amount of times I either forgot, or for some reason the pathfinding sent the units to water for them to die were a few too many times.
Flying units only have a tiny problem, the game doesn’t give much venue on dealing with them, besides spamming defensive units, and hope they target the big flying thing approaching.
The power thing is whatever, it was in the first game, but it was only used for gun towers.
There is just too much yapping, in the first game, you only received messages giving you your missions, or giving you sitreps, in Combat Commander… They sometimes just like to talk about whatever, or just be annoying overall while you need to be focused on something else.
The first game had a very good high risk high reward design regarding its units, all you needed was a factory and resources, and no unit truly felt broken, in this one however, the having to go through a bunch of buildings just to have access to something specific, makes pacing of missions slow down considerably.
All in all, after I was done, I just wanted to play the first one instead.
With this, I have covered the Battlezone PC games, although Urban Assault and 3DO’s Uprising series are on my list, first I am going to play something else, I am still in a sci-fi mood, so next, a RTS with spaceships.
Pros
- + Detailed environments with nice atmosphere.
- + Creative gameplay decisions.
- + Factions do play and feel differently.
Cons
- - Generic Story.
- - Isn't too robust in either the RTS or FPS aspects.
- - Annoying voice overs.
6
Gameplay
Its an ok blend of RTS and FPS, yet, by trying to have both, it lacks depth in both, the RTS aspect leaves a lot to be desired, and the FPS aspect is generic. Controlling heavy vehicles sucks.
8
Graphics
It looks quite good, there is a really nice atmosphere, and a quite good art direction environment wise, Scions look alien, but the ISDF does look like a generic Sci-Fi army.
5
Story
Characters are very annoying, and the story feels like consistent attends by them to gaslight you into going with their plans, the endings were underwhelming.
6
Sound
For the love of god shut up, is the common thing on missions with allied commanders, otherwise, it does a decent job on giving auditory information, and making weapons different from each other.
6
Replayability
Although the campaign has 2 sides, there aren't that many missions overall, and little incentive other than just wanting to see it, at least there is mod support.
7
out of 10
Overall
A sequel which tried to focus more on the RTS aspect, at the expense of the solid core the previous game had built. Overall is still somewhat quick to action, but it leaves many moments of idling due to the unit pricing and how the resources work. Factions play quite differently from one another, each having their gimmicks and fortes, its a shame the campaign doesn't give them much personality. The game looks good and plays decently, but it lacks a solid foundation and personality.
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