Combat Mission Shock Force NATO Demo

Whenever World War II strategy games becomes the topic of a conversation, someone is bound to bring up the Combat Mission franchise, because it managed to leave a deep mark on the genre ever since it was first released. However, the developers brought a lot of modifications to the series over the years, some of which were highly beneficial, while others not as much.

Combat Mission: Shock Force NATO is actually more of an expansion pack, since it does not really do an awful lot, other than add a few new scenarios and integrating the NATO coalition troops into the gameplay. However, the demo at hand represents the entire game plus everything from the other additional modules, since every mechanic and change is represented by these new missions as well and you can definitely get an idea about the overall product by giving this a shot first.

Hence, the NATO expansion aims to bring forth a new way to approach the conflict, since it includes a few interesting new units that can be used in battle, most of which are very powerful against a certain type of enemy. However, the changes in this regard are minimal, even if there are some scenarios to depict a few more skirmishes in the fictional conflict between Syria and the US Striker Brigades.

The most obvious changes, on the other hand, are those that affect the classic Combat Mission interface, because it certainly does not improve on it in any way and it even breaks a few things in the process as well. While these do not exactly make the game unplayable, they do make it very frustrating and difficult to enjoy the other possible improvements, especially in the case of older fans of the franchise, who might go into the game with rather high hopes.

There are, however, some decent graphics engine improvements to make up for the lousy gameplay changes, although the visual aspect was never the center focus of the franchise and it certainly cannot serve as an excuse for the rest of the game. Moreover, the pumped-up graphics engine now allows for truly 3D individual characters, which makes their motion much more believable and enjoyable out on the battlefield.

As the subtitle states, Combat Mission: Strike Force NATO and the entire sequel as a whole surprises through its lack of polishing, which is definitely not a characteristic of the series. However, it is possible to get accustomed to the gameplay and the interface at some point, in order to enjoy some of the interesting and challenging scenarios that were created to relay the campaign story.