Combat Mission Shock Force: British Forces
British Forces is the newest expansion pack to the real time wargame from Battlefront that continues to upgrade not only the base game but adds new campaigns and forces.
Ratings:
Graphics & Audio: 20/25,
Gameplay: 20/25,
Creativity 23/25,
Fun 20/25
Total: 83/100
British Forces is the latest expansion to the Battlefront wargame Combat Mission Shock Force that adds the British men and equipment to the game along with updates to the core game. The expansion adds a full set of equipment and campaigns that has been tweaked and continues the real time or turn by turn wargame.
Combat Mission Shock Force can be played as a real time strategy wargame or a turn by turn wargame in either player versus player, campaign or quick battle game types. You can also choose to play CMSF as a base game or the expansion but you do need to have the base game Combat Mission Shock Force to play this expansion.
In the campaign you go through one of three sets of missions, a training, the base game and the expansion campaign with a bit of a different storyline in the two main campaigns using the different forces. The game also has a quick battle setup where you can choose which side you want, different forces like British or US and terrain to fight on but not individual units.
The game also has the option to play the turn based or the real time strategy game which are both fun and really adds a lot of gameplay and value. Aside from the variety of missions, campaigns and types you can also play against real time opponents over the internet so gameplay will not even be an issue if you’re into real time or turn based strategy games.
British Forces uses a Syrian conflict as its storyline that works pretty well but with many wargames the storyline is not really all that important. Gameplay and graphics are more the thing to worry about and British Forces does not disappoint with some great looking graphics and well done AI.
I have not played this game before and found the game played well and was not all that hard to learn once you get the basics and start playing some battles after going through the training. Like most strategy games you should do some kind of hands on against some weaker opponents before attempting campaigns or real people and this game is no different.
British Forces has plenty of controls and hotkeys which work well and the games menu and interface is a nice setup but also like some of these games there are a lot of things going on. The game handles well with smooth frame rates and even has setup for various computer graphics and processor types to optimize for your individual system.
Graphics look pretty good for a strategy game and you can get down to individual units with simple movement controls of the camera which are handled well by either keyboard or mouse and some keyboard keys. The graphics look good and individual units are realistic with good effects and animation like men moving in and out of hatches on armor and blood coming from wounds.
The effects are more limited than I have seen in other strategy or turn based games but the AI more than compensates for this little trade off. Troops react well on both sides and even think intuitively but the men seem to panic a bit too quickly at times, or this may be the leader not doing better at leading his troops.
The expansion to Combat Mission Shock Force played very well on my system and graphics were no problem but some of the effects like artillery and tank fire does not have the same realism as I have seen in other games. I think they concentrated more on realism of the AI, beefing up the core game and making the game playable on more systems using the setup for various computer types.
Combat Mission Shock Force British Forces is a great expansion to the base game and really adds a lot of value as it does double the missions and campaign of the core game. You do get more maps and troop types to play using the online player versus player mode with this expansion as well.
I had no problems with installation of Combat Mission Shock Force or the expansion British Forces and playing on my system was smooth without any slowdown at max graphics settings. Combat Mission Shock Force: British Forces is well worth a look and as an addition to the core game really does create a whole lot more for strategy gaming enthusiasts.