Panzer Elite Action

Tigers without claws

Once the novelty of being able to topple trees, bulldoze buildings and squish infantry has worn off there really is nothing in PEA, besides the tank-shaped amalgam of polygons at the bottom of the screen, to remind you that this is an armour game and not some ridiculously restrictive third-person shooter. All the elements that make titles like Panzer Front Ausf B. and Panzer Elite so distinctive and appealing have been ignored by ZootFly in a headlong Blitzkrieg drive for accessibility. Here you don't have to worry whether the vehicle in your sights is a titchy tin-pot Panzer II or a massive Porsche-styled Panzer VI Tiger - all threats succumb to two or three rounds from all guns. PEA play never generates tension or fear because the action is relentless and every half-mile or so there's the equivalent of a life-restoring magical spring. Tricky shell selection choices? Why trouble punters with this kind of complexity when, through the miracle of computer programming you can supply a single all-purpose shell and dot every battlefield with dozens of self-service ammo dumps?

Ironically, when the devs do attempt to model one of the peculiarities of their chosen subject matter they make a bit of a hash of it. The logical way to simulate the slowness of a turning gun turret is obviously to slow-down the speed with which the crosshairs glides around the screen. Misguided Zootfly shuns this elegant solution in favour of an annoying turret lag system that often means your gun isn't actually aligned with the object under the reticule when you come to fire. In the circumstances, the option of lobbing shells via a first-person gun sight view would have been very welcome. A down-the-barrel cam might also have allowed the devs to provide longer view distances on the large, attractive, densely dressed maps. Though most enemy tanks are easy to spot thanks to their habit of charging up to you like frisky heifers, cowardly AT guns will often engage from distant, fog-shrouded vantage points, meaning you have to advance to spot them or hunt them blindly with your roving crosshairs (handily, it turns green when it finds a target).

Bogged-down in blood

Had PEA had incredibly imaginative mission design or interesting AI it might just have got away with stripping most of the colour and character out of tank combat. Predictably it boasts neither of these accomplishments. On paper the 18-episode campaign looks quite tempting. In reality, whether you are blitzing into Poland in 1939, trundling through the shattered streets of Stalingrad in '43, or battling your way up Utah Beach on the morning of D-Day, play tends to settle into the same repetitive rut: eliminate that gaggle of AT guns, that knot of fearless infantry and that company of charging tanks, then restore hit points and replenish ammo before moving onto the next concentration of guns, grunts and armour. Because you destroy hundreds of enemy units in each mission, kills lose all meaning. Slower, stealthier historically-based activities like infantry support and tank hunting are left out, and the game is poorer for it.

Another way PEA could feasibly have saved face was by providing a large and varied stable of steel steeds. Starting your career in a tiny tankette or thinly-armoured tank destroyer, or ending it in a napalm-spewing flamethrower tank or experimental monster like the Maus, would have added some real spice to play. As it stands, you jump into a new machine almost every mission, but all of these are modelled with such shallowness that you'll be hard-pressed to remember what you're driving most of the time. One of the many attractive attributes of this game's respected parent was the ability to upgrade tanks and manage crews between scraps. Something similar implemented here would certainly have helped alleviate the vehicular blandness.

Having spent the past 800 words jabbing this game in the stomach with the critical equivalent of a rusty bayonet it's only fair I say something nice about its hair/knapsack/lipgloss before delivering the gut-spilling coup-de-grace. Despite the lack of tactical texture, thematic engagement, and general imagination, PEA does do its thing in some very fetching locales. No hardcore tank sims can boast landscapes quite as detailed or well decorated; no sim captures the mud-and-fire drama of a bombing raid or artillery stonk quite so well.