While at a recent industry event, I was talking with Christopher Schmitz, Executive Producer at CDV, about his upcoming projects that he and his company are working. When he casually mentioned the name “Panzer Tactics DS”, I knew I had to know more—and fast! You see, I’m a sucker for tactical games and I love the DS. When you combine those two items with the fact that CDV really knows its World War II games, you’ve got a great potential to monopolize all my gaming time!When most people hear the term “tactics”, they think turn based strategy games. And this holds true to that thinking. Set in World War II, Panzer Tactics DS is a grid based game where each unit can move a set number of tiles on the grid. Divided into three campaigns, the game places you in charge of the Americans, the British and the Russians across a total of ten missions per campaign with the potential for a couple of bonus missions if certain achievements are met during the course of battle.
Each mission will be historically accurate, as will all the units available to the player. Of course, there’s nothing that states you have to take the same route to victory that the actual Generals did and some of the fun is often in passing missions using uncommon tactics.
Throughout your progress through the missions, you will be led by a mentor, who will help to instruct you on the various nuances of combat and of your units as well as offer strategy tips. Your units will also gain strength as they excel in combat, earning experience which will make them tougher and more formidable for your foes. In addition, Officer units will be able to use their expertise to help improve all surrounding units. With over 150 units available in the game, you’ll need to make sure your’s are stronger then your opponent’s.
Depending on your success in each mission, you will earn a certain amount of fame. You can then use this fame to attract new units to your platoon in order to help you on subsequent missions. And the units you use will be important, as well. Since each mission can have a random weather environment, you’ll want to make sure you select the right units for each mission. Flying your aircraft in a thunder storm just wouldn’t be a very good idea.
One of the best features of this game is the multiplayer support via NintendoWiFi. You’ll be able to battle friends all over the world through the wireless feature of the system across more then 15 different maps. With up to four players per match, you’ll be able to go free-for-all or team up for a 2v2 match if you desire. In addition, an online ranking system will let you see just how good a General you really are or if you should head back to boot camp.
Just because the game is being designed for the DS, don’t think that this game won’t have all the details you’d expect from a World War II. Each unit will have a detailed description on what makes it special, just as you’d find in any WWII encyclopedia. In addition, full descriptions of the actual battles will be available so in addition to having fun playing the game, you’ll also be able to learn a little bit, too!
As CDV’s first attempt at a handheld game, this title definitely shows lots of promise. I can’t wait to see more of this title and hopefully E3 will reveal even more about this exciting game. If it’s even half as good as it sounds, it’ll be an amazing game! Tactical, World War 2, WiFi play…how can you go wrong?
I've been playing games ever since I was a wee lad. My favorite games as a child were the classic Pitfall and a game called SNAFU, which was a sort of puzzle game along the lines of Tron Light Cycles. I've had most of the major console systems since the early days and have a wide range of tastes of games and I'm always eager to give a new one a try.
