Armoured Commander II

Positive

• get over the 2" tall obstacle of the UI and graphics and this is one of the most engrossing WW2 sims I've ever played. The emergent storytelling the game creates is fantastic, being hunkered down in a copse of trees picking off enemy tanks in the rain, desperately beating a retreat because your gunner was stunned by a glancing shell, pouring fire into a bogged down enemy unit, or bailing out and praying you make it to cover in time. All done without fancy visuals but deep and engaging gameplay. I do wish that the visual representation of the combat maps had SOMETHING to look at or represent what's going on. It can be frustrating to just look at a jumble of hexes without visual indication of why you don't have line of sight on your enemy, and it can feel very disconnected from the overworld map. It would be nice to actually see forests, buildings, marshes and rivers, and other landscape features. Still, for just a few dollars this is an excellent and oddly addicting little roguelike with a depth of gameplay you really wouldn't expect from its older than dirt visuals.

• 9.75/10. Hot DOG did I not expect how much this game would suck me in! Other reviews will corroborate that ArmCom 2 is a game that places function well above form, and I would argue that it is one of the best tank sims when it comes to crew management and, truthfully, one of the best tank sims period. The number of variables and stats capture the many, many factors in tank warfare; namely, the psychological ones. Crew can become stunned by non-penetrating hits and traumatized by seeing another tank in your squad get destroyed. Friendly dive bombers can mistake you for the enemy and hit you instead. Crew fatigue can affect combat performance and so there are consequences to pushing your vehicle and its occupants too hard. You can also nickname your crew, assign them stats and perks, and cross-train them if another is incapacitated. You don’t get bios or even a story to go off of, but you have just enough personalization to get attached and feel that kind of faux devastation if one is killed or put in the hospital. On that, there are physical limitations to your tank: breakdowns, getting stuck in mud and marshes, etc. Some of this can be avoided by being selective about where you find cover and terrain, but much of it boils down to RNG. This is definitively a roguelike: RNG can make or break campaigns. My only true gripe is the fact that you can’t choose to aim at certain parts of a target beyond an option to immobilize it, which you could imagine is to aim for the tracks, transmission, or engine. It can be legitimately terrifying to chance an enemy hitting you with a 30% probability, seeing “PENETRATED,” and rolling again to determine how bad the damage is. It could mean a near miss. It could mean your ammunition cooks off. Even bailing out has its own complexities and requires you to think carefully about how your crew escapes to safety, which has its own possibilities for failure. The game gives you a plethora of options to make it as easy or difficult as you prefer, down to individual vehicles and their tranches ranging from MG-equipped armored cars to frontline heavy tanks. The 1980s EGA-style graphics and Dwarf Fortress-esque ASCII interface might be off-putting, but in my opinion add their own flavor of realism to the game. After all, you’re in a tank in WWII: your visibility is nearly nonexistent even through a periscope or cupola. The mix of chiptune MIDI tracks and realistic sound effects help retain the balance of retro aesthetic with modern simulation. The closest comparison I can make with the appearance and playstyle is Wasteland from 1988, with similar group management and turn-based gameplay. This is the only hex-based war game I’ve played to date, but I think it may transition me into the genre. Overall, no, the Overwhelmingly Positive score is not a meme. This is genuinely a great game and calling it a “hidden gem” is putting it very mildly. It’s the same price as a sandwich and goes on sale frequently, but in my opinion is worth it at full price.

• Nethack for tanks. I wish I could buy a physical version of this game that comes with a printed manual so I could read all the tips and tricks. A great roguelike that goes all the way back to the actual source; Rogue.

• Pretty awesome game!

Negative

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