Interesting addition to the franchise, but disappointing in so many ways.

User Rating: 5.5 | Codename Panzers: Cold War PC
I was eagerly looking forward to the release of this game, not least because I am getting so tired of an apparently endless stream of World War II RTS games. The premise of an RTS game that depicts the outset of World War III was quite attractive. Unfortunately, the game was a disappointment at a number of levels.

I found the game to be quite playable and the graphics were acceptable. In fact, the graphics were one of the few things I found that were superior in this game to the two earlier Code Name: Panzers games. It was easy to play the game. If anyone has played the earlier entries in this franchise, they will be able to plunge into this one with little delay. However, I was disappointed in the limited number of scenarios that are provided in the game. I was disappointed in the number and type of units that I could choose from in the run-up to any given scenario. I was disappointed that there was no Soviet campaign. I would also have liked to see a British/French/NATO campaign too. Alternatively, a full-up German campaign in which a defeated and underequipped West German army has to fight the Soviets so soon after World War II would have been very interesting. The other games in the franchise had three campaigns. I would have expected this one to follow that part of the Code Name: Panzers franchise as well.

In short, I was disappointed that this game was not nearly as enjoyable as the earlier games and I was very chagrined that the developers took an interesting and fairly unused premise (the outset of World War III) and then produced such a mediocre game.