Codename: Panzers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications.
Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
This article has been tagged since January 2008.

Codename: Panzers

Developer(s)	StormRegion
Publisher(s)	CDV
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date	^NA September 30, 2004 ^EUR October 1, 2004 ^JPN February 24, 2005
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (13+) PEGI: 12+
Media	CD (3)
System requirements	Windows 98/2000/ME/XP CPU:Intel Pentium 3 RAM: 256MB GPU: 32MB Hard disk: 3GB
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Codename: Panzers is a World War II computer game created by Hungarian game developer StormRegion. It launched in 2004 to generally favorable reviews. The series entered its second iteration in July 2005 with Codename: Panzers Phase II. A Codename: Panzers Phase III was originally planned, but no longer appears on the official website.

Codename: Panzers was intended to be a three-part series portrayal various conflicts of the Second World War.

[edit] Gameplay

Like Soldiers: Heroes of World War II and, to a lesser extent, Blitzkrieg, Codename: Panzers focuses on managing groups of troops, tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery and destroying the enemy or capturing objectives. The game abstracts concepts such as supply, repair, and air support without doing away with them entirely, and belongs to the real-time tactics genre more than the traditional wargame/simulation genre.

Units gain experience throughout the single-player campaigns and can be bought/upgraded between missions and added to the player's personal 'army' that travels with him from scenario to scenario. Completing mission requirements and optional objectives gives the player 'Prestige' points, which can be accumulated to upgrade existing units or used to add new units to the player's core force. Additionally, many missions provide the player with extra units to complement their core army. Also, the player is most often responsible for keeping alive a single 'hero' unit.

Units include a variety of infantry, armor, and artillery used by each nations' armed forces in World War II. While the main focus of the game is in controlling tanks, artillery units provide long range fire while infantry units can be used to engage other infantry and garrison buildings for added defense. Damage is modeled on a health bar system, although vehicles have additional armor plating to weaken before taking damage. Players are also required to maintain their vehicles using ammo and repair trucks. In addition to regular units the player can control, the game provides players with indirect fire support. In missions, players can direct a limited amount of precision dive bomber strikes, carpet bombing runs, reconnaissance planes and off-map artillery.

It should also be noted that the damage of the various weapon systems is not realistically represented. All units can take more than one hit and Koenigstiger are not invulnerable to most guns.

[edit] Story

The first game (Phase I) focused on three campaigns: German, Soviet, and Western Allied. The German campaign begins with the Blitzkrieg of Poland, France and then the invasion of the USSR, with the final campaign mission at Stalingrad. The Soviet campaign begins with the turn at Stalingrad and ends with the Battle of Berlin and the Reichstag. The Western Allied campaign begins with Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings, and includes battles such as Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. The game features realistic representations of tanks, artillery units, air forces, and infantry from Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and Poland. It also features Serbian guerillas fought in the German campaign when the player moves through a rebellious area of Nedić's Serbia.

The second game (Phase II) focused on three campaigns: Axis, Western Allied, and Yugoslavian Partisans. The Axis campaign follows the Afrika Corps through the North African Campaign to the First Battle of El Alamein. The Western Allied campaign begins at the Second Battle of El Alamein, and includes Operation Torch, the Battle for Tobruk, and the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, then finishes with the Allied invasion of Italy, including Anzio and the Battle of Monte Cassino. The Yugoslav partisan campaign focus on combat in the Balkans with Russian assistance. This war is real, but don't sometimes show real history.