Close Combat games: Fight!

I played Close Combat (1) way back on my underspecced 486 and I loved it, and today I saw a copy of the game and thought to myself that I should reinstall it. But then it hit me that there has been what, four games released after the first one? And I’ve missed every one of them, save for a demo or two. I assume that they made some progress after the first game so which game is the best choice to pick up if I want to relive my Close Combat addiction?

I beta tested Close Combat 2 and thought it was quite good.

You’re talking about Microsofts close combat, rite?

Demo CC2:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5213.shtml

Demo CC3:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5214.shtml

Demo CC4:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5215.shtml

Demo CC5: (Yikes, how many of these are there!)
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5216.shtml

Utopia City
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5217.shtml

Ah… it stopped at 5216 luckily… :-)

Good god I loved those games. Too bad the series kinda died off…

1C has Theatre of War scheduled for 4Q and Battlefront has their modern Combat Mission game in development. ToW is very much akin to a Close Combat update in 3D.

I have Close Combat III - The Russian Front. That one is very good, and quite fun.

Its not at a grognard level of realism though - for realism go to Combat Mission. (www.battlefront.com)

CC3 does have a cool campaign mode though that lets you take the same company / battalion through the whole war, which Combat Mission does not have (yet).

From memory, the infantry is somewhat brittle in CC3. There is a fan patch I think that gives infantry the equivalent of about 10mm of armour which makes them more durable.

I think CC3 also has a very active mod community:

http://www.closecombat.org/

CC3 is probably the best overall package, but CC2 is my favorite of the series just because IMO they really captured the dynamics of Market Garden perfectly.

Thanks IL, I’ll have to watch fr that. I loved Close Combat. Have every single one (that wasn’t 3d).

You should skip CC4: Battle of the Bulge. CC5: Normandy is quite a bit better but, for some reason, just never grabbed me the way CC2 and CC3 did. I still love those two the best for the reasons already mentioned.

I wish they’d come up with a randomized campaign/map generator like Steel Panthers so when I felt like playing through a campaign it wasn’t a repeat with the same old maps and the same old units.

Doesn’t this series have a FPS game coming out?I thought I remember seeing something on that and thinking it odd.

Yeah, I’d imagine almost a half-inch of steel would make infantry feel more durable! :-O

I already have Combat Mission, but that’s not really what I was asking. I just want a comparison of the five Close Combat games.

Avoid #4 you say?

Close Combat 4 had its problems but it was still good fun. The campaign system they pioneered in it and carried forth to CC5 (where it was much improved) was a lot of fun, and could be played in 1 on 1 multiplayer.

CC4 is great fun if you want to zip around with lots of armor early on as the Germans. It can also be quite satisfying to stop the Germans dead in their tracks with underequipped American troops.

That said, CC5 is by far the best game of the series. It still suffers from an AI that really can’t attack its way out of a paper bag and is awful defending againt any kind of semi-coherent attack, but that can be said of all the Close Combats. Once you get over just how damned anticlimactic the beach zones are to fight in, it’s really a nice little game for what it does.

I can’t imagine being able to go back and enjoy any of the CC games after having played any of the Combat Mission games though.

VetMod helps alleviate the AI issues in CC5.

There is a modern version in development for sometime for use with the US Marine Corps. It seems you can’t get a hold of a copy unless you have a valid USMC email address. I have no idea if this game will ever go public, but you may want to keep your eyes open.

the CCM forum: http://www.closecombat.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=69

I missed it when it was released heres the E3 Video for Theatre of War. It also appears a Close Combat 6 is in development.