Battlefront's Theatre of War series?

[WallysWorld]

Just noticed that Gamersgate has the entire series on sale at 75% off. I played the original's demo and wasn't too impressed by it both gameplay wise and performance.

Did anyone play any of the later games like Kursk, Africa or Caen?

Thanks for any and all replies.

[Zulu1966]

Just noticed that Gamersgate has the entire series on sale at 75% off. I played the original's demo and wasn't too impressed by it both gameplay wise and performance.

Did anyone play any of the later games like Kursk, Africa or Caen?

Thanks for any and all replies.

Have them all - including the korea one. I liked the graphics and they were nice games in a way ... but quickly became unmanageable in the larger scenarios I found. there also just seemd to me a lack of fidelity in the cover system.. 

As I say - I did like them and there is a lot of detail but performance was an issue in larger scenarios and in competition for game time they always lose out to Combat mission for me. 

Infantry die very quickly and  in the larger games it becomes difficult to manage as the Tac AI is fairly weak.

I guess at that price they are worth a look but I cant honestly say they held my interest for long. 

[sandman2575]

there's a lot of fun to be had with ToW series...and a lot of frustration too.  I don't have Korea but have managed to squander quite a bit of time playing the others.

My overall feeling, especially in connection to ToW2 games, is "This would be such a fantastic game if only X", and there are many variables you could fill in for x.  It feels like for every pro, there's a con.  It's visually beautiful, but the combat controls are clumsy.  The variety of vehicles is great, but you only ever have access to a limited number.  (This latter point really baffles me -- playing the Grossdeutschland campaign in Kursk, you have access to what seems like 2 dozen variants of the PzIII and IV, but you will only ever use a couple -- you're never given the opportunity to field enough tanks to ever incur big enough losses to have to *need* all those other tank variants. yeah, they all look fantastic, but you won't get to use many of 'em.)

If ToW2 had a campaign / scenario editor even halfway as powerful and user-friendly as the Panzer Command one, the game would be a blast.  (There is an editor, but to say it is not user-friendly is a vast understatement.)  If there were any good mods for ToW2, the game would be a blast.  (Africa'43 has a couple, but nothing earth shattering.  ToW original does have some good mods, but it looks so outdated now.)  As a result, replayability is definitely limited.  Once you go through the preset scenarios that make up a campaign, there's not a lot left to enjoy.

Massive potential in these games that looks like will never get unlocked.  Dev's seem to have abandoned them, more or less -- Korea may be an exception.

[MIGMaster]

Ditto on the above statements - I spent a lotta cash hoping that each version would finally be the game, but it just never happened. sorta like taking Pam Anderson on a date and then just getting a goodnight kiss on the cheek. 

[ArizonaTank]

I really liked TOW2, the others not as much.  Here was my review of TOW2

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/theatre-of-war-2-africa-1943-pc-game-review.htm

TOW1 had some great treatment of relatively untouched fronts....1940 France for example.  But it also had some major issues like, infantry not being able to enter buildings...(fixed from TOW2 on).  Also the early release had terrible issues with LOS (since fixed with patching mostly).  My lukewarm review of TOW1s first release:

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/theatre-of-war-review.htm

[Nefaro]

I got the whole set in some super cheap 1C collection deal.

Every time I play it, I end up switching it off after one scenario.  The damn units seem to run at super speed, so I end up missing much of the action.  The infantry die against a stiff wind, even entrenched.  I feel very rushed when playing it, all RTS twitch-like. 

I still keep the Korea one installed at the moment, just because it's Korea.  Dunno how long that'll last, however.

[WallysWorld]

Thanks for the replies. I've decided to forgo purchasing the game for now.