Publisher: Battlefront.com
Developer: Big Time Software
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Windows XP; Pentium IV 1.8 GHz or equivalent speed AMD processor; GeForce 5200 or Radeon 9200; DirectX 9 compatible Sound Card; 256 Megabytes RAM; 1 Gigabyte of free space on hard drive
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

While I enjoy a good first-person shooter, the one thing they often lack is some of the real, hardcore small-unit tactics often employed in the real world. Multiplayer matches, while entertaining, tend to devolve into frag-fests and silly, suicidal behavior because of seemingly important statistics and the ability to respawn. While it’s fun to grab a good set of realistic contemporary weapons and hunt down your friends on various maps, it’s no substitute for games that emphasize group tactics rather than individual skills. Games covering World War II and its squad-level engagements are quite plentiful, but developer Battlefront has decided to move into the 21st century with the release of Combat Mission: Shock Force – Marines, an expansion to Combat Mission: Shock Force. The original game covers a fictional conflict between the U.S. and Syria, set in the here and now, and the expansion follows the exploits of an MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) as it takes on missions in this fictional conflict, adding to the U.S. Army-dominated content of the original.

CMSF – Marines is intended to appeal to the hardcore strategy crowd. Battlefront has taken events since 2002 and used them to update combat modeling in an effort to more accurately simulate modern ground warfare. It is not the kind of game in which you issue only three commands (move, shoot, change aggressiveness). Instead, even the simplest unit has a variety of commands available to it, requiring multiple menus just to cover moving, firing, calling for fire and performing special tasks. Also, you do not control individual troops, but rather fire teams composed of a few men. Selecting a large group of warm bodies and ordering them to fire on a target (as you would in an RTS) is not even an option, much less tactically feasible. Those looking for detailed, realistic micromanagement will find themselves pleasantly busy just coordinating a minute’s worth of movements for a rifle platoon.

This emphasis on details finds its way into every unit, weapon and vehicle in the game. The Marines are not just carrying assault rifles, but rather M16A4s, with fire team leaders carrying M203 grenade launchers. Snipers don’t use generic sniper rifles, but instead are equipped with either the M82A3 SASR or the M40A3, with the actual performance of the troops modified according to the specific capabilities of either weapon. The Syrians fare no worse in the realism department. Everything from T90SAs and BMP-3s to IEDs and RPG-7D3s can be employed in response to the incursion of American forces. The inclusion of IEDs should raise a few eyebrows; true to the nature of what a conflict like this might be like, Battlefront has chosen to include headline-grabbing tactics and weapons as part of their realistic portrayal of such events. No one should expect the overwhelming superiority of Marine firepower to be nerfed to make the game balanced; the Syrians have all the tools of asymmetrical warfare at their disposal, enabling at least the chance of inflicting a humiliating defeat on the U.S. player.

Playing CMSF – Marines is all about issuing the right orders in the right circumstances rather than just massing units and firing on the enemy. The game can be played in either turn-based or real-time format, but regardless of which style you choose, you give detailed orders to units based on terrain, time of day, visibility and the particular rules related to the difficulty level selected. Normally I prefer turn-based play, in which a typical turn would involve giving units arcs of fire, moving some units under covering fire, spotting concealed enemy units, trying to maintain control of friendly units (harder than you might think at higher difficulty levels), and calling in artillery and airstrikes. This last action deserves special mention. Long-range fire is not an instant way to obliterate enemy forces. It takes time to set up and execute, and poor strategy will cause your own forces to be pinned down and picked off.