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Panzer Elite: Special Edition

by Jim "Twitch" Tittle

Article Type: Review
Article Date: March 20, 2002

Product Info

Product Name: Panzer Elite
Version: Special Edition
Category: Tank Sim
Developer: Wings Simulations
Publisher: JoWood Productions
Release Date: Released
Min. Spec: P 233MMX, 64MB, Win 95, 98; 3D video card
Files & Links: Click Here

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It has been since the days of CGA graphics that I delved into armor. It is so long ago that I can’t even remember the title but remember having fun relative to the state of the art back then. Wings Simulations parent company, JoWooD, re-issued Panzer Elite promised a view of more modern graphics and AI technology that I didn’t want to miss.



Installation

The first disc takes about 12-15 minutes to fully install but went without problems. Nearly 800MB of the program unfolds onto the hard drive including all the modifications from the second disc, which lay in quickly. There are some 550MB compressed on the second disc including wallpaper, images, and tools to create vehicles and objects and a full scenario editor/creator. This saves the user lots of download time if these were to be pulled off the web separately.

Aftermath of battle

The sim supports Direct 3D with eight resolutions from 640 X 480 to 1280 X 1024 with a PII 266 MHz and an 8MB video card listed as minimum. Higher resolutions will function only on stronger video cards but the overall look is not infinitely increased due to the slightly older engine used in Panzer Elite. This doesn’t mean you will not have fun but be aware it is not like the above excellent 3-D graphics in the RTS title Commandos 2: Men of Courage. The large map playing area would have to have a much deeper number of graphic files. I’d enjoy seeing it, but Commandos 2 is a 3GB program too.

Control is a mixture of keyboard, mouse and joystick in combination or in part. You do not have to use the joystick if desired as all can be done without it, but if you are accustomed to flight sims you will feel at home. Force feedback is enabled and lends a nice feel to things. You can re-program the controls to your likes or what seems logical for you. It’s a trial and error situation where you play some and change things after some combat experience. It is smooth using certain functions with each of the three control devices combined.

Having the joystick really made it work for me. Using my SideWinder gave me ultimate view and fire control allowing much more latitude than mouse alone. I could traverse the guns move the tanks and continue firing at a target while “checking my six” quite handily. Setting the feedback to maximum was still not too severe. There is in-the-cockpit movement adjustment if you don’t want to get too motion sick. It felt a wee bit like Mech Warrior as to the joystick movements. Thumbing the hat button to mover view works well since you can lock onto a target and the turret will follow and fire. My one big complaint was no reverse gear control!

Accompanying the Special Edition is a good 80-page manual that not only explains things well it has German and American ammunition designations along with shell weight, muzzle velocity, and penetration at 30-degrees of armor from 100 to 2,000 meters. About half of the volume describes tank warfare through WWII.

Missions

There are variable scenarios in which you can play instant action as either American or German in many different tanks as the commander of the platoon or two tanks or just be responsible for your own. Commanding your wingmen helps a great deal as you can concentrate fire and move them to advantageous positions. These help as you learn to move, view and shoot as you get killed over and over.

There are dozens of historical missions to run from either side in the war years. You get the equipment stated and cannot change it. There are forty missions that you can run from either side beginning in the Western Desert in 1942 through August 1944. There are many post D-Day scenarios. These also give you valuable experience in the field.

Leapfrogging from side to side will give you an idea about your equipment. On the German side with Panzer Mk IIs I did well while in American M4 Shermans I was wiped out. The attack and defend positions by side give an impression of what you feel better at generally.

Either the German side or the American with short, medium and long durations may be played in campaign mode. Short gives you Desert, Italy and Normandy, medium has the Desert and Italy while the long one is just the Desert war. The North African campaign begins in December 1942, the Italian in July 1943 and, of course, Normandy in June 1944. Many of the campaign missions mirror the historical ones so, again, those are good practice.

The difficulty setting sub menus are a little difficult to comprehend for a while. What settings will exactly effect what is not all clear until you run the sim for a while. There are plenty of sub settings—54 in all! Under “beginner” you start with a ridiculous 5 percent realism. “Advanced” jumps up to 90 percent, while “expert” tops out at 130 percent! Within each you can adjust any of those fifty-four sub settings to change the percentage. In fact it is almost too complicated at first.

The missions themselves can run long in time, but there is about a 2X time compression. I’m not convinced the sim needs that but simply note that real time in armor can be slow moving along the terrain.

Commander's view in turret

Once you begin it is possible to view things from the commander’s POV atop the turret or from oblique angles outside with your vehicle in full view. If you lock on the 6 o’clock outside view you can see very well getting a better sense of the area surrounding you as you follow your tank. It is easy to click or key into any view combination as you go. You may jump into any position view that is manned also. There is not much to see except from the gunner’s station. It is not easy to go to the driver’s seat and drive then click over to the other stations and get a good input of situational awareness. The commander’s location is the safest primary with switch to gunner’s magnified optics as needed. It is possible to button up and have no view other than through the normal ports and optics making it much tougher. Wait till you gain experience for this.

Why not fill the screen?

The in-game map is very poor. It is nearly impossible to tell who and where you are much of the time. If you wish to travel to a point on the map there is no directional assistance like a crude compass direction to use in the tanks. You feel your way around by guessing right or left. The map is too small. Even though you can zoom in the map must be seen in small parts, which further disorients you. You can set the option where only your tank or only allied vehicles appear. This helps a bit.

There is no vehicle avoidance AI parameter and unfortunately the tanks pass through one another melding into bizarre shapes. If you get entangled with a wingman you are stuck until he moves. Bumping into a derelict vehicle will snag you. You may not be able to wiggle away from it and must end the mission. It needs a reverse gear!

Gun optics view & tank direction upper left

You get an inset diagram of a tank so you can tell where the turret is pointing relative to the hull and where you are looking in relation to that. It keeps the disorientation under control.

You can adjust your platoon’s battle formation to seven patterns and the crews of each tank gain skill during your campaign. They can be wounded and you may rotate in other personnel from the pool to gain experience throughout. Promotions and decorations are awarded for outstanding service.

Ammo varies. Standard armor piercing (AP) works on most enemy armor. High explosive (HE) seems better against infantry. Sometimes available is high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) and armor piercing composite rigid (APCR) for tougher skins. There are smoke rounds available too.

Multiplayer is a host and join situation. I was unable to locate any games in progress but if I had more leisure time I would hang out at the official game site listed below. There is no official hosting there but are other game sites listed there that do.



Sights & Sounds

The sounds are pretty extensive relative to what you are doing. I’d say they are not overpowering. Many have been improved upon and are quite adequate. There are the nice crunches when you plow through buildings and trees all quite in tune to the movement of the tanks. The incoming rounds don’t give too much of a clue to proximity, however, so you must change your position and move as much as you can. The machine guns open up when there are close-in targets vulnerable to them and they are felt in force feedback. The engine sounds are not super loud but they are noticeable as they should be. The grind of the turning turret sounds very realistic.

The vocals are superb. You can choose German language or English with excellent accents. I’ve not heard any better in a sim with urgency inflection and level of volume. They are repetitive when you are slugging it out with enemy with the confirmations of loading, sighting and firing orders. As you take damage there is a pure American voice that sounds exactly like one on the animated TV series “The Simpsons.” He sounds like the fictitious narrator “Troy McClure, you may remember me from…” As he describes your pain and disintegrating machine he sounds way too upbeat and happy about it. It’s humorous yet disconcerting as you hear, “your tank’s on fire. Driver is dead. Machine gun ammo hit. Your tank exploded!”

Visually you get the feel of European Air War on the ground. The terrain here appears much as it did while you were taxiing or flying low in that sim. On some missions I saw map seams and others had none. Proper vegetation appeared in the dessert, thankfully, with luscious palm trees and scrub. The good-looking buildings are full 3-D as you smash through them but other objects like trees and posts appear 3-D when viewed straight on but are thin, 2-D slivers viewed as you pass them. Many plants look like a child’s pop up book with a shrub forming an “X” to stand up that is quite unrealistically visible to the player.

The machines look pretty good but would look great with 2002 specifications for the next Panzer Elite incarnation. There is proper detail allowing each to be easily recognizable but it’s not 64 MB video card standout quality. Some bogie wheels on certain tanks appear to float in thin air when viewed from the outside somewhat. But this doesn’t detract from the strong immersion as you delve into combat. When you see a Tiger or Sherman they have all the details necessary to put you into the sim.

Panzer II in the rain

On the second German campaign mission I was delightfully surprised with simulated rain. The drops were just a hair large but integrated well and looked fine. The varying skies at to weather looked swell.

The infantry, both friendly and enemy do not have good articulation appearing to hop like the Easter Bunny when they run around. Their graphic detail is not high either.

The tanks functionality is true to personality. A Tiger will take longer to turn around or traverse its turret than a lighter tank. Loading rounds varies some too depending on the vehicle and loader. It’s hard to tell how they accelerate or make top speed comparisons by vehicle though. The in-the-tank motion is modulated as to each model so heavier ones take terrain undulations differently than lighter ones. You can turn over destroying your tank or get bogged down in any vehicle.



Mods

The modifications and add-ons are well done integrating perfectly. The extra tanks, scenery and mission integration is flawless. I ran the sim for a while without the mods then added some. The Mod Enabler on the bonus disc works well and you’ll find you will want to switch them in and out. It is too overwhelming when all are enabled but it may change campaigns in progress if you switch in or out.

There is snow and night. Another adds the British to play in the North African campaign. Tons of Russian vehicles are added in another. The Brits are added into the Normandy scenario in one more. Modders did a lot of creating of scenery and nicely done vehicle exteriors and interiors plus tweaks to improve the accuracy of the vehicles and weapons. There are literally too many types of armored vehicles to count. If you get bored with all this, there’s no hope for you.

I know that the tweaks helped the sim. Some tanks move quicker now and the turrets generally turn a bit faster unless it’s a heavyweight German monster. I feel the difficulty on the historical missions is greater now. The scenery shows almost no seams at all with the new terrain added. The sounds are healthier overall.

The snow and night mod was a separate entity and I had problems getting it going. It seems a worthy addition so I’ll continue to experiment with it.

Tiger makes close kill

Damage has been improved with much better explosion graphics. Also the dead vehicles were turned all black before. It looked bad. Now they blow the turret and secondary explosions occur as ammo and fuel cooks off with the hulk remaining painted and smoking.

I had some freezes during play for no apparent reason forcing a full reboot to recover. It was probably just some conflicts of many files and add-ons. No serious hesitations were evident though and none of it was a regular occurrence bug. The system never seemed taxed. With all the mods added the program files now total just under 1.5 gigabytes.

I had fun with the sim but would like to see it updated to today and tomorrow’s graphics regardless of the ultimate size of the program. I mean full, rich 3-D from every conceivable angle on every object regardless of map size. This could mean a four or five disc set but that’s why folks have great hardware anyway. Overall Panzer Elite SE looks as good as recent titles like Destroyer Command and Silent Hunter II. This is not a gripe simply a positive anticipation for the future.

Do check out http://www.panzerelite.com for the official web site. There are lots of knowledgeable fans there that have experience with the sim and can guide you. At least the guys there told me how to reverse: "Stop the vehicle first (either Backspace or Delete depending on your setup), then use the down arrow key (next to keypad) and you should reverse. Not sure how it works if you are shifting manually." A new, future version is rumored to be in the offing.

Panzer Elite Special Edition is a worthy value. If you don’t have it and haven’t already downloaded the mods, by all means get it.





Review System Specs
  • Mobo: ASUS A7V133 200/266MhZ FSB
  • RAM: 256MB PC-133 RAM
  • CPU: Athlon T-Bird 1.3GhZ CPU
  • Audio: SoundBlaster PCI 128 w/Yamaha YST-M7 speakers
  • Video: nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra
  • OS: Windows ME w/ Direct X 8.1
  • Display: 17” Envision monitor .27mm dp
  • Media: Samsung 52X CD drive


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