Let me set the stage for you: you probably never heard about Platoon Commander until you saw this article, and that’s because Slitherine has kept this game under wraps. Developed by Alpharabius Games and published by the famous wargaming darling brand, Platoon Commander is a Real-Time Strategy game set during World War 2, focused on the German Advance toward Moscow in 1941.
Supposedly, the game’s going to combine the RTS element with a turn-based campaign map, but in this demo, I only played two missions: one where you attack a Russian village, and as soon as you expel the Red Army, you must defend against their counter-attack. You build your forces by combining infantry, armour and anti-tank guns. Playing all of this took me around 45 minutes, so you could say that there’s not a lot to play around with at the moment.
Keep in mind that this is a very early showcase of the game, and there’s very little to go on, I’m sure Slitherine’s just showing us this very early on to get some feedback to continue development, as a lot of the basics are still missing out. I’m not sure if showing a game this early on might not even be a mistake, as some people might take it the wrong way and disregard the game outright.
Most of the criticism I’m going to present here probably won’t matter in a couple of months, as the game gets further developed and these issues get ironed out:
On paper, I have to say that I like what the game wants to do: it was to be a focus experience in a very specific part of the Second World War, and really zoom into the small unit tactics, and currently, you could say there’s not particularly an abundance of these kind of titles.
As for graphics, the game’s a bit meh at the moment, the terrain isn’t super detailed, but it’s serviceable, The thing that annoys me the most and I hope that’s just placeholder models is the cartoony models of the troops: their big-headed and blocky models do nothing to increase my immersion of the game, and they remind me Second Front, a game that I saw criticized because of its art style, even though it worked much better, because everything is stylized. Animations are floaty, and the effects lack visual impact.
Superficial things aside, I have two main problems with this game at the moment. The first one is the lack of feedback as to what’s going on: it’s hard to see who is attacking who, it’s hard to decipher what each unit is doing from a glance, and who killed who or what. Currently, this is mainly due to the lack of visual impacts from effects (maybe introduce some tracers, like Combat Mission, and Company of Heroes, or a targeting line like Close Combat), or some user interface thingamajig to help players know what’s happening. I found myself having a squad full of men inside a building die all at once for what looked like no reason at all, and I couldn’t even figure out if there were enemies around me. One moment they were there, and the other they weren’t.
My second, more intrusive thought that kept popping up during my short stint playing Platoon Commander was the question “Who is this game made for?”, because this is something that should, in theory, be something that excited me! It’s no secret I’m a fan of RTS, that my dearest period to game on is World War 2, and that my favourite level of operations is tactical and small-scale unit tactics, and still, I was having trouble relating to what’s on display at the moment. I can imagine that RTS enjoyers will gravitate towards other, more polished and established titles with a lot more content like Gates of Hell, Company of Heroes, and even Men of War, while more hardcore wargamers will dismiss it based on its apparent simplicity.
The more I looked into the strategy and wargaming market, the more I became convinced that Platoon Commander has some big shoes to fill, so if it wants to succeed, it needs to have a very strong core of mechanics that distinguish it from the competition in a way that resonates with the player base it wants to get. One thing I think the game might offer that other games don’t is the simulation of soldiers’ psychological states, similar to what Close Combat did, and very few other games managed to replicate as well since then. This might be the key mechanic the game needs to become successful, but it needs to be expertly implemented, and the other battle mechanics need to reinforce it.
Speaking of which, I don’t think that- at the moment- the game simulates things like cover, suppression and flanking. An integral part of World War 2 small unit tactics. The inclusion of these mechanics, paired up with the psychological state of soldiers could elevate Platoon Commander from something that’s looking a bit average, to something special, assuming it’s well implemented and well done.
Overall, I think it’s too early to pass judgement on Platoon Commander, so what I’ll say is that I’ll keep my eye on it, and see how it evolves throughout its development stage. You can try it out for yourself right now by downloading its demo.
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