World War 2 is an endless font of inspiration for developers who are only ever interested in the European theatre of operations. But The Troop demo at least focuses on the British and Canadians instead of making us storm Normandy as the Yanks again.
The Troop is a hex-based turn-based tactics game where you controls fireteams and individual vehicles. There’s a fair amount of detail to it’s calculations and game mechanics – for example, each shot of each infantry weapon is taken into account – made all the more bearable by the fact that it isn’t a physical wargame.Of course, like in every game of this genre, vehicle simulation is much more stringent, with tank turrets having their own action point track as well as various statuses, modifiers, and so on.On the other hand, the The Troop demo mission with the commandos gave my infantry purposefully deployable smoke, something I miss dearly in Combat Mission. And you definitely need the smoke because fire can be deadly at really long ranges. Grenades, on the other hand, can only be deposited once you’re adjacent to a building.Just look at those accuracy modifiers on the left! It’s not the craziest it gets.The Troop demo also featured stuff like tanks crushing low walls, having their guns disabled, and so on. So far so fun, though I’d like to have some emphasis on the chain of command and the effects of it getting degraded.But the biggest issue with The Troop demo is the color palette, the nonexistence of. This is Normandy is summer, there’s no reason for it to look like Gears of War: Victorian London. Live a little, give us some color to look at it! Look at how War Mongrels did it.The Troop demo shows great potential for a fun WW2 game even if it’s set in the most overplayed part of the war. The devs just need to get some color pixels into it.
