Close Combat: The Bloody First

[Alienman]

The main problem I have with Graviteam is that it lags so bad if you have any larger battles. It's a real shame. Made me stop playing it.

 

[Burning Bridges]

what is your processor?

 

[Alienman]

i7 4790. So not exactly new.

 

[Jugashvili]

So I finally got to play a bit of Bloody First. The overall impression I get from the game is that it's not as bad as I feared, but not as good as it should be. The AI, as others have pointed out, is not terribly smart. In fact, it is roughly on par with the AI in the older games, but we're talking over 20 years later so one would expect some improvement. The graphics are bland and not very pleasant, but at least the 3D map is useful and gives you a better idea of LOS than the old 2D maps (probably their weakest point). I also got a CTD almost as soon as I started playing, which is a major red flag for when it comes to the quality of the programming and playtesting.

I'll still play it, though, I'm that desperate for more CC.

 

[Sergiu64]

Wasn't Achtung Panzer series a CC clone too? Not seeing it mentioned.

 

[commie]

Wasn't Achtung Panzer series a CC clone too? Not seeing it mentioned.

Achtung Panzer was the first release of what would later become Graviteam Tactics....

 

[Jugashvili]

More impressions: morale feels very different from the originals, not necessarily in a bad way. I had a squad with decent morale get spooked from an artillery barrage and rout without having suffered any losses; disgraceful conduct for infantrymen to be sure, but such things as collective hallucinations do happen on the battlefield and it reminded me of the franchise's original mission, modelling troop psychology. That being said, routing soldiers start behaving all retarded and I've even seen them randomly run towards enemy troops and get gunned down instead of surrendering.

On an aside, it's been a while since I last played one of the US-themed CCs. Having the BAR as the closest thing to a squad automatic weapon is suffering, especially against enemies with an MG42 in every rifle squad

Edit: Italian voices are a nice surprise, combined with classic das Bluuuuut!

 

[Burning Bridges]

Mediocre shit tanked on Steam like anything from Matrix. I would recommend to get GraviTeam Tactics, Ultimate General or even Scourge of War, they are all much better games than this.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Mediocre shit tanked on Steam like anything from Matrix. I would recommend to get GraviTeam Tactics, Ultimate General or even Scourge of War, they are all much better games than this.

You actually played this?

 

[Burning Bridges]

I played with my dick today, that's absolutely enough.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I played with my dick today, that's absolutely enough.

...but is it enough for everyone?

 

[Burning Bridges]

idk, buy it for 40$ and tell us.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Nah.
Armored Brigade is enough of this type of game for me now.

 

[jebsmoker]

the bloody first has a ton of bizarre bugs, but nothing game-breaking. still, if you want something like that has more content and is less buggy, armored brigade is good

 

[Burning Bridges]

I mean, I dont want to sound like a dick but I played thousands of games and I have no hope for this

its linear, only some missions, no campaign
graphic is shit as you can see from the screenshots
AI is shit
the maps are tiny, you can run approximately 250m left or right before it ends
it looks cumbersome and boring to play if not downright annoying
etc

Ultimate General is slick, Graviteam and Scourge of War are not - but at least showing how it's done. this one is only a lame attempt to make a 3d CC, I see not 1 single point that it does as good as those games.

and thanks for the suggestion of Armored Brigade, still have to try this.

 

[Jugashvili]

It does have a campaign, with a decision tree after each mission. You can play a short campaign for each theater or play a grand campaign through all of them in sequence.

I agree though, it isn't really worth it.

 

[Adidas-Clichèd Cringe]

Was interested in this because CC2 was great back in the day, but if they still haven't figured out the AI, I'll pass.

 

[Jugashvili]

One major issue I've encountered with the new morale/battle fatigue system is that certain campaign scenarios can devolve into a wet noodle fight. There is one scenario in Africa that starts as a night battle with a relatively strong American company against an anemic Italian company. When playing the Italians it's quite viable to hold the American AI back, and if you do they usually resume the attack an hour later, and so on and so forth. Due to how the campaign mechanics work, supply and morale decline rapidly when combat is resumed without allowing the troops to rest and resupply, so you end up with a depleted, demoralized force with men who run at the first sign of trouble defending against a depleted, demoralized force with men who run at the first sign of trouble. I managed to drag the first scenario out for almost a day or two before I was finally overrun simply because both forces were too ineffective to inflict any major damage to each other. By the end all leaders on both sides were dead and I only had a couple of mortar squads left.

 

[Jugashvili]

Okay so this just happened:

>Load up CC for the first time in two months
>Doorbell rings
>Foolishly thinking it pauses the game, I press ESC and go answer the door
>Spend some time doing other stuff
>When I go back I am concerned to hear shooting sounds, turns out the game wasn't paused
>My troops are almost intact and the enemy is at less than half morale

Turns out the AI can't even win in the absence of player input