Hexed Gamer -> RE: What SPWaW Is, and What it Isn't:your thoughts wanted (8/27/2004 3:24:31 PM)
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Steel Panthers is Squad Leader for the computer plain and simple. Being that I was there when Squad Leader was first released, and being that I am still with ASL and have been there at all time in between I am both an expert on that matter as well as properly informed. Steel Panthers is a game where the user views the battle from the directly above it. It is a game of individual vehicle units that do not move till you move them. It is a game of squads crews and support assets working toegther. It uses a detailed map that looks just like the actual terrain if viewed from vertically above it. It models the ability for enemy units to respond to your movement when preset conditions are met. It allows your units to do the same. It allows for limited fog of war in that you can't view what your units couldn't see. Steel Panthers is a colourful animated version of Squad Leader, in that the units make sounds rather than force the user to artificially do it themselves :) The Units move much as a Squad Leader unit would move in that they conform to hex grids that superimpose a regulated movement. If Steel Panthers (original SSI release) is anything, it is akin to original release Squad Leader, where as the Matrix Games release is akin to Advanced Squad Leader and a Mega Campaign would be an ASL Historical Module. The releases from SP Camo make a decent approximation to the third party creations of ASL, as sometimes they are better, sometimes not fully as deluxe. What Steel Panthers isn't is a tank sim as it is not you actually controlling the actual movement of a tank in hyper realistic action. For a tank sim I suggest you get a tank sim. Steel Panthers is not a 3d game WEGO or otherwise. SL/ASL was not 3d either, thus misleading quotes to the effect, that well known games such as Combat Mission or Sudden Strike or Close Combat or Squad Assault being like SL/ASL for computer miss the obvious. SL/ASL was a turn using complex interleave turn using process set on a 2d board with units that moved individually. So, if you are one of those that think those four games is closer, you are clearly mistaken. It is possible to "emulate" to a degree Squad Leader, but only Steel Panthers comes close enough that the notion of making SL/ASL a computer game, is clearly a long difficult and entirely horrible waste of developer resources. After all, the Up Front card using game was "modelled on" Squad Leader, but only a completely blind person could see it is o nly a close association. Steel Panthers is a veteran game that has shown it can remain survive and actually outlast games that are only passing fads. Much in the same way, that SL/ASL has proved even a high cost will not deter people from continuing to lay out massive sums of cash for a design more than 2 decades old as we speak. There will be games claiming to look like Steel Panthers, and likely very few that will be half as good. Regardless of the software's age, and capacity to annoy users with new modern powerful systems, it still manages to force us to find even while frustrating, work arounds fixes and solutions to play it. I have seen many a game with impressive graphics promising incredible effects and detailed simulation come and almost immediately go all while Steel Panthers remains. Steel Panthers, one of the singularly greatest wargaming achievements for the computer ever produced. And amazingly, it is free!
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