Combat Mission: Shock Force 2

Incredible concept bogged down by luddite devs.
I love this game series, it is unique and there is nothing quite like it on the market. Unfortunately, from what I could gather, it is being developped by a handfull of oldschool devs who either refuse or lack the sense to bring this series into the modern age.
The gameplay is hard to describe if not experienced for yourself, and boy should you experience it before paying 60 (!!) bucks for it. The price tag is inexcusable, especially if you count the fact that a lot of content is DLC, and sales are very far between so only buy this if you are 100 % sure it's something you like.
Thankfully almost every title in this series can be tested and the devs have a free demo available on their homepage (battlefront.com), why these demos aren't made available through steam is just another mind-bendingly bad decision on their part and I hope by now you realize what I mean when I wrote that these people are old and luddites.
These games haven't even been available on Steam untill a few years ago, instead they relied on their 2000's looking website and sheer luck to make sales.
ONE good business decision from their part has been to stop charging money for engine uprades (at least this is promised for the yet-to-be-seen v.5.0). And if you had to do a double take, yes, they charged people for upgrading the engine, and to this day it is still barely functioning, some of it's quirks include:
1. Crashing when clicking anything during loading
2. A weird square based movement system that makes precise movements impossible
3. Lag while looking around even though it looks like it does (It makes playing the Cold War game of theirs almost impossible to play)
4. An opaque and nonsensical spotting system that relies entirely on dice rolls
5. AI that is LITERALLY incapable of acting on their own, all their movements and positions have to be pre-set and be scripted by the mission makers.
6. The map editor/Mission designer is something yanked out of hell and using it is a chore
etc.
etc.
So having said all that, why even play it? Well, it scratches an itch that I didn't know I had. It's combat puzzles are hard and entertaining, the authenticity in terms of equipment is cool and the way the game makes you use real life combined arms strategies to succeed is unique.
If you know what you are getting into it really is a great game. But you have to have a sort of mental resillience to the fact that even if you like it, it will always be in the hands of people who despise modernity, are unable to see the bigger picture and should have sold this IP away to go into retirement a long time ago.
EDIT 27.08.2024:
The developer Battlefront has been aquired and the direction of the series seems to now go towards modernising and innovating the great concept sleeping under the old and outdated shell of the current engine.
The original team has been aquired as well and I hope that the future will show that it was truely just money and technical limitations holding this series back, not the people behind it. That said, the point of this review itself is now a bitoutdated, as the developers had the good sense to do what I sort of hoped they would do.

this game is old. very old. but its really fun. its like if arma 3 was turned in to an r.t.s game. this game is not for everyone. its based off real combat. you cant just rush in your units. unless you want them all to go home in body bags. the combat is slow and brutal at times. you really need to take your time. urban war is hard. you have to go slow and fight street by street one building and house at a time. not worth the full price but 60% off its worth it. there is really no combat simulation today that comes close to this. its a nice brake from games where you just rush your units in to combat.

Absolutely stellar so far.
I've never played an infantry & tanks type strategy game as detailed as this.
It has a lot of complicated things that are very logical but are only challenging at first since games generally never bother with them. For example, units communicate verbally/by-hand when close and by radio from a distance. Radio communication can be disrupted by enemies and this hinders coordination between units (e.g, artillery observers being unable to contact artillery crew).
It's all very logical and understandable but so rare to see in a game.
It's very satisfying and fun to get units to coordinate together and win a battle. This game makes the coordination of many units easy, since its unusual turn-based mode (almost just real-time with pause) lets you set many commands then watch them play out for 1 minute.
I have to keep a clock in front of me while playing this or it'll suddenly be 5 am again.

Deep tactical simulation of a hypothetical war in Syria.
Not an RTS, though can be played in real time.
If you're serious about your tactical level, company to regiment scale battle simulations, then look no further than this title, and many others by Battlefront.

CM is good strategic game that will punish you hard if you sacriface your men..

Urban fights is as in real world nothing you want,, and really hard in this game,, better to bmb buildings

CMSF2 is one of the realistic finest war game i played beside graphic wise, until you discover how to "mod it to your ol liKING, coding with the game program and bypasin without crashing" ;)

Best RTS/sim I've ever played. Should've start playing it earlier.
Pure enjoyment, 0 tilt.
I highly recommended to play it on max difficulty or in multiplayer.