Combat Mission: Shock Force 2

Great game but seems hideously over priced.

For any of those who are on the fence about buying the game; the developer's have released a demo for their game that can be downloaded from their website:
And for any newcomers please take some time to watch these tutorial videos created by Usually Hapless:

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most realistic war-based game that you will find anywhere. Don't expect an RTS. This game will take you through how real armies fight. You will realise the futility of sending troops out into the open without sufficient cover. You will learn how to implement real world tactics into your play, and most importantly you will learn how deadly the modern battlefield really is.
There is a reason why professional militaries use the game to prepare their troops. The detail put into the game in terms of ammunition, vehicles and morale makes this the closest that you would want to get to real combat.
I have been waiting for the steam release with baited breath, having collected all of the other Battlefront titles and I hope that this move opens up the game to the wider public. This truly is one of the all time classic military simulators and I am now going to continue the British campaign slogging through the Syrian defences with my Scottish Reg't.

So many times people are asking for an option to give a "maybe" instead of thumbs up or down, but the option still isn't here so I'm going to give thumbs up, but with reservations.
This is an awesome, super realistic tactical simulation that currently doesn't have a peer. The graphics are not great, but I think anyone in the potential customer segment probably can overlook that. The only tactical game comparable in realism currently available in Steam that I can think of is Armored Brigade, and that has even more barren graphics in 2D (but is also significantly cheaper).
So the price is steep as heck, mainly due to the niche nature of the game. In return you get a level of detail and realism that is incredible, and the game really requires you to apply yourself and think every decision through is you are to succeed in your mission. In the campaigns (at least most of them) there also will be no replacements for casualities, so every loss of men and/or equipment really stings. I also recommend the DLCs for more equipment, missions and campaigns, but the reservation about price also applies to those.
To summarize: The ultimate experience in tactical simulation that hits your wallet as hard as a barrage from a battery of 155mm SPGs. Still, I'm looking forward to CM: Black Sea that I understand is the next Battlefront title coming to Steam.

Absolutely amazed to see Combat Mission on Steam. CM is still the best at what it does.

Make no mistake; this game is resolutely anti-modern.
It demands patience and completely foregoes the kind of hand-holding that can be found in many contemporary video games in favor of hard-boiled tactical gameplay. As such, to critique it for its outdated controls, graphics, camera view or similar features would be to greatly mistake both the developers’ aims and the intended playerbase.
The above being said, the game neither wholly shuns nor courts realism. Instead, reality is treated as one would expect it to be within the confines of a video game, i.e. while much is left to the player’s imagination, nothing that a computer cannot figure out is left unaccounted for. Projectiles, vehicles, soldiers, buildings, etc. are all affected by the laws of physics, and each event on the battlefield is well-documented. Every soldier is a human being; brave, terrified or somewhere in-between. The player who is not expecting to be spoon-fed by the game will therefore quickly realize that, excepting visual fidelity, there is no lack of detail in the game. Given enough time and interest, one can spend an entire day analyzing the minutiae of a single well-planned maneuver in Combat Mission.
In short, then, Combat Mission is a game for those who are ready to invest time into a tactical warfare simulator which does not forget that it is just that—a simulator. If you do not live for great graphics, instant gratification, ubiquitous assistive hints and HUDs and other similar modern tropes, Combat Mission is the game for you. It does exactly what it says on the tin. If, however, you are looking for any of the aforementioned, steer clear of CMSF2.
Whether you should buy it at its current (rather expensive) price or wait for a price cut is up to you.
NOTE: Those of you using Linux should know that the game does not (yet) function with Proton.

Honestly, how best to describe Shock Force 2 as someone who's recently been dipping their feet into the Combat Mission genre? It's a hell of a game, unlike anything I've played or experienced. So let's try and divvie it up into smaller pieces to comprehend.
SETTING
The year is 2008 and NATO forces have moved into Syria in a blitz attack not too uncommon from another certain Middle Eastern conflict coalition forces have battled in. In an attack from all sides, forces from the US Army, Marine Corps, the British, the Germans, the Dutch and the Canadians move into the country, their goal to defeat the opposing enemy forces. The enemy consists of the Syrian Army and Unconventional forces, though they're underequipped and inferior to their NATO counterparts, but they have the homeground advantage and they are more than prepared to fight for their homes.
The game and its DLCs represent all of these forces in a stellar fashion. Shock Force 2 employs a vast variety of units, each one different from the next, giving the game a remarkable amount of variety in its units and how you employ them. Realism is taken to massive undertakings to accurately replicate every nitty gritty stat on this equipment, and the soldiers using it. Healthbars and bullet sponge infantry are left at the door, and in their place is modifiers and a variety of factors to take into account to give a sense of unique to every soldier or tank (though these stats will be covered in another part of the review.).
GAMEPLAY
Of course, setting isn't everything in a game, even the greatest of game worlds can be undercut by terrible gameplay or horrid balancing. So.. how is Shock Force 2? It's quite good, as far as fringe simulator games go. As stated prior, every unit in Shock Force 2 is given a variety of traits and factors from morale, experience, competence and their equipment to accurately replicate their skill in battle. Combat Mission's scale is very tailored to what the player wants, which can range from dealing with small infantry skirmishes of at most a few squads on each side, to micromanaging massive battlefronts with entire battalions of tanks, aircraft and soldiers taking to the frontlines. Every soldier is taken into account in the game, from the lowliest grunt to the biggest battle tank.
Combat Mission takes you through two separate modes; the standard real time, for people who don't quite enjoy waiting their turns, or the more unique and fitting WEGO. For those who don't know, WEGO is a turn based mode where both sides plan out their strategies in 60 second 'turns'. When both sides click the ready button, you get to watch a minute of your little pixeltruppen moving about the battlefield, taking cover, doing advances or laying down fire on the enemy. It's the most recommended mode for the game, given the utter complexities of the controls each unit has.
Speaking of units, very typically the average unit size is a single squad. You can break these squads up into individual pieces, but in the end the largest unit you can individually command is a squad of soldiers, or a single vehicle. Each unit has multiple tabs of controls to take into account, with various orders to specify how they should move across the battlefield, fire upon targets or do things such as call for support. As stated prior, these units all have their own little modifiers and stats attributed to them, which one can take into account. Maybe the squad is lead by an inexperienced sergeant? maybe they're tired from sprinting from one objective to the other? what about night vision, maybe the squads equipped with it will have better times fighting than those without it? It's all represented here.
Combat Mission has 3 individual single player modes; campaign, battle, and quick battle. Campaign is self explanatory, and in the base game you will have access to two; the training campaign to help you learn the ropes (read the manual for it though), and Task Force Thunder, a campaign depicting the struggle of commanding a US mechanized force spearheading into the country. Naturally the other DLCs add more, but these are the ones you're stuck with if you buy the base game. Battles meanwhile are depicting staged fights between you and the enemy, typically with their own backstories and unit compositions. As with the campaigns you get more with the DLCs, but the ones in the base game aren't bad. Finally there's quick battles, which is effectively sandbox mode. You can design your own unit composition from scratch, including what goodies you'd like for both sides. Though because the AI is more or less clueless without the scripted battle/campaign stuff, you won't play this mode for a challenge. There's also the multiplayer, which is basically quick battles but with actually competent enemies.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The game, graphic wise, isn't anything to behold. It's got its fair share of excellent designs, with well textured vehicles and nice little soldier models, but don't expect the game to be Crysis levels of well done. Shadows don't load past a certain point and a lot of graphics only really load if you get close to them, so unmodded the game isn't the best looking (though it doesn't need to be, given how that's not the game's focus).
The game does well to model sound design though, and the fights in the game can be awesome to watch. Tanks roll out firing shots into trenches and at other tanks, aircraft and UAVs bomb enemies while Infantry squads move through the carnage to secure objective zones. There's not a moment where you can't do something or watch another firefight take place. Engine noises, guns firing, soldiers communicating; the game has plenty of good sounds that make the game very chaotic and immerse you into the battles you wage.
OVERALL
Combat Mission Shock Force 2 is a wonderful simulator game, a great strategy game, and a very welcome addition to Steam's collection of fringe strategy games. Though the 60$ price range is steep, the game's likely going to have its fair share of sales, so I'd recommend picking it up during those times if possible. It's a really good game depicting the equipment modern armies fight with, the attritional slog of unconventional warfare and the challenges any army has to face in modern times.
Though the game isn't without its fair share of problems (slow development times from a small dev team namely, though it has its notable bugs mixed in too), they're more the exception than the norm. Plus with Slytherin helping Battlefront out in this endeavor, one can only be hopeful for the roads ahead.
Now.. if modern warfare doesn't catch your fancy? Combat Mission's not a single game, but a wide assortment of them. It's got its fair share of World War 2 games you can play around in, from the Normandy Front to Italy, to the Eastern Front or Bastogne. Though Shock Force 2 is the first game on Battlefront's agenda to make it to steam, it's definitely not the last.
tl;dr? every grognard's dream game, and definitely a good addition to any person's library if they fancy realistic simulators or strategy games.