Reviewed: July 25, 2002
Reviewed by: Drew Thrasher
Publisher
Shrapnel Games
Developer
ProSim
Released: February, 2002
Genre: Strategy
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone
85
3
10
8.2
System Requirements:
Ever wondered what it is like being a Commander over a squad of M1A2s or a squad of artillery set to bombard Saddam’s army in the Middle East? Well BCT Commander will allow you to do just that. BCT takes a whole new twist on RTS gaming. There is no mining for resources, no building units and no technology trees, its just flat out laying the Smackdown on your opponents, or it is the exact opposite…
Designed by Captain Patrick Proctor (US Army artillery officer), BCT Commander was actually based upon a brigade level tactical simulator called JANUS. JANUS was used to train senior commanders. The only difference between this game and the actual simulator was that they made the interface more user friendly. Beware though; this game has a steep learning curve. BCT is flooded with military language and it may take you a while, as it did for me, to get the basics of the game figured out. Shrapnel does do a good job by providing an in-depth manual to help you overcome these obstacles.
For each mission, you are given a certain amount of units ranging from Marines armed with machine guns to F14 Tomcats to nuclear weapons. These units will be the only ones you have to use to complete the mission objective. Most of the action occurs before you start the simulation. Before time is started, you can move your units and obstacle to suit your strategy. Then you must give each unit its command. I found this to be very time consuming, especially when you have to switch between actions. For example, if you wanted to tell your soldiers to get in the Bradley, you have to select "mount" and then click.
BCT is high on strategy. The computer AI is really tough. I found myself winning only a few scenarios the first couple of days. The computer will use terrain to its advantages and stay out of your line of sight. The Line of Sight (LOS) plays a major factor in the game since you cannot attack what you cannot see. I have started to win a lot of games by paying close attention to where my units laid on the turf. Making use of hill tops will not only improve your LOS, but it will also give you the advantage of setting up surprise attacks and ambushes on the unsuspecting enemy. That tactic works really well when you have to defend your turf.
When BCT is first started up, you get this all-to-familiar windows interface, as if you were running MS Word. There is nothing to flashy about the graphics, just enough to get the job done. The game is centered on a topographic map, which is of course, the battlefield. It’s a pretty big map so the area where the main action is going to take place is laid out for you in zones full of military jargon. According to your mission, you have an area where you are trying to attack, defend or perform some sort of recon. But believe me, it is far more complicated than that.
There is not much sound involved in BCT Commander. The repetitive machine gun fire and the shots of the M1A cannons do get rather annoying. That’s basically all there is as far as the sound is concerned - there's really not much at all. Personally I felt that this game does not call for too much sound or music, but they could have done a better job with what they had.
The replay value of BCT Command is ungodly high. The game has 20+ pregenerated scenarios for you to start out with. Most of these scenarios take place around Kuwait, Iraq and the Middle East area. Once you have mastered all of them, you can become creative and build your own scenario using the BCT Construction Set, and it is quit easy to use. After you get tired of the Construction Set, you can take your game to the next level - online. Playing online is fairly easy. Online gaming help is readily available to help you get started. Basically you can create your own game and then host it on the Internet for your multi-playing pleasure.
With all said and done, BCT Commander is a great game. The graphics and sound is very boring and bring down the overall score of the game, there is just not much too it. However, all the positives outweigh all of the negatives. BCT Commander is a solid game and is highly recommended for military gurus and RTS gamers alike.