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Another interesting feature is the soldier monitor. By pressing F7 you are given a window which allows you to see the status of all the soldiers in a selected group. For instance, if you send out a squadron to attack, and they turn into a pile of blood and bodies, you can highlight them and the monitor tells you the current state of each man. The window displays their physical state (dead, healthy, unconscious, winded), the weapon they are currently holding and even their name. This way you can determine to send them running or leave them for dead. The monitor helps you identify with each and every soldier personally, which can sometimes get you chuckling at the complete slaughtering of your own troops when you make a bad call. Unfortunately it seems like this monitor is making up for the fact that it is impossible to follow your troops visually. They are so small that once you have a group of them it’s just a mess and you can’t tell what is going on. Especially when you get up in the high resolutions, up to 1600x1200, a feature which Atomic brags about. The higher resolution are almost unplayable because the small objects become specs on the screen, unless you’re playing with a 30 inch monitor you can’t see very well. I guess you could argue that, in real war you would have the same problems seeing your troops but that’s just a little to real for my blood.

The size of the game is pretty impressive; we’re talking 34 battle groups and 44 maps over 25 days of war. You also have the option of playing small campaigns, or if you feel that you have a couple of weeks to burn, you can go head first into the full-scale campaign. The maps themselves are beautiful and contain Atomic’s classic eye for detail. And speaking of detail, each map contains the actual weather effect felt by the real soldiers on that actual day in history. It might be overkill but that’s what Atomic seems to be going for. Even once you have beaten all the battles by both sides of the war, you can go over to the scenario editor, that is if you haven’t been fired, divorced and thrown out of your house due to never leaving your computer that is.

The Scenario Editor gives you the control to design your very own campaigns. You pick the map, the battle group, the control, the supplies, and even the weather. It’s great to play god sometimes but make sure you are familiar with the campaign screen or you might find yourself lost. The scenario editor offers some more re-playability, that is if you can beat the game in the first place. The editor does add to the gameplay but I think what the game really needs would be a map editor. I guess you never know what’s in the future for this game but that would be a definite improvement.

If you wish to get the most out of this game then multiplayer is definitely the answer. The AI supplies a good opponent but like all games nothing can replace the unpredictability of humans and the feeling you get when you annihilate your friends defense. You’ve got the usually options TCP/IP, M-Player, and MSN Gaming Zone. Unless you’ve mastered the game, be weary of many experienced players on the net who will just knock you out before you even have the chance to make a command. Of course that could be said about any game I suppose.

When all is said and done, if you didn’t like the first episodes of Close Combat then avoid this title because it hasn’t changed very much. To those dedicated fans, Invasion Normandy is definitely a great addition to your collective. The name says it all folks… Close Combat, it’s as close as it’s going to get, and if you can’t handle it then maybe you should look into something like Starcraft or any other quicker paced strategy game.

Overall Score: 75%