Author: Rodney W. Harper

Introduction

Most games are lucky to see a sequel. Not many are fortunate enough to see four sequels to the same title. Close Combat, when first introduced, was a welcome addition to the real-time gaming genre upon its release many years ago. For wargamers especially, it was very welcome. Finally, World War II combat in real-time. Hoorah!

Over the succession of Close Combat installments, and its many publishers (Microsoft, SSI, Mattel Interactive) the game system has seen improvements but always relied on its core gaming component, which arguably is unique.

Yet the game still lives on, and this installment moves back to the most epic battles of World War II in the depiction of the Normandy Invasion. The first Close Combat game also took place during Normandy. However, not in as much detail as in this installment. This time around, the maps are larger, more units are in play and the campaign structure is different. Combat is focused on the Cotentin Peninsula of France at the time of the Normandy Invasion (more specifically, the airborne assaults and Utah Beach landings).

Welcome to boot camp.	The scenario screen.

Installation

Close Combat: Invasion Normandy installed without any problems with the normal install taking 130 MB of storage space. A full install takes up approximately 600 MB of storage space.

Multi-player

Multi-player modes include:
TCP/IP over a LAN or the Internet
UDP LAN/Internet (billed as higher speed/lower reliability)
Direct modem
Direct serial cable
Mplayer
MSN Gaming Zone

Multi-player adds a more enjoyable realm to the gaming experience. Playing on MSN Game Zone via a 56 Kbps modem was very stable and provided many hours of quality play. The experience of playing against another human is often better than playing against the AI, in this author's opinion.

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