Theatre of war is a great game series and is overlooked by many. It is a grander version of what men of war has to offer and is really fun to play once you get the hang of it. The graphics are good especially given the date when this game was released. It is a really good opportunity for anyone who is interested in ww2 to play out some of the really memorable battles.

The Battle of Kursk was the biggest tank battle of all time. This has to be the best of the Theatre Of War games but it has a very high difficulty so plenty of patience and perserverence is required. The battles are also a lot larger than the other games in the series so there is a lot to keep track of. Pausing regularly and pondering your moves carefully is essential. The only thing missing from this, and the same goes for all of the games in this series, is that there are no cinematic cutscenes in between missions which help tell the story of this incredibly cruel and merciless conflict on the Eastern Front. The Russians lost over 25 million people in this war; more than all the other allied nations put together! Very hard game but incredibly absorbing if you are willing to stick with it and be prepared to fail many times before you get the tactics just right, to give you the edge you need to progress.

This game is one of the most difficult tactical battle games I've played played. The learning curve is steep, but once you get the hang of it, you're golden. Kursk 1943 adds a mission generator improved multiplayer with new modes that give the game a bit more replayability.

Background:

Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943, obviously focuses on the battle of Kursk fought between the 5th and the 16th of July 1943, in which the most well-trained German divisions armed with the latest weapons in their arsenal tried to encircle a well dug in Soviet Army units, which saw some of the fiercest fighting of the entire war, as thousands of tanks and tens of thousands of soldier clashed. The Germans fought a skillful offensive battle forcing the Soviets back in spite of fierce Soviet resistance. Eventually the Germans were forced to halt their offensive as the Western Allies landed on Sicily and the Soviet launched offensives against other parts of the frontline on the Eastern Front.

Presentation: 2 of 5

The game has an awesome into trailer that really gets the player into the right mood to play as either the German attackers or the Soviet defenders. On top of that each of the two campaigns has an additional introduction video that explains the role the player is going to play over the course of the campaign. Each mission has a short briefing text that states the objectives and gives some clues as to what kind of resistance is to be expected, which reflect quite well the fact that either side made extensive use of reconnaissance prior to attacking or defending.

Graphics: 5 of 5

This game has some of the best graphics of any WW2 game I have ever played (The only game that comes close is the Men of War series). Sadly the game is poorly optimized, only being able to use a single core of your CPU, which means you are not likely to get high frame rates when a lot is happening simultaneously unless using a relatively new CPU running at high clock speeds (i.e. i5/i7 etc.). In spite of the beautiful graphics the game does not seem to be very demanding on the graphics card, which must be said to be positive, though I would have preferred more GPU usage over CPU usage.

Sound: 4 of 5

Each weapon, vehicle and aircraft has its out unique and historically accurate sound, which brings a great feeling of actually being there, when the fighting begins. The only thing that is missing on the sound side is background music which is non-existent in this game, although reading the manual will tell you that this is intentional to urge the player to add their own music, which is quite unique but nevertheless a shortcoming for the game.

Gameplay: 4 of 5

This game places a lot of importance on historical accuracy and realism, with true-to-life weapons tables available in-game. Thus the units you choose to fight with really matter as medium and light tanks are extremely vulnerable against AT-guns and other tanks. With this high-level of realism it is essential that your attack is well-timed and supported, using both tanks and infantry to suppress and clear enemy positions. Indeed this makes missions quite long and painstaking, as you try your best to preserve your forces which might force you to replay a mission several times before you complete it with acceptable losses. Although this might seem as a negative side to this game, I personally feel it brings the game to an even higher level of realism, as battles become a matter of extensive maneuvering and repositioning, while at all times attempting to provide cover for your advancing units.

The game also features several different types of support, namely artillery bombardments, airstrikes or reinforcements. These different types of support can be called in after a certain amount of time or when a certain amount of enemy units have been destroyed.

What I miss the most on the gameplay side of this game is a more challenging AI, which actually does something to counter your moves instead of just staying put in their defensive positions. In the real life battle such movement was essential for the Germans or Soviets as either side would have called in airstrikes or artillery strikes to bomb the hell out of any strong points.

Replayability: 2 of 5

With scripted events during battles, replayability is bad. Replaying missions that went wrong will most likely result in overwhelming victory as the AIs every move will be exactly the same. Fortunately you get to play as either the Germans or the Russians, so there is a great deal of diversity in the missions which means that you are not likely to be able to commit the enemies every move to memory.

Mod-ability: 1 of 5

Modding this game took a long time to figure out for me, and wasn't possible without assistance from people on youtube and the 1C forums. Adding more units also puts a lot more stress on your CPU, so if the game is not running very well to begins with, putting more units on the battlefield will cause significantly lower frame rates.

I have bought each game in this series from the original TOW to this and have to say it the most challenging tactical battle simulator that i've ever played. But once you learn wha tnot to do your heading in th eright direction. Flanking is the games secret and jus tlike in a real life battle its crucial to use or be elimenated. In Kursk 1943 you have a new mission generator and can even design your own campaigns by linking together a series of user made missions. You also have an improved multiplayer and skrimish mode with modes such as attack and defend and capture the flag that give this series a replay factor that was sorely missing from the original and TOW 2 Africa.

Theatre of War 2: Kursk is easily the best in the series (*note, i havent played theatre of war 3 yet) I recommend getting the full version, simply because it completely immerses you in combat; even on easy, you can be expected to have 40-50% casualties. 1C took the Theatre of war series to a new level by adding a more dynamic campaign, more missions, and they removed that stupid pause that plagued Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943. Bigger maps mean bigger battles and the constantly changing objectives and emergency targets makes for an awesome play!

Theatre of War: Kursk is the third title in the TOW series. It has many enhancements and improvements over the first two games, but still you need to turn down some of the graphic settings for it to run without a slow down in FPS. This is its only problem I found, that it suffers from lag and low frames.

Other than that, its a good challenging game, with improvements in the squad panel which allows you to rename units so much easier allowing you to follow their progress much better, and in some ways become attached to them and their fortunes in the campaign games. Also, there is a detailed armour penetration system, showing you where shells have ricocheted from, etc, similar to Achtung Panzer, but done in real time (which is probably why it such a system resource hog).

There are 9 missions for both Russian and German campaigns, a few more than TOW2, which is a blessing. Its hard too, and does provide a good challenge. There is a battle and mission editor, allowing you to create a series of missions to make into your own campaign game, allowing replayability.

Also, there is an expansion purchased from Battlefront called Caen which allows you to play from the British side in the battles around Normandy, which adds tons more value to the game. Good game.

I have bought each game in this series from the original TOW to this and have to say it the most challenging tactical battle simulator that i've ever played. But once you learn wha tnot to do your heading in th eright direction. Flanking is the games secret and jus tlike in a real life battle its crucial to use or be elimenated. In Kursk 1943 you have a new mission generator and can even design your own campaigns by linking together a series of user made missions. You also have an improved multiplayer and skrimish mode with modes such as attack and defend and capture the flag that give this series a replay factor that was sorely missing from the original and TOW 2 Africa.