is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

simulation game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

first released in 1999 in Japan by

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on 30 January 1987 as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

and

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

game consoles.

Gameplay

Players perform the role of a tank commander during the war using one of six fictional tanks. Battles are fought on various maps based on actual historical campaigns. During the game, the player can engage the enemy while calling in artillery barrages whenever they are available. ''Panzer Front'' takes a realistic approach, some enemies can kill the player's tank with one shot. Reinforcements are also available in some missions if allied tanks are lost.

Missions

''Panzer Front'' has 25 missions, based on real events. Examples include the destruction of a British armored column in the

Battle of Villers-Bocage The Battle of Villers-Bocage took place during the Second World War on 13 June 1944, one week after the Normandy Landings, which had begun the Western Allies' conquest of German-occupied France. The battle was the result of a British attempt to ...

, the US Army's defense against a ferocious German counterattack in Le Dezert, the defense of the Reichstag during the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

, and several based on the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

Panzer Front ''bis''

''Panzer Front bis'' is an updated version of the original game, released for the Sony PlayStation in Japan on February 8, 2001. ''Bis'' (Latin for 'once more') features all of the game's tanks and missions, with additional tanks, ten scenarios (including one set during

Operation Olympic Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ...

), and a mission editor. It was due to be released in Europe in the middle of 2002, but JVC Music Europe, the UK publisher, shut down its video game branch before ''Bis'' could be converted and released.

Reception

The PlayStation version received "average" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the ...

'' gave it a score of 30 out of 40 for the Dreamcast version, and 29 out of 40 for the PlayStation version.

References

External links