Panzer General: Allied Assault Plays its Cards

I have to admit it I went into Panzer General: Allied Assault a skeptic. I was a big fan of the MS-DOS classic Panzer General, and when I heard that they were adding a card mechanic to a WW2 battle game, it seemed too different. Why use cards in an electronic game? But then I sat down to play the game, and got totally hooked. Panzer General: Allied Assault manages to blend the excitement of a WW2 combat game with the strategic intrigue of a card game, and the end result is engaging fun.

Panzer General: Allied Assault presents the D-Day battle in board game format. There are a variety of victory conditions for each battle—taking specific squares, destroying all enemy units, and so on. As you unlock, you’ll receive unit cards, action cards, and combat cards.  As in a real wargame, you get bonuses for attacking from certain terrain types or defending while dug in. And as in card games, you’ll have to decide how much of a deck you want to sacrifice on each attack or defense to try to ensure victory without depleting resources you might need during enemy counterattacks. The single-player computer A.I. is quite crafty, and Xbox LIVE Gold members can play against human opponents online.

Kudos to the development team at Petroglyph for showing exactly why you’d want to use cards in a console game. Panzer General: Allied Assault definitely has that “just one more game and then I’ll go to bed” quality. Check out the free trial demo available on Xbox LIVE to see for yourself.