Operation Combat II - By Land, Sea, & Air

If someone claims the nineties were the golden age of strategy games, they've probably never played Operation Combat II. Or they've forgotten it — which is no wonder, this game is one of those that disappears into the fog of the DOS catalog as if it never existed.

It's a turn-based game with a military feel, where you command units across sea, air, and land. A map on a monochrome display, units represented by letters and numbers, command line instead of icons. Classic turn-based strategy from the eighties and early nineties — it should sound familiar to anyone who's experienced Panzer General or Warlords.

Control flows through text and menus. You select a unit, input a move, wait for your turn to come around again. No animations, no sounds to grab your attention. The graphics are brutally functional — information on the map, nothing more. When something gets shot, you learn about it through a line of text. Somewhere between pen-and-paper Battleship and computer warfare without drama. It's not bad, but it's not interesting either. Just dully efficient.

In truth, this game belongs to a class of titles that don't entertain players through dramatic presentation, but through mathematics. When you realize after a while that you're climbing the ladder of power, that your plan with delayed air support actually works — that's when it clicks. But it only gets you if you're the type of player who doesn't mind imagining the drama yourself in your head.

Today? In a browser (via DOS emulator), you look at it mainly as an artifact. The rules aren't complex, but there's no doubt this is one of many nameless strategy attempts born and died unnoticed in the nineties. You play it if you want to know what the recipe for modern turn-based games comes from — or when you take your coffee somewhere only the truly forgotten titles spin.