In certain respects it achieves this. Codename Panzers: Phase One sets out to deliver a tactical combat game that's as realistic as possible. This covers the whole gambit of the genre with historically based units, historical settings and some great graphics. The game comes on three disks and includes a lot of extra content (mostly of the background / making-of type) and once into the game you are encouraged to play a tutorial that outlines the basics. It takes you through a step-by-step battle that encompasses all aspects of the game mechanics. What strikes you first is how easy and straight forward the interface is, with chunky icons on the control panel that are largely self-explanatory.

As far as movement is concerned you have the basic stand, crouch and crawl options. By double-clicking the mouse you can double-time the movement, and there is no penalty as fatigue is not a feature here. Both infantry vehicle units have a basic health bar that is replenishable with the right units. On-screen movement for all units and especially infantry is very realistic and reflects the amount of effort put into motion capture.

All terrain is visible (there are no blacked-out areas), but enemies only become visible when in range of sight. Enemies also appear on a mini map shown in red. As to the rest of the interface, there is a simple icon for attack, and in respect to the infantry an icon for the grenade. It is a very simple interface, though unfortunately there is no consistency for how the mouse commands are handled. By way of example, to move you left click on the unit and right click on the destination, while to toss a grenade it's left click on the grenade and left click on the target - inconsistency that can be frustrating in the heat of battle.

When playing the tutorial and your first campaign battles you are immediately struck by how simple the game mechanics are. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it all hangs together reasonably well and ultimately the emphasis is placed on tactics and the battles themselves. What is disappointing, however, are the very short ranges of the units. Tanks and artillery seem to have unrealistically short ranges that diminish the game to an arcade level, when with some greater ranges a more historical and realistic feel would have been achieved.

As you start the campaign you are given a set of basic units, but as you progress through the game you are awarded prestige points for winning battles and achieving secondary objectives. These points can be expended at the beginning of the next battle on additional units. As play progresses, units gain more experience and ultimately become veterans who perform better on the battlefield.

The selection of units - although covering most of the basic units, could not be called expansive by any means. Most choices are restricted to 3-4 tanks, rifle infantry, SMG, HMG, medic, flamethrower and bazooka/anti tank. The armour in particular felt over balanced in that there seemed to be little real difference between units, with only some of the heavier tanks having any real presence on the battlefield.

As a commander of the units (British, American, German or Russian), you actively participate in the combat, and if you die in the field the game ends. As you progress, however, your command unit is allocated an increasingly superior armoured unit in which to travel. This is a double-edged sword as the tank is likely to be the best of your on-field resources, and you will likely find yourself in harm's way in most battles leading the attack.

You have the ability to repair and rearm vehicles, or medicate as need dictates. This is done using the requisite support vehicle or medic. The graphical effect for each is quite well done and leaves you in no doubt as to what is happening and to whom. You will find yourself doing this a lot, though, as you only have a small team, and in the campaigns you are always vastly outnumbered. In our campaign careers we never achieved more than 6 tanks in our army. This restriction in size reflects the battlefields themselves. Most of the maps feel very tight and do not allow for much of a grand tactical enterprise, with the commonest tactical choice being one of probing for a weak spot and relying on a single thrust to achieve the objective.

Having said this, however, the campaign missions can very tough. The AI always seems to have more units than you and is not afraid to redeploy them where required to meet a threat. Battles can be quite torrid with the AI throwing armoured and infantry units at you (although at times not in a particularly co-ordinated manner).

Although most aspects of the game are pretty much utilitarian, some are quite innovative. Two stand out: the aspect of armour protection where, depending on the direction of an attack, you can lose the entire health bar on one of the tank's four sides. Changing the stance of a tank to the undamaged side is a good tactic to adopt - particularly when in single-player mode, as the AI does not seem to make use of this aspect of the game. The other is the handling of flamethrower effects. Direct them at a tank and a temperature bar appears and when it reaches a certain level the crew has to evacuate. The tank then cools over a period of time, allowing it to be taken over. To do so, however, requires a spare tank crew in your army, set up to utilise the vehicle. This therefore means that, going into a game, you must adopt a deliberate strategy of using flamethrowers and spare crews to bolster your tank forces.

The graphics are very good, though perhaps not as detailed as some other recent releases. The explosion effects are particularly grunty and, combined with some solid sound effects, the whole package works very well. Most structures are destructable with their own health bar and can also be entered by infantry (although only on one level regardless of whether the building is single- or multi-storied). Good weather effects also add to the game's visual appeal.