Ever since we last saw the game at E3, we've been looking forward to get hands on look of Codename: Panzers Phase Two. Codename: Panzers Phase Two if the sequel of the engaging tactical game Codename: Panzers Phase One. Codename: Panzers Phase Two shifts the action to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations while maintaining the same strategic excitement that kept the original game from being buried alongside so many uninspired World War II RTS clones.

The sequel has three new campaigns, each for the Axis and the Allies and an additional third campaign focusing on the Yugoslavian resistance. Though you can start with the Axis or Allied campaigns, you'll only be able to get to the third campaign if you complete the other two first.

The campaigns feature missions all in the southern theater of World War II. As such, you'll start by leading Italian forces in North Africa and close by spearheading the Allied invasion of Italy. There's quite a bit of overlap between the two campaigns (in terms of time period, not the actual battles) so you'll start each off during the fight for North Africa.

As with the previous game, the missions here take their inspiration from actual but freely depart from history for the sake of interesting gameplay. Gamers will still be able to fight with the British at El Alamein or lead Rommel's forces at Tobruk but the game's battles are true to the spirit rather than the details of the actual conflicts and compress the details of months of fighting into a single mission. You'll find that El Alamein has the British player leading a fighting retreat just before launching a massive counterattack.

Like the previous game, you'll find that the sequel often has you shifting from offense to defense (or vice versa) within the course of a single mission. A variety of progressive and sometimes secret objectives add an air of unpredictability to the battles as well.

World War II games are very common but the fact that the battles of Phase Two are a little less overdone may work in its favor. I mean, everyone's done the Battle of the Bulge but how many games have an Operation Husky level? That might work in the game's favor, assuming of course that gamers are willing to wrap their heads around some of these overlooked battles.

No matter what the setting, the game still relies on careful management of your units. In fact, since you're getting fewer units this time around, you'll probably have to be even more careful than you were in the first game. Luckily, the convenient interface from the first game has been preserved here, so you find it very easy to read armor facings as well as supply and repair units between combats. Other notable features, like taking over enemy vehicles and guns and garrisoning buildings have also been retained.

Some new additions are, you'll find plenty of new units. As with the first game they're based loosely on their real world counterparts but tweaked for the sake of good gameplay. On the Axis side you'll have the chance to fight with the nearly obsolete but ever-present M15/42 and the low-profile Semovente DA 75/18. The Allies will finally get a chance to field their famous light tank, the M3A1, known to the Americans as the Lee and the to British as the Stuart. The tanks all look great here and if you zoom far enough in you can actually see the rivets and weathering.

Some of the old heroes are definitely returning to the action in Phase Two but there are plenty of new heroes around as well. Some missions even give you more than one hero unit, both of whom must be kept alive throughout the entire mission. Peter Weller provides the voice of the American hero this time around, and he brings a little more believability to the game but you'll still find that the accents of most of the other characters are still just as outrageous as ever.

The Gepard engine does a good job of rendering all the action, with convincing explosions and realistic shadows. Your tanks will even leave tracks in the sand as they move across the map. By far the most immersive effect we've seen so far is the dusty haze that sometimes kicks up on the desert maps. Animations are still strong across infantry and tank types.

CDV has promised a more robust multiplayer experience with Phase Two and they've definitely delivered. The build we've got has a number of multiplayer options, ranging from straight up domination to more elaborate, objective based scenarios. The domination maps, six each for heads-to-head and team play, support from two to eight players and feature a number of factories or support bases that you'll be fighting over. You can select the point value for each army and whether or not to play with units from early or late in the war. Even better, you can set the game up to play against the AI.

In our current build, there's no option to enable AI opponents for the objective based scenarios. That's a bit of a shame, but the basic concepts of the six missions included in our build are so intriguing that you're sure to find no shortage of human opponents once the game ships.

Though there are a couple of more basic capture missions, the real fun is to be found in the more inventive missions. In one you and your opponent are racing to capture and drag a cartload of female entertainers back to your base. A four-player map has abandoned tanks scattered across the landscape; the player who can capture and salvage the most tanks will have an advantage as the game wears on. Finally, there's an eight-player map that tasks one team with destroying a convoy protected by the other team.

Finally, the game now comes with a full editor that will allow you to script your own scenarios and create your own maps. More advanced users can even tinker with a cutscene tool and a unit creator. Whether or not that means we'll see some amateur campaigns that let us take charge of Japanese Chi-Has in the Pacific or Pattons during the Korean War remains to be seen. Anything's possible.

With a rock solid story, fun gameplay, and some lose historical base, this game will appeal to all WWII tactical game fans. Codename: Panzers, Phase Two will ship later this month, and we look forward to playing the full version of the game.

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