Scam. Essentially unusable. I've been a huge fan of Slytherine as a publisher in most cases, and I have played and loved in depth simulationist games ranging from GGWIE to DCS to Harpoon for around two decades. That is not what you get if you buy this program.
This was released years ago as Command: Modern Air and Naval Operations, and they are charging nearly triple for a barely passable new coat of paint. This new release adds zero working features, no content whatsoever, and tries to create the appearance of deep strategy by forcing the user to creep through obscene numbers of menus to play what is essentially a game of mashing icons together until the ones with the longest range have wiped the other ones out.
Planes and missiles function as rocketships, teleporting to different heights. The AI is aggressively stupid, and overrules your orders unless you spend hundreds of clicks per unit individually unchecking all the boxes. Even then, the UI is slapdash enough that sometimes units will simply not 'notice' that they have received new ROE and will override your orders anyway. Submarines are the worst offenders, having no mechanism to even attempt to control basic half-modeled functions like generators and noise discipline. This same aggressive disregard for the player that would lead someone to program a unit to require generators to charge batteries, but not allow said generators to be turned on when needed, permeates the entire experience.
The kind of publisher that spends years creating mechanisms to prevent modding, prevent 3rd party database updates, and who repackages their program with minor UI updates alongside a standalone viewer only to go to all the trouble to cut out every major functionality of said separately-bought viewer. I really should have left this review a long time ago.
The UI is a mess. The devs are hostile to modders and players to a ridiculous extent. Their forums are heavily policed to prevent their practices from being obvious to first time users. The only 'feature' added by this program is a 3D view which, as stated before, requires an $80 third party program which the publisher for this game have hamstrung to prevent sharing, recording, taking measurements, or gaining any of the other features which make it an $80 viewer. To top it off, the view barely works and causes lag even on high end machines.
Really without that last straw, I might still be able to look on the positive side. It certainly is a unique experience, but the intentional removal of features from what is (after many years as a number one request) the closest thing to a multiplayer or instructional mode the game has paints a stark image of what support is going to continue to look like going forwards. Requesting that another developer remove multi-user functionality at a net cost to both companies is beyond the pale, a real EA Games moment.
Others have gone into more detail about the overpriced DLC and the additional paywalls that are intentionally hidden until you run into them. If either of those things bother you, keep reading until you find a reviewer who goes into more detail on what exactly you are in for on that front.
