Fun, remember that? It's what you used to have before games became so reliant on realism that you spent more time flicking through manuals trying to understand the controls for a game than actually playing it. WWII Tank Commander is an attempt to rekindle those good old days with a simple and easy to play game that's about as realistic as charging two matchbox toy cars at one another.

Right from the beginning you're left to jump straight into the game. There's no real campaign for you to follow and though you do get mission briefings before each level, these are only really there to list the objectives that you need to complete. There's no tutorial but you won't need one, as this is a simple game to master using the traditional W,A, S, D & mouse set-up, with a nice lack of multiple key configurations to learn. Anyone expecting a full blown accurate simulation of tank warfare during the Second World War won't find much enjoyment from Tank Commander's very simple nature, however.

Once more we have a World War II game that puts you at the spearhead of the Normandy invasion, so that's 0/10 for originality then, though unlike other games the focus here is on large scale tank battles. There is some impressive level design in that the action presented gives an accurate depiction of a battlefield, with background sounds and tracer fire making the journey through occupied territory more interesting.

Being a tank commander means it's not long before you stumble into a few German Panzer divisions and, lo and behold, this game is chock full of them. It's not surprising then you can't make an arcade tank sim without things to shoot at and WWII Tank Commander doesn't disappoint. From the outset you'll come up against waves of enemy tanks, infantry, anti-tank cannons and mortars, all of which can be easily dispatched with either of your tank's two main weapons, the cannon and machine-gun. Yet from the outset there's something that feels overly familiar with Tank Commander, almost as if it's been done before.

In fact, if you were to compare this game to any other, the only real close comparison you could get is if you were to take the tank driving levels from Call of Duty and spread them out over an entire game. It's so similar it's uncanny. The simplistic FPS controls, the numerous tanks that line themselves up in front of your cannon and the mind numbing boredom you feel as the action drones on. Admirable though the attempt was to make a game arcade friendly, it in turn suffers from the same problems that many games of this type always seem to get stuck with.

The AI is... well there isn't any, I'm afraid. Tactics are of little use when dishing out death to the enemy, infantry stupidly stands in the middle of the road and pepper sprays your tanks with their feeble handheld weapons as though that alone will be enough to stop you. Enemy tanks are no better, they don't out flank you to attack from behind, they don't make use of high ground or cover - in fact they barely even move. Tank battles always seem to degenerate into a toing and froing engagements; you sit on one side of the map, the enemy on the other and neither stops shooting until one is destroyed. This gets old, fast.

Further problems come from the games environment. Okay, so it's not the best looking or best designed game around, but would it have been too much to ask that my tank could actually run over a tree or fence? Nothing seems destructible here; if you happen to charge head on towards a white picket fence, don't be surprised when your tank gets stuck or moves rather awkwardly over the top. It looks ridiculous and makes moving round the environment much more of a chore than it should be, as you painfully manoeuvre round objects that should fall under the immense power of these steel beasts.

There's such little variety in the things you do that it's not long before things start to become repetitive. Even big battles, where numerous Allied tanks face off against the Germans, fails to really excite in the way they should and with the map screen lacking any directions to which objectives you have to complete, it's not hard to get stuck on occasion trying to figure out what you have to do next.

So yes, arcade simplicity can be fun, but as WWII Tank Commander has proven, it can also be very boring. The reason realistic games are so popular these days is because of the challenges they provide, the expertly crafted AI, the difficult and varied levels - many don't play these games simply to get an accurate depiction of a certain event, but do so because of the satisfaction they feel once the game's challenges are overcome. In Tank Commander there's none of that - it's so simple and easy to play that it becomes dull and tired after the first few levels. The lack of variety, multiplayer and any real challenge make this difficult to recommend, even if it's only £20. Anyone still looking for a quick, visceral thrill may just be better off sticking with their matchbox toy cars...

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).