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Game
Game2021
Combat Mission Black Sea
Developer Battlefront
Combat Mission: Black Sea is a computer wargame by American studio Battlefront.com in the Combat Mission series of games that covers a fictionalized Russian invasion of Ukraine. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
177 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 7, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74
Fresh
127 positive · 44 negative
95% range 67–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 127 | 44 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
6 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
479 of 577 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 177 · most liked firstIt's nice to see a developer still using Windows 95 to make games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will preface this by saying I am in no way trying to disparage anyone's opinion. I have played this game for like 8 years or something and only now linked it to steam. I have nearly every product Battlefront makes and have been playing for about 20 years (I'm 40 now) going back to Barbarossa to Berlin (AMAZING game). This review applies to all Combat Mission titles. What this game is - battle simulator. - historically accurate formations, gear, availability etc. - realistic ballistic and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i must be a russian general because I can't take any ground without losing half of my infantry and armored force.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i wonder when azov battalion will be added
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the best games I've ever played, in unfortunately one of the worst engines in the modern era. The camera lags when moving it around, some times with a delay of up to a full 3 seconds in camera movement. The game runs at a constant 10 FPS when more then 10 units exist in frame. The game takes ages to load on an NVMe SSD. Giving orders is painfully clunky. The game is based on a 'grid' system so you can't move a unit just a few feet back to be less exposed. Aircraft are not rendered, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Combat Mission: Taiwan when?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No longer fiction
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game doesn't work on AMD GPU's. Devs have know about the issue for over a year now and don't intend to fix it, don't bother.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Experience with each faction US: "This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, how can a BMP-3M see my Bradley when it can't see it! Russian battalion level artillery is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it just detracted another Abrams!" RU: "I just lost an entire BMP platoon to an American infantry squad... US company level UAVs mean they'll always see my flanking maneuver, causing another platoon to evaporate to a single Bradley..." UA: "ATGMs go *FWOOOSH* BTR-4Es go *SKEEEEERT-*" This game will drive you mad, it'll make you realize how…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Old Infantry NCO. Used many of these weapons systems. Been on the two-way shooting range. Played strategy games with 30+pages of house rules for decades. Certain that if everyone above me had a brain and did what I thought we'd crush. See this game. Buy this game. Love this game. Get crushed, bent, obliterated. 10/10 enjoyed getting humbled.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you have an AMD graphics card just skip this game. As others have said they are using a 20 year old game engine, and it really shows. The user interface is out of date and clunky. AMD cards render a bright white screen every time an explosion goes off, even if it is a grenade, blinding you. There is a really good, but very difficult game in there that suffers from a lack of a modern game engine. If Battlefront is going to continue in business they are going to have to update their game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →$60 for the same game over and over is just ridiculous.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good game ngl but WAY too expensive
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Combat Mission: Black Sea appeals greatly to people who already love this kind of hardcore wargame, but it doesn’t do much to welcome anyone just wanting to dip their toe in. I genuinely enjoyed the learning curve and had fun with it at first — but now it just feels ancient, with units, tactics, and the overall engine stuck in the 90s. It’s a good game, but I simply can’t justify picking up another title in the series at these prices.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I need to stress that for this review, I am looking at this from a wide gamer perspective and not as a niche enthusiast. This game appeals to a very specific niche, which is why I do not recommend it for the wider audiences of gamers. The game is infuriating and has moments that make me question the logic of what the engine is running on. Not to mention that it does not play well with AMD GPUs, having had several instances where the graphics have collapsed because of updates. The heavy…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What will they predict next?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not many reviewers have mentioned the drones. This game includes drones, and they are very effective for spotting hidden units and calling artillery strikes down on them, just as they have proven to be in the now unfolding real Russo-Ukraine War. Of all the Combat Mission games, this one is probably the best optimised, and the deadliest. Once a unit is spotted it will not last long so you have to use real world tactics like sending out scouts, hiding, ambushing, and repositioning. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short version: Dated Engine, Dated Graphics, Dated UI, and Overpriced. Longer Version: Combat Mission relies on an aging engine, with graphics and a user interface that fall short of contemporary standards. At its premium price point, the lack of meaningful modernization is difficult to justify. A past experience with Battlefront’s customer support further undermined confidence in the product and should have served as a warning—fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I now…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →buying this has sealed my chance of getting a gf ever
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In desperate need of modernization
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Old design, old graphics, sim and AI isn't better than other games on the market. The simple fact User Interface isn't resizeable is a game killer. No way to play this game on a wide screen without damaging your eyes. This could be a really good tactical board like mil-sim but user interface and poor AI are a turn off.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like headbands, chugging Mountain Dew, and playing sweaty, click-fest, arcade type "realistic" military games where everything is balanced and nerfed for equity then this isn't for you. CM titles are truly milsims more than they are games. Actual realism. No balancing, units & weapons are accurately depicted. CM titles are the ARMA of this type of tactical strategy game. They get it. Outstanding representation company level combat engagements with realistic LOS, squad, weapons, & vehicle…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The controls and user interface are awful by modern standards and the general feel of the game is as if it had been made with a 1990s game engine. The settings menus are severely lacking; there isn't even a volume adjustment, just sound on/off. If you need UI scaling to see things comfortably on a 1080p+ resolution display, just forget about it, there are no modern QoL features in this game. The underlying simulation could be the best in the world but it means nothing if the user experience…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is a realistic tactical war game, the graphics may look dated but the depth of the game is unmatched. There is a steep learning curve but you feel big brain when you successfully attack and hold a position. This game has more depth than comparable RTT games like Warno or Gates of Hell, which is both the appeal and what causes people to disengage from the game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Poorly optimised, Poor UI and controls. Overpriced and not dynamic. Save your money.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game a while back, with expectations that I'm not sure were even in the same ballpark as what this game provides. Over the past few weeks I've come back to and it *really* realized what (I think, at least) makes it good, and what makes it not appealing at all. You get what you put in. There's other games/simulators like this, janky, low end graphics, obtuse UI and no real hand holding. The bread and butter isn't in the graphics, it's not in any kind of story (although the writing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun, unique, when it works it’s a blast…but $60? No.. not at that price. If you want it, get it on sale only.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slitherine just purchased Battlefront Games and the Combat Mission franchise. A rare case in the modern world where a publisher purchasing a developer is unequivocally a good thing. Slitherine has already done amazing things in the last few years as a publisher, such as finally persuading the geriatrics at Battlefront to put their game on Steam and allow their 10+ year old games (that look and play like 20+ year old games) to go on sale. This is a recommended, but really please only buy the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This isn't really a "game", it's a simulation, and as such, takes some time to get into. I owned it for awhile but rarely put time into it. That all changed about two months ago when I sat down and made the effort to really figured it out. Since then, I've been hooked. It may leave you scratching your head at first, but If you give it a chance, it'll really grab you by the scrotum and refuse to let go. It's now one of my favorites.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very interesting and promising game at a glance, that came recommended by more than a few people However, the game runs on an engine that was created back in 2006 and the UI widgets were hardcoded into the engine itself. In other words, the UI does not scale, rendering the game unpleasant if not out right unplayable. Apparently, this is a great game on an ancient engine. But I cannot justify, under any circumstance, a 2006 engine with 2006 flaws in a game released in 2021 for the price it…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have thousands of hours on these Combat Mission games. Now i cant get 60 second into a small battle with a few units without an out of memory bug. Its highly unfortunate as these games are extremely expensive and i cant play any of them.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WHAT DID THEY KNOW
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's actually realistic and tactical unlike most of the newer trash games that are advertised as such but aren't. Good game. Mp is fun being able to both be on map at the same time with minute by minute commands given.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The games so realistic that whenever I play the Russians I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ die in a river crossing
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The simulation is not suitable for all cases of modern warfare. The biggest map size that can be used is approximately 4*4 km which means one cannot use this engine to simulate, for example, a large tank assault on fortified positions in an open landscape just because modern ATGM weapons are effective at distances up to 5 km. One will have to use them at shorter distances which reduces its efficiency against tanks and tanks become much stronger that they would be in reality. I would suggest to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[still remembers how Combat Mission: Black Sea was doing a conflict in between Russia and Ukraine+NATO and developing it for some years... and then Russia invaded Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in 2014 before the game released]
unlabelledView post →It's peak, if you're part of a very small subset of people looking for realistic, modern wargaming. Graphics have been described as 90's (lol), and while they are bad compared to every other game out there, for those looking for what CM has to offer, it's negligible. The haters are right on one thing, however: the engine is old and lacks many modern quality of life features. Recommended, but get it on sale so you don't feel robbed.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First #orbatboys on bsky. The Army elements of 2017 US intervention in Ukraine from Combat Mission Black Sea. Started with units explicitly named, and filled in the gaps.
unlabelledView post →good simulation but controls and gameplay actually feel awful. and I couldn't play it offline.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't get this game... especially when compared to the competition. It's not a bad tactical strategy game but the price is way off for what you get since you can get a better and cheaper experience with the Graviteam Tactics series and it has more DLC campaigns available. The urban combat seems better fleshed out here though. The interface also seems also more intuitive but badly needs scaling options. Graphics and sounds are pretty basic for our times but get the job done. The maps are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the first Combat Mission game I've purchased. I was honestly hesitant at first because of the ancient looking graphics, but after watching a couple of YouTube videos and realizing how deep the tactics and planning can get in this game, I decided to give it a go and boy do I not regret it! The battles will require you to thoroughly think your plan through, to the point where you can (if you want) bring your camera down all the way to just a few feet above the ground to simply check if…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd only recommend Combat Mission to folks that are the real die-hard simulator guy. If your not slow and methodical your going to get you ass handed to you. Plain and simple. Its fun, but in a "I just spent like 5 minutes pinning down an enemy force and then called in artillery to obliterate them and it only took 10 minutes and I lost nobody. Victory baby" way. The small maps don't do the game any justice either. The engine has definitely reached its breaking point. The game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After putting in some hours, I conclude that this game is unplayable without a proper revision of infantry AI. The developer simply must put priority scripts regarding weapon type usage, and make AI differentiate between many types of enemy targets, OR let the player do it manually, something that should have been done at release. A javeline-carrying infantry is attacking an enemy tank - first thing they do is unload AT4s and fire 9mm until getting destroyed. Likewise, they can easily fire…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is pretty good. More like a simulation than a game. There is a lot of depth to sink your teeth into, and you can even make your own levels. Scenarios and campaigns; if I had a friend I would play multiplayer. Graphics lag behind modern day but if that's something that bothers you then this game isn't for you. One day I want to own a real AKM. This game is so good they made it in real life
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →had to refund this: got it in sale for 30 bucks, and even for that price im not going to continue to try this: The UI is horrible, and in general the graphics (for a simulator from 2021) feel like they are twenty years behind. the camera moves glitchy. the Controls are by far the worst of all, for they work clunky and way too overcomplexed, even when the simulator wants to give you realistic options. a lot of problems i faced from the start could have been fixed by something like a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best tactical combat simulation on the market.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Combat Mission: Black Sea is a strategy enthusiast's dream come true. This game offers a level of depth and complexity that truly puts your tactical skills to the test. From planning your unit composition to executing precise maneuvers on the battlefield, every decision you make has a direct impact on the outcome of the battle. The game rewards strategic thinking, forcing you to consider factors such as terrain, cover, and line of sight in order to gain the upper hand. The wide range of modern…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I know the graphics/game engine are out of date at this point, and the game in general is in need of a face lift, but I can't help but solidly recommend this game. It's a boat ton of fun and very challenging, even on the "Basic Training" mode. Highly recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Realistic wargame that simulates the Special Military Operation in Ukraine . Unfortunately in this game Ukrainians are stronger than they are in real life. Except this, everything is well made and fun to play. Реалистичный wargame, имитирующий спецоперацию на Украине. К сожалению, в этой игре украинцы сильнее, чем в реальной жизни. Кроме этого, все хорошо сделано. Рекомендую! С нами Бог! / God with us!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →pretty great but really overpriced. almost exactly the same as shockforce 2 if you played that but its set in ukraine with a lot less visibility and way more cover, a bit more scary in my opinion. get high and act like the greatest general in the world or something
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is for hardcore simmers. It's not fun, it runs poorly, it's overpriced, there is practically no reason for 99% of people to buy it. Unfortunately, it's the best we have right now. There's nothing else out there currently that does what Combat Mission does.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Easily the more deadly combat mission games as it's easier for a simple mis-judgement to cost you a platoon. One of my favorite military strategy games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a hard game, but rewardingly so, much like the old tactical shooters of yesteryear, see the first Ghost Recon game (from 2001). The core fundamental gameplay is very good, but there are a lot of quality-of-life, tangential/peripheral problems like bad performance, janky interface, outdated engine code, etc. The game teaches you how modern warfare works at battalion/company level to a pretty realistic degree, i.e. very deadly, where every mistake is punished with instadeath as 21st…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →19 FPS on my Nvidia Gforce 4000 graphics card. Always crashing to the desktop. The basic idea of the game is fun tho.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved the game but the company that made it sucks for never updating the game engine and leaving this great game to rot.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolute unplayable trash. It's a game that looks (and probably is) about 25-30 years old. This is how games in the late 1990s used to look. Keeping that in mind, I am running it on an i9-14900K with an RTX 4090 and 192 GB DDR5 RAM. I never get more than 50-60 FPS and typically it drops as low as 15 FPS. This is a joke and whoever coded this trash had no clue on what the word optimization even means. It is absolutely unplayable unless you are obsessed with the series and accept to grind through…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You can't Escape Z mods....
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →given current events (2022-2023) this game is a must buy for anyone into serious war gaming, simulation or just a military buff nice equipment and tactics really makes you think added bonus is the editor where you can make your own scenarios and a multitude of mods
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am enjoying this game. I like hyperrealism in military strategy, but I can't in good conscience recommend this game. It is too complex for its own good at times, and it does not have a proper in-game tutorial that teaches you how to play, how the mechanics work and what the game AI does. I had to look at YouTube videos to learn how to play, which shouldn't be necessary in my opinion. If you like strategy games with an extreme level of realism and an equally extreme learning-curve, this is for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Combat Mission: Black Sea is a demanding and highly detailed tactical wargame developed by Battlefront and published by Matrix Games that explores modern near-peer warfare with an intensity and realism few games attempt. Set in a fictional but unsettlingly plausible conflict in Eastern Europe, the game imagines a large-scale clash between Russian, Ukrainian, and NATO forces during the late 2010s. Rather than sensationalizing modern warfare, it presents it as fast, lethal, and deeply…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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