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Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2021
Combat Mission Cold War
Developer Battlefront
CM Cold War is set in the tipping-point years of a conflict that gripped the world for 45 years. Between 1979-1982, both the NATO and Soviet Warsaw Pact militaries began the shift away from industrialized warfare of the early 20th century and towards the modern digital battlefield of today. From the Steam store page
170 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Sep 30, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
67
Fresh
112 positive · 54 negative
95% range 60–74%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 112 | 54 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
4 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
161 of 241 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 170 · most liked firstLike all the rest of the Combat series of games, this is a great addition to the series. HOWEVER, it's time to update the engine guys, it runs like ass and while, we pretty much all enjoy the game, there's no excuse for producing 9 out of 10 games on (What the development team calls new) an Engine that has the same piss poor performance with ZERO updates... Great series, horrendous business practices.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played quite a few of the cm games and this one is by far the most laggiest and slowest of all of them. The absolute awful lag combined with the out-dated engine and over-price of all of their titles leads me to down-vote this - do not buy this one, black sea is better performance wise if you're dying for a strat/tactical game with a good realism and fun. they need to stop trying to milk the series hiding behind the bullcrap defense of "bUt ThErEs NoThInG eLsE lIkE iT". No - there isn't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DISCLAIMER: I want to get this out of the way for people who are looking at the "Mixed" reviews and are scared off by it. PAY THAT NO ATTENTION. The game originally released back in April on Battlefront.com so a vast majority of people playing on steam redeemed their keys in November December and are very happy with it. Steam does not count those who redeemed keys in the total reviews as an anti-corruption measure, which is good except in this case it skews the review numbers and doesn't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After Combat Mission Shock Force 2 and Black Sea that i like a lot i cant recomend ths game, Cold War has a lot of units on the board (total mobilization like IRL) but both the engine and gameplay isnt adapted for this type of scope. Too many units that makes the game boring trying to play after 20 min micromanaging everyone (you need because the game dont have a good pathfinding). Trying to apply Soviet tatics is a pain in the ass, if you try the move-stop advance tatics with the T-62 the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm sure we're all wargamers here, and I'm not going to bash the work of the devs, However, for £46 this is the same game I have already bought several times over. It's literally no different from all the others. I suppose that's to be expected being the same series and all. I don't know why I was expecting more. I also, and this may be either a scenario or general fatigue with the series thing but.. it's a bit dull. The fighting bit is vastly overshadowed by the many, many minutes of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh this one is tough. On one hand, I think Combat Mission Cold War delivers gameplay that no other game has been able to replicate. Intense squad action, riveting battles. On the other hand, CMCW also feels like playing the 9th game in a series where they just never bothered to make actual improvements. The graphics are ancient yet the game runs terribly on larger maps. The units are heavily reliant on spotting and the spotting system, but actually "seeing" what your units see is a struggle,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played Battle for Normandy 10 years ago when it first came out. Earlier this year, I paid for CM engine upgrade 4 to bring the game up to date. This has renewed my interest in the CM series and when I heard about Cold War I jumped on the Super Bundle of CMCW, CMBS and CMSF2. I was stationed just south of the Fulda Gap in 1975-77 when I served in the US Army (Combat Engineer), so this game is of special interest to me. I'm really enjoying it and have played 2 battles so far. Very…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One review said "This game engine is not designed for given scenarios" Damn right. Second or third US mission. Bear in the Sun, My newly built 2022 2k gaming PC was struggling with it. That's how bad it was. It outright crashed multiple times during the setup phase. The missions are so big and awesome but the engine is at its limit. I cant really say "YES! BUY IT!" *Edit* I just wanna say, after 37 more additional hours, time to think, and updates to this game.... Its still ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Now if…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is Combat Mission. But... make no mistake. The 2000 one. With ton of "trust the devs things they claim" "semi-upgrades" to the original engine. Which are (? -were used to at least) paid for at Battlefront. I know, I used to buy them all until around second battlepack for Black Sea. Then I finally let myself accept things as they are. That somehow action-oriented titles like Assault Squad 2 do things much better than Combat Mission. Why? Because there is one rarely spoken of aspect to the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played CMCW since the release date on the Battlefront site, and it's another amazing entry into the Combat Mission franchise. CMCW covers Fulda from 1979-1982, and depicts the Soviet Army and US Army in those periods. The game is the most accurate depiction of tactical level combat in the era, and displays the particulars of multiple vehicles across multiple years. The game has the largest maps, and the biggest emphasis on doctrinal/accurate strategy. Sadly, it doesn't innovate on the UI…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The performance is awful no matter how powerful your PC is. Its unfortunate because there really isn't anything else on the market like this. I wish the devs could be bothered to update their ancient engine so we could properly play their games.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This engine is way too old
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game engine is not designed for given scenarios
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have bought both the other Combat Mission games and though they were laggy I really enjoyed them, they were a bit over priced for what they were but ok. This game will not even let me finish the 2nd lvl US campaign without the game crashing. I get an error message about memory and then it crashes. This doesn't happen when I play the Quick Battle ( with Battlion sized units) only the campaign and it doesnt happen with the other 2 games in the series. I paid you 60 AUD for a fully…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The same high quality as previous Combat Mission- titles. Not superb technically with modest graphics, choppy frame rate etc. However, as far simulating a tactical battlefield goes, this is as good as it gets to my experience. Extremely accurately modeled contemporary weapon systems, ultra realistic use of terrain and tactics and so forth. Rather steep learning curve if you have never played CM- games before, but easy to pick up if you have. Very challenging, and requires you to be able to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It could be the dream game but : - There is far too much micro management, to the point that you need to move manually in optimal position each single unit. Friendly AI is simply unable to do anything useful apart getting killed. - Spotting simply doesn't work : the AI will see your unit and kill it while your unit won't be able to see and even less engage the ai whenever. Even in a flat and open environement, the ai will see your unit far earlier than your unit. So what's the point of creating…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →probably worth like 20-30 dollars, not 60...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not worth your hard earned money: a bug-ridden mess with a lot of recycled bloat from the dev team to delude customers into believing it is front-loaded with content. Most scenarios, particularly with the release of it's first and final DLC, are either iterations of each other, H2H limited, or unpacked single player versions from the campaign (something the community has been able to do third-party for about a decade now). Inaccuracies abound, particularly with factions outside the US, where…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Same engine that has been used for 20 years and it somehow got worse. Constant crashes when saving or loading means I can't even finish a single mission without losing all progress, I can't run the game past balanced graphics, numerous artifacts, especially in shadows. I love the combat mission games and I do like this one, but the technical issues just pushed me over the edge this time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best combat mission by far. Some pointers: - Setting is a mix between the modern and the old. (not as unforgiving as modern or as slow as WWII) - 79' USSR has the edge and by 82' the US is back in the lead (symmetric peer to peer combat) - campaigns are great. big maps, interesting mission, challenging - interesting new weapons and system - best tac AI so far The bad: - This is on the very limits on what the CM2 engine can handle and too often goes over that line. Performance problems often…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its really not a bad game at all, pretty steep with price for what you get in the game but my god! the engine really needs sorting, its janky and slow, it sometimes takes forever to load textures, such a shame, honestly though, get CMSF2 or CMBS over this one
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nothing game changingly new. waste of money, Just a reskin of black sea. Edit: The time period is great. I play a lot of black sea which is hyper deadly. This is the perfect in between for the franchise. But I cannot defend the absolute trash this engine is in 2025. Yeah it was released in 2021 but that doesn't plead its case any better. I mean ♥♥♥♥ I have a decent pc, probably a bit above mid tier but not high spec. This game should not be at 40 fps, I did some tweaking in nvidia control…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved the original Combat Mission games, especially Beyond Overlord and Barbarossa to Berlin -- heck I even enjoyed Afrika Korps. They made steady upgrades on the way towards Shock Force, which I'm happy to have in a DVD case somewhere, but my goodness this engine doesn't feel like it's moved on since then. And looking now... yeah... Shock Force came out July 27, 2007 -- that's about how this game looks and feels. Let's hope that the Slitherine acquisition will push this legendary series…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Easily the best Combat Mission game to date, unparalleled realism and simulation (just like all other CM titles), easy to learn, hard to become proficient. Made by a Dev team that truly cares about the setting they are recreating. I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in the Cold War or strategy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have played Combat Missions since the very first one ... loved most of them, some of the more recent ones not quite so much, but this one is virtually unplayable due to the number of crashes and times the game stutters SO badly you have to stop and wait for minutes for the game to 'catch up' ... I am playing a high end rig which plays ALL other games happily on maxxed out settings, but have to lower the settings on this to the lowest just to get a half decent game ... One map in particular (I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →All combat mission run poorly but this one is unplayable, due to lags. The amount of not giving a **** is astounishing in the developers. They simply dont care abt their games after release. Not to mention extremly toxic community on their forums, and the fact that they didnt want to release games on steam (but greed won after all). I really like CM concept and battle system(abt as old as 20 years), but the actual gameplay experience + fire and forget developers, are really hard to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So, do NOT buy this game. I tried refunding it before writing such a negative review but because I only learned how badly optimized it is after playing it for a bit. I will explane. I've been playing the Combat Mission games since the old school CM1. I loved them and they worked right out of the box. I bought this on sale during Christmas sale and right away I couldn't read any of the text. Evidently, this is a common issue. Fortunately, there were alot of topics and fixes for this. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Combat Mission series suffers from three main issues, which, in my view, make it difficult to recommend by default: 1. Outdated Technology and Poor Usability The game's tech is old, and the overall usability is quite rough. There’s a lot of "you just have to know" quirks. While the manual covers some of it, there's simply too much to remember. For example, a troop transport vehicle won’t automatically unload troops when ordered—you have to explicitly tell it to pause first. That kind of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It runs like garbage. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage. It would be cool to get steamrolled by Soviet Mechanized troops in a better frame-rate, but we won't because the old heads making these games milk the same 25 year old cow of an engine.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think this game is pretty cool but I feel it's content doesn't warrant the high asking price. Like I understand the devs wanting to still make money but this game is really more of a $30 game at the most. That being said it's still a solid combat mission game just def not worth it's high asking price. Basically wait for this ♥♥♥♥ to go on sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I debated for quite a while on Shock Force 2, then Black Sea and finally this game. I bought Normandy when it first came out and it was hard to play on my system back then. Booted it back up and updated it, then played on my quality system. Had great fun. Then I bought Black Sea (before the current IRL war) and had a blast. Then SF2 and CW went on sale on steam and I purchased them as a package, essentially paying about $41.00 each. I'm having a great time with all of them now. I am…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →They really got the nerve to publish this? The resolution is maxed at 1280x1024 and the interface is so sluggish it's unplayable. I find no words for this mess. The pricing is ridiculous. Bought this via reseller, paid 5 EUs. And still that's too much for a game you actually can't play. edit: Fanatical refunded me. Really appreciated!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →another great game added to steam
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been playing this since it released on the BFC store last April. Probably the best combat mission game I've played. Both the US and Soviets are competitive in multiplayer, the campaigns are well done and showcase the benefits and drawbacks of the doctrines both sides used. In the Soviet campaign you can see the AI fight using the Active Defense doctrine. 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →$60 for the same game over and over is just ridiculous.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →completely over priced, i'd probably only spend 20 to 30 dollars on it max
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →release the same game multiple times battlefront is an embarrassment
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Compared to the likes of Shock Force 2, this game does not have nearly enough content. And the performance - due to huge maps and huge unit counts - is indeed bad. I could tolerate the poor performance from unit count. But seeing a scenario map where seemingly 50% is thick forest (impassable to vehicles and not practically traversed by infantry). Perhaps if this (and the other CM games) get an engine update, it would be worth recommending. But in its current state, there doesn't feel like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is actually not bad but for some reason the devs decided to not give the game any decent smaller scenarios. Might be 3 max. Some of the medium size battles are actually really good but the vast majority of the scenarios are set on these massive maps that lag the hell out of your computer and just take forever to set up and play. I would like to stress that its really not a bad game but its just unplayable to a certain extent. Once again I recommend just playing Combat Mission: Shock Force…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best strategy game based on coldest war! What is there not to like.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If Arma was a RTS, it's simple like that.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I gave this a good shot coming from loads of Graviteam tactics and numerous other similar titles. Overall a fairly unbearable experience. First the good I guess. - Orbats are good fun, if unrealistic (I'm not clued up on Cold War) and the vehicles look great. I don't care about graphics on a game like this, so won't complain. - There's a weight to combat. - The missile system is better than a lot of similar titles. - some of the scenario designs are cool, like the ambush at Dollbach.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't let the handful of bad Steam reviews fool you. If you are a fan of Combat Mission, then this title is every bit as good as their other ones. Cold War era (late 70's to early 80's) Soviet and American forces, with the American's catching up as time progresses. Makes for some fun and strategic battles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is what it says on the tin: Combat Mission Cold War, if you've grown tired of the same old same old Combat Mission formula with little to no improvements in AI, graphics, gameplay, engine, etc then this is not the game for you, but if what you want is Combat Mission: Cold War then you'll have a blast.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As of the time of writing, I experienced severe input lag with anything more than a few units in it's real time mode. Several fixes from the community have not helped sadly. What I did play at the lower levels was awesome, and if not for the input lag this would be a recommended review. The game is hyper realistic and focuses on gameplay over graphics to a large extent, which I did not mind (I've always been a gameplay over graphics person myself). The UI is passable, but clunky. If you can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →so Slitherine, because they are incompetent gits, are scrubbing access to unofficial but older and competently run discord, so here is a link: https://discord.gg/u8RSBMygDw onto review Probably be best tactical Cold war sim out there, only downside is right now despite taking place in Germany, there are zero Germans. But yeah its real good. the steam release should have happened months ago. So blame Slitherine, since the game has actually been out since April.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its like the cold war for your computer.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Terrible game thats overpriced and has a 20 year old engine that runs as well as you think it would, spotting is terrible, graphics are terrible, the manual is straight up wrong sometimes, bugs and more
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a Combat Mission game. The series spans several different conflicts. Buy the game from the conflict that interest you the most. The WW2 ones will come to Steam soon. However, you can buy them from the Battlefront store. Honestly, if you like this game you are going to buy them all anyway. If you are a new player who is interested in the series. The Battlefront store has several demos.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'll [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/zhaloa/recommended/1369370/]quoted part from one of review in Shock force 2 For one, this is a very niche product that doesn't carter to the vast majority of gamers, so this is already a hard sell for them. Second, the level of detail you WILL NOT find anywhere else. You just won't. Third, the developers HAVE to make money some how, Steam already steals a large chunk of their profits. Combining all these, they deserve every penny they get. Combat…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to enjoy this game but the camera is extremely clunky and movements are jittery and not smooth at all, particularly when zooming in. For a game that's all about getting down into the weeds and reading the terrain, that's not acceptable. I could not sit through more than an hour at a time without becoming extremely nauseated needing to take a break. I don't recall getting nauseated from playing a game since the time before I learned what an FOV slider did. If you're interested in this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought my first Combat Mission game like 21 years ago. It was in a CD format and I got it from a gaming store in a mall. Every since, there was no weekend without playing Combat Mission. Simply put, one of the best 3D tactical wargames for the PC. https://youtu.be/soBG_NsuxKQ
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I first played this series of games back in 2004 when i bought Combat Missions Anthology. Now nearly 20 years on and not only am i still playing them, but the devs are still bringing out new content like cold war. Love it..
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Im very happy that Battlefront decided to make a game on the cold war gone hot topic. Its a very interesting setting and Im looking forward to CM exploring it in depth with further modules. As a CM veteran (north of a thousand hours in this series) I think the game keeps making new strides and keeps evolving. I like the addition of the PBEM++ system but I think it can be developed further to incorporate features included in third party pbem helper software such as chat. If you like tactical…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Costly? Definitely. Challenging? Ludicrously so. Clunky interface? Actually once you come to terms with it you can make your units perform admirably. The ARMA of the RTSs? On massive dosage of steroids.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't know what kind of boomer programmed this game, but that fact that I had to have somebody help me for 2 hours to set up a third party software to link to dropbox in order to play this game is telling. I am in utter shock and horror to find out that this early 2000s looking piece of crap was made in 2020. Disgusting. On top of mountain of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the music in the main menu rapes your ear with the force of 1000 angry vikings, and there's no option to turn it down. Just on and off.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Combat mission definitely isn't for everyone. But for people like me, it is one of my favorite and most reliably satisfying wargames out there. All of the equipment and units in Cold War are new, meticulously researched, and represent an era that hasn't been explored in the series before. I've really enjoyed it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is laziest developers i know. They sell mods for CM Shock Force (2007) for new game prices for almost 20 year now. They cant even record new voicelines for factions, they use russian voicelines (and most others also not new) from CM Barbarossa to Berlin (2002), almost all weapons from CM Shock Force (2007) and ect. It's genuinely stunning how little new content there is in each new game (Slightly reworked old vehicles and ~6 new solder models, crazy), and all that on old barley working…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of these bad reviews are from people who don't know how to tell the game to use their good graphics card, not the onboard one. There are plenty of tutorials that'll show you how to optimize the game on YouTube and in some of the forums. I understand its a pain, but its an older engine that was never optimized to work with newer end equipment. That being said, the gameplay is great across all the CM series. Cold War is fun to scratch that WW3 80s itch on a tactical level. Campaign is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the greatest tactical wargame ever made. I've played them all. It's what I was waiting for since I first played my first wargame in 1977. Just buy it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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