The original Steel Beasts garnered critical acclaim with it's blend of realism, stability, depth and gameplay. Very much an 'old school' simulation that put realism first. This realism was recognized with many of the worlds' armed forces using the original product as a training tool for their military students.

The armed forces started demanding enhancements - and were willing to pay for their development. As time passed more vehicles were added, more features appeared, accuracy improved and an excellent new graphics engine was added.

The end product is Steel Beasts Pro. Focus is still as a training aid. Steel Beasts Pro PE (personal edition) is a 'scaled down' version of the Pro package, removing those features only really used in a military teaching environment. This product is intended for personal training in smaller groups and while not targeted as a home entertainment product is still great entertainment for those on civvie street who are interested in modern tank warfare.

Your tax dollars at work.

The official site explains the product:
"It models the gunner’s and commander’s position of various armored fighting vehicles in a virtual 3D environment, allowing both networked and solitaire training of single-vehicle, platoon, and reinforced company scenarios with a high level of tactical confidence. The professional version of Steel Beasts is offered in two variations: Steel Beasts Professional, and SB Pro Personal Edition. Steel Beasts Professional is designed for use in a simulation lab under the direction of a dedicated operator / controller, whereas SB Pro Personal Edition is meant to be deployed on individual soldiers' notebooks or home PCs for exercises that can be worked on independently. "

Installation:
Installation was a breeze - as long as you follow the install instructions.

Upon CD insertion the installer is autolaunched. The game is installed, followed by the software for the USB dongle. After the software install you plug in the USB dongle and windows recognizes the device and you're set to go.

eSim went with an unusual copy protection method for this product - a USB dongle. Essentially the simulation checks for this USB device to be present before the software will run. This means you MUST have the dongle plugged in to run the software. This kind of copy protection hearkens back to the 80's and 90's where many commercial applications developers used parallel port dongles to protect expensive software packages.

While it is a pain in the rump to use the dongle, it's much better than installing invasive software that introduces system vulnerabilities, hidden drivers or actively attacks other software the developer 'decides' is only used for piracy. I would have preferred that a protection scheme such as Valve's 'steam' was used but because the target market for this product is the military it is completely understandable why such a system was not used.

One considerate feature is that the player data is saved in a user's windows profile. This means that if you share a PC with others and have your own user id's your own information will be safe from your inept friends ;)

First impressions:
Function over form. Everything is clear and concise. Having played the original Steel Beasts it was like slipping on an old pair of slippers.

Interface:
There is nothing fancy about the interface or presentation. KISS seems to be followed - a nice change considering how in the last few years interfaces seem to be created by graphics artists rather than interface designers.

Tank Range - A gunnery range where you can practice gunnery against targets that don't shoot back.

Instant Action - you choose between M1A1 Abrams, Leopard 2A4, 1A5 OR 2A5.

Tutorials - for the above tanks and additionally the M2A2 Bradley. There are an average of 20 Tutorial missions per vehicle, but much of the content is global by nature so once you have worked through one complete set you will only need to select those tutorials particular to the other vehicles to fill in the blanks.

The tutorials are simple and easy to follow. You are presented with a briefing that explains the purpose of the lesson and how to perform the required tasks to complete. You are able to return to this briefing any time by bringing up the map screen.

Voice-over tutorials would have been a nice inclusion, but the learning curve for the operation of the various vehicles is gentle.

Off-line Session (Single Player) - 35 missions, ranging from single vehicle to multiple units.

Network Session (Multi Player)- I could not find any multiplayer missions included with my install, though I could select single player missions for hosting. I think is more to differentiate between missions that are designed purely for multiplayer over those that can be used as either.

Mission Editor - The mission editor in the original steel beasts was superb. Unlike many other editors where you can give general orders to units the SB Pro PE editor allows you to create a logic structure to ensure the AI acts in a realistic manner, or randomize to create dynamic missions. A creative mission designer can craft truly challenging missions.

The interface is missing some of the niceties developed in the past decade or so, such as mousewheel zooming on the maps and click and drag to move the map around, but these are minor and their absence is barely noticed.

Gameplay:
A typical mission runs something like this:
You are presented with the briefing screen where the mission objectives are stated, any relevant intel information is presented.

After studying the mission objectives you switch to the terrain map. This will display an elevation map with notations added by the mission builder. In multiplayer the map can be annotated and these notes will be sent to all players. This allows a plan to be created prior to starting the mission. This can also be done during the mission.

Launching into the 3D world you are placed in your command vehicle and the battle starts.

By giving orders to units you coordinate your battle. AI orders can be fairly simple - such as advance along a determined path, or very complex - such as advance in echelon right formation until you reach a stated position, then take battle positions and hold this area while holding fire until the enemy are within 3000metres but retreat if you take losses. Whether you plan one step or five steps ahead is purely up to you.

As your troops execute their orders they will report their status, contacts and any other relevant information. When your receive reports of enemy contact the enemy unit will appear on your map improving your situational awareness.

Using support assets such as artillery you can deploy minefields to block areas of approach, smoke to obscure line of sight, good old High Explosive to take out troops or lightly skinned vehicles or deploy cluster munitions to directly attack enemy armor. All of these things are deployed in a realistic manner (fitting for a military training tool) and give the commander some tactical choices that can greatly assist their warfighting.

You can switch view, and control, to almost any friendly unit on the battlefield. The fidelity of control varies with many units providing you the ability to actively aim and shoot the unit or on the other end, give general commands such as move and engage. Death comes quickly.. and frequently so being able to switch around the battlefield to another vehicle if you lose one is necessary.

As the vehicle commander you are responsible for telling the driver where to drive, the gunner what and how to shoot and generally sit in the nice fresh air dodging branches and snipers. Depending on the vehicle you are commanding you may have dedicated spotting equipment to allow you to detect targets while your gunner is engaging another allowing you to feed the gunner targets as soon as he finishes with the last one.

As the gunner you get to do the fun stuff, blow shit up. Everything from machine guns through to sabot, HE and even missiles are available to the gunner. Gunnery is fairly simple but requires finesse and a cool head when you are under fire.

Enemy targets include infantry (also known as crunchies) cars and trucks, APC's, Tanks and even the Hind helicopter gunship. My favorite would be the bunker - coupled with High Explosive shells.

Through the battle you will constantly revise your strategy to meet threats as they emerge. This adds a cerebral challenge to the Sim that keeps you thinking and moving.

Graphics:
The original graphics, to put it bluntly, were of excellent function but did nothing for the immersion. Pro PE completely destroys that old issue and creates a simulation where immersion is complete. The good news is that even with weaker systems the game is still graphically excellent and scales well. There are a few things that are still behind the times - the use of sprites for things such as infantry and missiles rather than objects but once again eSim has ensured that the graphics fulfill the required functionality. The terrain is the best I have seen in a sim.

Ye Olde:

The New:

Sound:
There was NOTHING wrong with the sound in the original steel beasts and this has carried over to SB Pro PE. The sounds are both excellent in quality and accurate in realism. Seeing the flash of a shell hit followed by the crashing smash of impact a few seconds later really suspends disbelief.

Multiplayer:
The sim allows up to 8 players in a multiplayer session, with each player controlling anything from a single vehicle through to the whole force. Owners of units can hand off forces to other players to help balance the workload and responsibilities. Players can also inhabit the same vehicle as commander and gunner. There are no in-game comms but since almost every simmer uses teamspeak or ventrillo anyway this isn't an issue.

Immersion:
Excellent. From the rumble of your tank on the move to the low hum of hydraulics it is all there. I was surprised to hear the patter of falling clods of earth (and probably body parts) after I shot a high explosive shell at point blank range into an inhabited bunker.

Longevity:
This is the Achilles heel of this otherwise excellent sim if considered as an entertainment product. The limited number of missions and lack of a random mission generator seriously limits the longevity for most consumers.

The steel beasts community is small but active so new content will become available over time. Historically the community has provided just over 300 extra missions over 6 years,conducted online wars and other events for the original steel beasts.

Once again since this product is not intended to be an entertainment product eSim cannot be criticized for the limited number of missions included as the target audience create content of their own.

Stability:
Generally excellent, but with a few small issues. When alt-tabbed out into windows the simulation 'suspends' itself until you return. This is not an issue with single player but alt-tabbing out in a multiplayer session will result in disconnection for all but the briefest periods. Additionally I did experience two blue screen crashes courtesy of my soundblaster audigy 2 when I had music playing and alt-tabbed from the sim while writing this review. Both of these issues are easily avoided by simply staying in the sim instead of jumping back and forth. Memory usage was around 350MB so I would suggest at least 512MB of RAM.

Conclusion:
If you're into modern armored warfare beyond just looking for entertainment you should not go past this simulation. The price tag is hefty at $125US. But for that price you get a modern armored sim unmatched for authenticity by a developer with a track record of doing the right thing by their consumers.

Review System
P4 3.2 Ghz
2.0 GB RAM
ATI X-800
SoundBlaster Audigy2
CH-HOTAS