Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition
Developer: Joy Brick
Publisher: PQube
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed)
Release Date: August 13, 2026
Price: $24.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
When it comes to tank games, especially those that happen to be a bit more arcade based than focusing on recreating the experience as close to possible, pickings are pretty slim outside of a few select options here and there. Combine that with an anime aesthetic and there is only one other title that someone could possibly think of besides Panzer Knights and while the game has done satisfyingly well on PC since it released a few years ago, it has now made its way to consoles with all of the bonus content attached. Featuring all of the DLC originally released for the PC version and a few small improvements here and there in translation quality, is the arcade-like Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition worth your time?
Story
Players take on the role of a freshly graduated member of the Wehrmacht Panzertruppenschule, Germany’s lead tank unit during World War II, and after their initial testing phase, they are thrown right into the heat of battle as World War II kicks off in earnest once Germany begins invading Poland, using an attack on a German radio station as an excuse for full scale invasion. This kickstarts the player’s involvement as they lead their tank and chosen crewmembers into each historical conflict as the German blitzkrieg supported by the luftwaffe dominate Poland, push through most of France, and drive Britain back across the strait.
Eventually the story includes retaliatory strikes from the Soviet Union as Germany begins to respond on that front before the story itself comes to a rather abrupt ending during one said battle. While we won’t spoil which one, it is worth noting that it is far from when World War II actually ended and the rest of the war is simply explained until its ultimate conclusion. Panzer Knights takes a rather… sanitized sort of approach to World War II. It never directly mentions certain atrocities that happened nor the events surrounding what the player is actually doing nor does it actually mention specific cruel factions by name outside of being generally overzealous with German pride.
It does dictate various missions and objectives, such as eliminating French resistance forces in their tanks, driving the Allies into the sea, receiving orders from Hitler to pause the blitzkrieg and then resume it. Everything is presented historically as far as combat goes and never goes beyond that level, which is probably to be expected since the tone of the title would take a far different turn if it moved beyond that, especially one that is simply focused on tank combat in World War II and providing a bit of character interactions along the way.
As players progress throughout the story they will notice that their tank crew members all have certain missions and allies that they can be paired with during said mission that will unlock a “memory” of sorts. Having these characters during the mission not only often provides some extra dialogue during the actual mission as players travel along in their tank towards an objective marker but also will see them talking with one another in a unique scene once the mission has concluded successfully. Not only does this provide a bit of extra personality for some characters, which is sadly rather thin though it is easy to pick a few favorites out of the many girls, and guys, on offer, but also unlock an additional ability unique to each crew member that will help in combat.
Gameplay
Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition offers a rather unique take on tank combat that is both arcade-like but also a bit dialed into reality as well. Every mission that players take part in they will need to manage their ammo count of high explosive rounds, armor piercing rounds, air supply drops, smoke grenades, repair kits, and more. Running low on certain ammo types might leave players vulnerable to certain tanks that are better armored than their counterparts and if the player’s own tank ends up getting damaged too much it can suffer severe consequences besides failure. A damaged tread will stall the player, or enemy, while a damaged turret will prevent it from turning and firing. Having the hull destroyed will result in a mission failure and repairing does stall players movement so they will need to strategically plan where to repair to avoid taking extra damage.
One thing that is rather unique though is the fact that the game features angling mechanics and delayed aiming that is far more realistic than one would expect. Positioning the player’s tank at the right angle will reduce damage from incoming fire or make it bounce off the armor entirely. Players can even dictate what formation they want their AI allies to take (though it is limited to only a straight line or arrow formation) to best take on enemy tank formations. As for the aiming, players can quickly line-up where they want the tank to aim next but the actual turret turning is slower and more prone to being jostled by incoming fire or bumps in the road. This means that while the player may be able to see their target, they might not be able to actually fire on them unless they get into proper position first or miss entirely if they are moving. Of course, then this requires a reload before firing again and hoping to destroy the opponent’s tank.
The crew members players can bring with them are quite varied and offer an array of bonuses depending on who they are, such as increased hull strength, reloading speed, and more. Additional crew members can be unlocked using medals obtained from completing missions and their bonus abilities can be further upgraded with said medals. These medals are also used to unlock the vast array of tanks that players can use in the game, each with different stats and strengths, with some being faster but weaker and others being stronger and slower. The stronger the tank is, generally the more crew members it can also hold. It is worth noting that since Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition comes with all of the game’s DLC right out of the gate, players can take an easy route by making use of high-level tanks that are available right away. This includes signature tanks like Sherman tank, the ridiculous Elefant, M26 Pershing, and even Churchill VII. These tanks make the game’s difficulty spikes rather minimal thanks to how overpowered they are for most missions but that can be a good thing for some missions due to the lackluster quality of life elements.
Every mission in Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition, be it a story mission or a side mission, can be replayed as many times as players want which is a nice touch, especially for players wanting to take their upgraded crew back for a fresh run at things, but every mission is also completely devoid of checkpoints. This means that if players are destroyed near the end of a mission, which can often run twenty minutes or more, they’ll have to start from scratch. This is only the smallest inconvenience though as some missions require players to babysit brain-dead ally AI that will instantly fail a mission if too many are destroyed, once again restarting a level from scratch despite it being the final objective. To make matters worse, despite driving a literal tank and being able to destroy most buildings, trees, and walls that players drive through, it is entirely possible to get hung up on a random piece of a bush, unable to actually dislodge the tank from a small piece of shrubbery and potentially risking an entire restart simply because there are no checkpoints or mid-mission saves.
It also must be said that while the allied AI can be rather terrible at times, to the point that they will literally drive into the side of the player and block them from moving until the player backs up and goes around, the enemy AI can be just as poor. Despite some very poor draw distance players can still zoom in with the tank’s scope and target enemy tanks at a distance and most of the time they can pick off entire groups of enemy tanks without them reacting in any way. Combine this with the fact that the game also features some rather strange invisible wall placements, such as literally having them in the middle of a field players would cut through towards an objective, and there are far too many strange elements plaguing Panzer Knights even with this fancy edition.
One thing that is nice to see added into this version of the game is a “skirmish” mode. This is a side-mode outside of the core story that lets players set-up a map of their choosing, the tank and crew they want to enter battle with, and the conditions they’ll have to fight such as being either the attacking team or the defending team. This gives players something of a fun sandbox mode that frees them up a bit from the constraints of the game’s missions, even if all of the same aforementioned issues remain true even here and are limited to only giving players five enemies to battle against and four AI teammates to fight alongside, though at least all of their tanks are also selectable to vary up the challenge.
Audio & Visuals
Now as mentioned, Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition is ultimately a of tank gameplay with a bit of anime features and that is where the characters come into play, or at least their artwork. The character art for every crew member and non-crew member is crisp and nicely detailed, albeit probably a bit lax for the German army back then, but fitting for the game. The tanks themselves are also nicely detailed and match their real life counterparts well-enough and most of the tanks have different types of camouflage paint players can spend medals on to mix things up. The draw distance, as mentioned before, is atrocious though and while players can opt to have destroyed tanks remain on the field, the overall design of every level is extremely bland with the barest level of detail. At least most of the buildings and obstacles are destructible.
The title does feature some voice work but it is not present in any story scenes nor memory scenes unlocked from character pairings. The only time voice work is present is during combat and the different characters chiming up over the radio with their usual lines. The voice work is decent enough, though hearing the same “reloading” line endlessly does grow tiresome. As for the soundtrack each stage features a decent piece of background music that plays as players traverse through the level but there are odd pauses here and there where there will be nothing at all other than the hum of an engine and tire-treads digging up dirt.
Overall
Panzer Knights: Commander’s Edition isn’t a bad game by any means, but it is one that feels like it fails to make the most of its potential. It taps into the anime aesthetic with attractive character designs and an attempt and bring emotional bonds with the cast through limited interactions but remains surface level while the core storyline is so steeped in history, only presented through Germany’s view, that it remains locked into those events. Thankfully the tank combat is replicated extremely well with some nice mechanics built in to replicate proper armor positioning and resource management, though be prepared for some rather cheap events to happen from time to time due to bad AI and poor level design.
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