CombatElite: WWII Paratroopers is a top-down close-combat shooter with RPG elements. It is available in single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The game allows the player to participate as a paratrooper in the allied campaign in Europe during WWII, beginning as a private soldier from the US 101st Airborne, the US 82nd Airborne, or the British 1st Airborne regiment. There are 40 missions strung together with a narrative, depicting Operation Overlord (D-Day), Bastogne, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and other events, culminating in a fictional effort to prevent the Nazis from developing an atomic bomb. During a mission, you can find medical packs, ammunition (weapon-specific), and new weapons as pick-ups or drop by enemies killed – the drops vanish if not picked up in time. A mission takes place on a series of relatively small maps divided into ‘levels,’ and at the level transition points, the player can save the game while also receiving skill points, new ranks, and medals. The RPG aspect includes initial character specialization, and between mission levels, the player receives skill points, which can be saved for later or allocated between missions to improve various combat skills: Hand-to-Hand, Pistol, SMG, Rifle, Heavy SMG, Stealth, Medic, Grenade, and ‘Combat Sense’.
The single-player mode features classic run-and-gun gameplay. You use a player-centered bird’s-eye view, and you must turn the character to spin the idea because, unlike sniper mode, you can only shoot at enemies at the top of the screen when using a first-person scoped view. The screen is fixed in size; there is no zoom or free pan, except for a few seconds’ look ahead when key locations are nearby. The player is kept in the center of the screen, and as your character moves, the view window automatically slides over the battlefield. Normally, enemies will not fire until they are within your sight, but there are some exceptions. In two-player cooperative mode, each player can shoot in the direction their character is facing without rotating the view to hit the enemy. The players cannot be separated by more than the fixed screen size. In this mode, the screen is centered between the player characters. Off-screen enemies can often be shot at if players are far apart at opposite edges of the screen, as enemies are triggered by being close enough – about half the screen size away on the map, regardless of whether you can see them yourself.
