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Sudden StrikeSudden Strike is a computer game set in WW2. Viewed from an isometric perspective, the player controls many varied units such as infantry, tanks and artillery. The game was published by CDV software of Germany, written by Fireglow of Russia and was released in 2000. System requirements:
Pentium 233, 32 MB RAM, CD-ROM, Windows 95/98/ME/2000, 500 MB of Hard Disk space. Gameplay The player gets to select his faction to play for such as the Soviets, the Germans or the Allied campaigns featuring over 10 non-linear missions each. The game differs greatly from standard RTS genre games in that the player does not build units but to rely on default positioned troops to accomplish the given scenario. The argument against such games is that events would be scripted in advance but the approach and strategy that the player has to make would invariably change the course of the battle. For most of the missions, although a complete briefing was given the player was not briefed as to where the operations took place but rather given a preset scenario with an interactive landscape that can be used to the player's advantage or his own downfall and given specific instructions and objectives to complete. Of the many scenarios available, the only historically correct scenario would be the Battle of Stalingrad where the Soviet forces are severely overrun by the German troops at the beginning only to stage a late comeback after receiving much-needed reinforcements. The same could be said of the player who chose to side with the German army ordered to capture Stalingrad with many reinforcements as happened historically. The game also utilises accurate in-game physics with houses and buildings obstructing units' view and firing range and clumps of trees potentially shielding a trooper from total damage of a tank ordnance. The game also allows units to garrison a building and also the option to stay silent, so as to provide much-needed reconaissance or to fill up a building to provide stronger firing position especially with rocket-troops. In addition to that damage evaluation is also realistic with tanks or other vehicles that take too much damage would find themselves rendered immobile unless self-reparations are made or with the assistance of a supply vehicle. In such cases, when the unit's health bar shrinks and turns red, self-reparations are no longer possible. The game also places a need for the player to carefully supply his army adequately through supply trucks as the troops would run out of ammunition as opposed to other real-time strategy games where units can seemingly rain fire upon targets with ammunition that never seemed to diminish. The player also has the option to pause the action mid-game and issue orders to all his units and watch them carry out instructions upon commencing the game. Sudden Strike also employs an experience value counter as part of the gameplay. Units with a higher value can fire more accurately, dodge enemy fire, has a wider range of view (important for officers and sniper units), self-heal faster as well as travel faster across the map. The game also features many accurate World War II equipment and tanks alongside the usual rifle infantry, sub-machine gunner and the anti-tank units. Further, the player may in certain missions, deploy paratroopers as well as order a bombing run on a designated target, while at the same time risking an encounter with enemy AA guns. The player may also choose to send supplies via plane to replenish his troops. Other interesting choices that the player has to make included laying mines as well as constructing defenses such as barbed wire and other anti-tank fortifications. The Soviet campaign includes a tutorial mission and feature missions involving sabotage, the defense of Stalingrad and the capture of Berlin. The missions in between are vague skirmishes which are not historically correct and does not refer to any chapter of the World War II and is non-linear. The German campaign is half-fictional as the later missions were centred on an imminent German victory of the World War and was therefore inaccurate historically whereas the Allied missions involve the French Resistance efforts to thwart the Germans as well as a (somewhat poor) representation of the actual 'D-Day' events. The game features a multiplayer mode with up to eight players simultaneously and over 1000 individual units at the battlefield at any given time over LAN or the internet. There are also many single-player maps including a parody of the film Saving Private Ryan which attempts to faithfully recount the events of the movie and where the player can play through the sequence all in real time and with a more convincing depiction of the D-Day invasion. Unsurprisingly, fans of the RTS genre who were more comfortable with fast-paced games like Starcraft and the Red Alert series found that the action in Sudden Strike too sedate and slow for their liking as the units take very long to traverse the vast battlefield maps. The game also involves a lot of strategy and immaculate positioning of tanks and artillery as well as other micro management like the issue of resupplying troops and building pontoon bridges to cross bodies of water. The game also suffers from an uninspiring and historically inaccurate campaign other than the Stalingrad mission. The movie sequences are also confusing preludes to the action that follows as it does not attempt to narrate the war chapters nor entail enthusiasm in the war for the player as the characters looked sedate and stone-like in the movies. Other criticisms also levelled at the gameplay is that the infantry units are too small and player playing the game at higher resolutions may not be able to distinguish one unit from the other. The multiplayer feature is also not very user-friendly as it takes a long time to start a game session and the options are not adequate to ensure playability. Sudden Strike Forever Sudden Strike Forever is an official add-on to Sudden Strike and introduced many more historically correct units and equipment such as the upgraded Soviet T-34 tank 1944 version alongside a desert terrain for the British missions in Tobruk and Tripoli. Further, there is also a snow terrain tileset for Soviet missions and also a user-friendly map and scenario editor. The game also polished the game engine and modified the damage modifier of certain units as well as added a more frightening artillery fire sequence to add to the game's atmosphere. Sequels Sudden Strike 2 was also developed by Fireglow and published by CDV and was released in 2002. The game has since undergone minor changes in its game engine and now feature a higher resolution setting and other graphic changes. The playable campaign still involve the Soviet forces, the Germans as well as the Allies in addition to a new faction which is Japan. While striving for historical accuracy, the missions are in fact a rendition of the actual events that transpired. The American missions are in the Rhine regions and surprisingly tended to involve 'borrowing' war equipment from the German army rather than using their own tanks and other weapons. The British missions are however, interesting as it involves the actual events at Arnhem and the capture of the bridge. The Japanese missions centred along the lines of tropical jungle warfare and the use of tanks are somewhat limited whereas the Soviet campaign is based on the capture of the city of Kharkiv and other battles along the Dniepr river. The game introduced new units like the ability to send gunboats into battlefields as well as destroyers to bombard coastlines to clear the way for a frontal assault. The game also introduced the usage of fighter planes and manually-controlled bombers to attack enemy positions. The game also allows the player to place infantry units on top of tanks to enable a better line of sight. In fact, the realism of the game has reached a point that even tanks can lose its crew when damage became too intense and can be captured if such a scenario happened provided that the player has tank crews as well as supply trucks to repair the damage caused. Other improvements include the ability to send troops to different floors of a garrisoned building to improve the range of sight or to deploy sniper units to scout out an area and to take out enemy personnel manning anti-tank guns before a direct confrontation occurs. Inevitably, as the game follows the similar style of play employed in the first Sudden Strike, the game did not find favor among real-time strategy gamers as the action is also not quick-paced and also involved too much of micro-management and other strategy factors. Further, many RTS fans would still prefer games where building and fielding a large army is the main priority as opposed to carefully and deliberately planning the course of battle and to preserve valuable troops which may not be replaced if lost. - Sudden Strike 3 (under development)
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