Sudden Strike
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Sudden Strike is a real-time tactics (RTT) 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, developed by Fireglow of Cyprus and was released in 2000. The Sudden Strike series has predecessor called Counter Action, which was published by Mindscape/SSI in 1996.
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[edit] Introduction
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. RTT games differs greatly from standard RTS genre games in that the player does not build units or construct a field base but relies on default positioned troops to accomplish the given scenario. The events would be scripted in advance, however the approach and strategy that the player has to make would invariably change the course of the battle.
[edit] Gameplay
For most of the missions, although a complete briefing was given, the player was not briefed as to where the operations took place historically but rather given a preset scenario with an interactive landscape 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, line of sight and firing range whereas clumps of trees can be used to potentially shield a trooper from total damage of a tank ordnance. The game also allows units to garrison a building and also the option to hold their fire, so as to provide much-needed reconnaissance or to fill up a building to provide stronger firing position especially with anti-tank infantry. In addition to that, damage evaluation is also realistic as tanks or other vehicles that take too much damage would be rendered immobile (as their treads can be damaged) 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 and only may be repaired by the supply trucks or be healed in a mobile field hospital (if the wounded are infantry units).
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 would never seem 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 of experience 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.
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. Players may also employ long-ranged bombardment tactics via howitzers to soften enemy fortifications before an assault be carried out although players would also have to beware of the enemy's similar usage of artillery.
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 historically inaccurate 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 independent 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.
[edit] Criticisms
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. This however can be altered in the options screen by setting the game speed. The game also involves a lot of strategy and immaculate positioning of tanks and artillery as well as other micro management like the adequate resupplying of troops and building pontoon bridges to cross bodies of water or repair destroyed bridges. The game also suffers from an uninspiring and historically inaccurate campaign aside from the Stalingrad scenario.
Other criticisms also levelled at the gameplay is that the infantry units are too small and that the 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 there are not many varied maps to offer lasting gameplay.
Also, there are many missing factors that are common sense in the real world. Some examples are that infantry can transport large guns such as howitzers (albeit slowly) but cannot carry mortars and mounted machine guns.
[edit] 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. The add-on includes 4 inter-linked scenarios for each of the campaigns for the Germans, the American, the British and the Soviets. Other units which are added into the add-on includes, but not limited to the Universal Carrier for the British; the BR-5 artillery, 160mm grenade launcher for the Soviet forces and more. The supply system has also been tweaked with artillery crews automatically resupplying themselves with ammo crates nearby instead of relying on supply trucks to do the job. The supply trucks would still be needed to repair damages inflicted on the artillery units, however.
The new German campaign puts the player into the winter setting of Russian hinterlands with limited troops and reinforcements available, thus relying on use of captured Soviet artillery as well as equipment. The British campaign deals with the defence of Tobruk and Tripoli from German attacks, whereas the American campaign probably takes place in France. The Soviet campaign involves a large armored division counter-attack on Russian soil and the storming of the Wehrmacht-controlled airfields. As with the earlier Sudden Strike original campaigns, the briefings do not explain the historical setting of the campaign, thus only issuing standardized orders to the player to e.g dispel enemy attacks or to simply take over a designated airfield in the east and so on. The add-on also includes 5 new single player individual scenarios.
[edit] Sequels
[edit] Sudden Strike 2
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 far from the proper 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 attempted capture of the bridge. The Japanese missions are 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 by the Soviet Voronezh Front Army.
The game introduced new units like the ability to send gunboats into battlefields as well as destroyers or frigates 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. The game also presents a realism in RTT 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.
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-based 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.
[edit] Sudden Strike Resource War
This is an enhanced version of Sudden Strike 2 which was released in 2005. It features the same graphical engine as Sudden Strike 2 with some minor upgrades. The main new game play addition for this game is the introduction of fuel. Now units as well as needed to be stocked with ammo they need to be stocked with fuel (only motorised units). This is done by new objects like petrol canisters and the new fuel truck units. The other major additions are the ability to capture buildings like hospitals (which heal player's troops), barracks (which sends infantry reinforcements) and factories which sent motorised reinforcements. It also adds allied armies to single player missions which work with the player, who however has no control over them. A minor addition is the ability for some infantry units to deploy smoke screens with smoke grenades. The game includes new campaigns for all the countries in the game (though the Russian one comes with the patches), it also adds a new tile set to the game allowing desert and snow battles like seen in Sudden Strike Forever. A map editor is included with the game for creation of custom levels and campaigns. It also improves the damage and line of sight for the game and due to all these additions is considered a marked improvement on Sudden Strike 2.
[edit] Sudden Strike 3
(under development)
This new installment in the Sudden Strike series purportedly supports a new 3D engine which departs from the previous versions which only utilises 2D graphics. Other developments slated for this upcoming game includes use of aircraft carriers as well as more use of naval units.
[edit] System requirements:
Pentium 233, 32 MB RAM, CD-ROM, Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/2000, 500 MB of Hard Disk space.
