Soldiers: Heroes of World War II
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| Soldiers: Heroes of World War II | |
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| Developer(s) | Bestway |
| Publisher(s) | Codemasters |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release date | June 30, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time tactics |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Media | CD |
| Input methods | Keyboard and Mouse |
Soldiers: Heroes of World War II (S:HoWWII) is a real-time tactics computer game set in World War II. The player could take control of American, British, Russian, or German forces to play out battles that are set in World War II. The game is primarily a strategy game, but the player can take control of his or her forces and direct them with the keyboard and mouse for additional depth of control.
A sequel, Faces of War, was released on September 12 2006[1].
[edit] Gameplay
In the single player missions, players were generally allotted a very small amount of soldiers, and losing just one soldier could be a huge loss. Thus, the game was about conserving your soldiers and keeping them safe for most of the time. The game simulates close combat military tactics, allowing the player to place their soldiers behind cover and move them around all at once, yet also allowing the player to take control of their soldiers to make them do more advanced commands.
There were many types of vehicles, ranging from tanks to anti-aircraft vehicles to simple jeeps. Any soldier could drive or man any position in a gun, which, albeit unrealistic, allowed for many interesting gameplay implications.
Further, soldiers had inventories, which allowed for the implementation of an ammunition system, as well as for soldiers to loot better or simply different weapons and grenades from dead enemies, as well as dead friendlies. Even vehicles had ammunition, which players could scavenge from disabled (though not destroyed) vehicles.
Another interesting side effect to using vehicles under direct control was that this allowed the user to aim at specific points on enemy vehicles. A player could aim for an enemy tank's treads for example, which would prevent it from moving, but still allowed it to fire. Thus, by doing this, a player can stop a tank from harassing him, while creating a "dead zone" that he can't move in without getting attacked.
Aside from realistic location damage on vehicles, the game offers a virtually completely destructable environment. This is especially taken advantage of when using a vehicle in direct control, in which a player can aim the turret and literally blow buildings apart.
Originally, the only way a player could play this game multiplayer was to play a cooperative game mode which took up to four players through any mission from the single player mode. The soldiers in each map were divided between the players, but otherwise this mode was exactly the same as single player. However, there was no server browser, and players were forced to directly connect by IP Address to play.
In a more recent patch, players are able to play different multiplayer modes, including escort missions and king of the hill type scenarios. No in-game server browser was created, but a player could use GameSpy Arcade or The All-Seeing Eye as a server browser.
