Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

I found this game a few years ago, in the bargain aisle of my local game shop. It looked interesting, so I picked it up and started it that day. About two weeks later I had finally finished all the missions on easy mode and I started again on hard. They really mean it. Soldiers: Heroes of World War II is one of the most exciting, difficult and rewarding games you will ever play. You can steal every vehicle (trains, tanks, motorbikes and planes) blow up the entire map and even steal the hats off bullet-riddled SS corpses. The physics are fantastic and very satisfying. Fire an armour piercing shell at the front of a Panzer and it will ricochet off and shatter a tree. Fire one at the back, at the vulnerable engine and fuel tank, and the turret will pop off like a cork and crush a nearby soldier. The missions are varied and very replayable. No luck on the right flank? Take the left side and find a fuel truck, drive it up to the blind side of a garrisoned building and take a few pot-shots at it. A heavily defended position blocking your objective? Skirt around to the artillery on the other side of the map, capture a Nebelwerfer and rain explosives down on the fortifications. It is also one of the few WWII strategy games that allow you to play from the German perspective, as the commander of a Tiger tank. Now, during the English, Russian or American missions, the sight of a Tiger will have you running for cover, scrambling for something to slow it down, to get behind it and hit the engine. Once you get to command one, it’s a similar story but for the other side. One mission sees you picking your way carefully through an idyllic French country village, demolishing buildings to crush bazooka teams inside and firing through walls to destroy unsuspecting Shermans. There are some problems. Your soldiers function pretty well on their own and if you place them on a fixed gun position they will happily fire on anything they see. However, if you leave them standing around they are likely to get killed since they only seek cover after they have been injured. Normally you only have 4 or 5 men at a time and this is not a problem. There are also some pathing issues. Units will take the shortest route to their destination; over minefields, through water and even stray buildings. Once, two of my soldiers were moving their anti-tank gun to a new position, found a barn in the way and just went straight through it. The collapsing walls killed them both. It is a very unforgiving game, and one well placed AP round from a gun you just drove past can ruin all your plans. Taking things slowly and carefully is the best way to succeed and the missions with a time limit are very frustrating because of this. You do get a real sense of achievement at the end of a mission, having successfully ambushed a tank convoy with only some mines or slipped into a heavily defended airfield to evacuate a recon pilot with vital information. The overwhelming odds require some deft tactics and frequent saves to overcome but once you do you will really feel that your little heroes made a difference.

This WWII RTS-game is originally of Ukrainian origin and has probably been overlooked mainly because its many name changes and relatively late entry into the larger European market. Nevertheless it features a robust engine and gameplay that strongly empasizes tactics over domination of numbers. In many scenarios you only have a couple of units against a sizeable enemy and therefore need to plan your advance well using cover spots and sneaking to your advantage. The main tagline of the game has been that averything can be destoyed. That is true and well executed - and it's also key feature in planning your advance. Multiplayer modes were at first only for co-op play but the patch also added classic play modes like escort and king of the hill type gaming. I obtained a copy of this one a few years ago through a gaming club membership. The club didn't really offer any big hits aside the titles they used to lure you in their net, so I never expected anything from Soldiers. But after installing it and suddenly realising I had played for 8 hours straight i had to conclude that this one was a rare gem indeed. I still play it today every now and then as I like the versatile yet realatively easy handling of the individual troops and find the graphics pleasing to the eye even by today's standards. And I really trasure the co-op mode as I am not really into competitive PvP gaming.

I had only vaguely heard of [b]Soldiers: Heroes of World War II[/b] in the distant past, but never really gave it a thought of any kind. Now that I bought the game from gog I will give a brief review from a new players perspective. Soldiers: Heroes of World War II is a RTS set in the context of WWII and covers aspects of the war from 4 nations: USSR (Russia), UK (Britain), US (United States), and Ger (German). It is what I would call a true RTS in that it is Real Time and all about Strategy and Tactics. This is a RTS unlike any I have played in the past (I have played many, very many). There is no base building of any kind, no resource collecting (unless you count picking up weapons off dead soldiers resource collecting), and unlike other RTS games the player is in absolute control to the point of raising the difficulty level in significance ways. Soldiers: Heroes of World War II is one hard game and is absolutely unforgiving if the player makes a wrong choice of where to send his units. Since there is no base or unit construction every unit you start with matters to some degree. I have played several missions and even on the Easy setting I find it very hard to finish some scenarios. The in game Save function will turn out to be your best friend in this game! Everything about this game is pumped up form a typical RTS where the normal course of action is to quiche build a base and then pump out as many units as possible and rush the enemy to overwhelm them. Some of the points of this game are you start a mission with a finite amount of units and you have to complete the mission with those units or you lose. Ammunition is infinite like in other RTS games, but it is limited and when you run out you are helpless unless there is a fallen soldier nearby to pick up and use his weapon or a friendly unit nearby to exchange inventory items with. Also that the weapons have to be reloaded and in the heart of staying alive it can get a bit hectic for sure. Your soldiers can walk or run, kneel, our lay prone. They can only carry a limited number of items in their backpack and can perform actions unknown to other RTS games. Actions such as, jumping over a fence, sitting on the back of a tank, climbing into a tank or other vehicle, swimming and others. The vehicles in the are plenty and they too are not typical. They do not have unlimited fuel, but must be kept in fuel and repaired by soldiers. They work better with a full complement of men for each position that the given vehicle has. They too will run out of ammo so it forces the player to be Conservative with how he uses every resource at his disposal. Many objects in the game and the landscape is destructible and well, the graphics simply look wonderful for a RTS. It is a game that you will enjoy just looking at the detail the designers put into the game for the players enjoyment. The AI in the game is descent but is not always the smartest and you always seem better off being in direct control of any unit in the game. Running out of fuel or having your Tank breakdown and having to bail a man out to fix it while under fire is a be daunting at times, not to mention deadly. In the end, Soldiers: Heroes of World War II is a unique, beautiful, well thought out, detailed, fun and unforgiving game that will have you keep coming back again and again to see if you can finish the mission in a better state than you already have. Pick up the game and enjoy the challenging and compelling game that is Soldiers: Heroes of World War II. Oh, and remember it is DRM Free, which is worth the price of admission. :o)

Once you get over the steep learning curve, this game really shines. Never before has real time tactical combat been so intense. The fully destructible environments are best shared with friends working together to achieve the mission objectives. Give this one a try - stick to it or tone done the difficulty and you'll have a grand time.