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.
