Overview:
A real time strategy based on World War II; is that cool or what? Nival Interactive’s up and coming release Blitzkrieg is a multi faceted war game set on all fronts of the European theatre. Including Allies, Germans and the Russians (where this game was made). Despite my excitement, Blitzkrieg so far, is quite a let down. Although, the vision of this game could be far beyond anyone’s expectations, making it a masterpiece, it has missed the mark; by a long shot. Featuring historical and fictitious battles between the three militaries, Blitzkrieg could be the Starcraft of the 1940’s, but has fallen short.

Plot:
Set in the 1940’s, Europe is in the clutches of one of the most devastating wars the world has ever known. Blitzkrieg follows a recent string of World War II games....
 

Due to the success of Medal of Honor: Allied Assult the gaming industry is coming up with more and more ways to entertain us. From more World War II FPS’s to RTS’s like Blitzkrieg and even a game where you try to escape a prison camp. Needless to say, M.O.H: AA opened the doors to a whole new sub-genre of gaming, and its here to stay. Aside from operating through the battle fields of Europe and North Africa, Blitzkrieg is a RTS without too much of a unified dramatic plot. You are in charge of the soldiers that you get and that’s that. Blitzkrieg hasn’t much in the way of a gripping storyline. Before starting a mission for any given army, you are totally debriefed with everything that you need to get the job done. With the aid of an in depth summary of your mission to sand tables you should be able to understand what you’re doing.

Graphics:
When I saw the graphics for Blitzkrieg I thought they looked pretty good. The graphics aren’t that bad, except for the character models. The vehicles and the buildings look great because they are pre-rendered and more time can be spent on them. Even the airborne units look better than ground troops. This is one of the games biggest downfalls; the characters are way too small. You can control a massive amount of them, but they are incredibly small. I guess there are several different kinds of troops but the only way you can tell is to squint and hope for the best. I guess some troops have bazookas, rifles, machine guns, and even sniper rifles but who knows? Another way I could barely distinguish ground forces was to look at how much skin was showing. But if I could see more pale colored pixels what did it matter, I still didn’t know what the difference was. The size of the character models was one of the biggest downfalls of the game. How could you decide what troops to send into battle if you didn’t know who or what they were! Not everything about the graphics were bad. Before starting your first campaign you have to decide what army you want to be: Russian, German, or Allied. The intros to all three operations were incredible. They mixed in live action war footage and computer generated work. Needless to say this idea was genius. It gave the feeling that you were watching a news reel at the movies during the 40’s. A big thumbs up to Nival Interactive for this, as well as all the cut sequences.

Gameplay:
Unfortunately for Blitzkrieg, the gameplay is a nightmare. It could be because Nival is inexperienced in games or that they are not accustomed to American gaming. Whichever one it was they could use a lot of help in this department. When I started my first actual mission in the game I was disappointed about the size of the troops, seeing as that they were the size of a pencil tip. Then I found out that the couldn’t last long against, well. . . anything. If there were a line of entrenched enemy troops down the road my soldiers would be mincemeat. Just about one or two shots from anything would lay waste to my entire platoon. Even worse than that was the fact that I couldn’t see what was attacking me. Enemy fire was even smaller than the troops, and if you couldn’t see it right when they start attacking; game over. The blast from a 42 caliber machine gun was so small I had to search for it. By then I was already dead and the ‘fog of war’ had covered up everything I was looking for. After that I tried moving in my artillery to dispatch of the machine gun nest. That didn’t work either because by the time I got close enough with my cargo truck it would blow it to bits along with the armament team. So by the time I had a slight clue as to where the shooting was coming from half my troops were dead, my cargo trucks were destroyed, and I had no way to move my artillery around. To add more fuel to the fire, you only get what you see when the level starts. You start with 100 soldiers, you only have 100 soldiers. It may sound like a lot but when they are getting mowed down faster than you can move the mouse; it doesn’t fly over very well.
 
Another factor that Nival factored in was ammunition. Troops and tanks run out of ammo. So they have to be re-supplied every once in awhile. This would be fine if I could get a chance to do it! I would send out a truck to load them up on ammo but it would blow up. So I would try to send the troops or tanks back from the line so I would be safe. This didn’t work because tanks can be damaged so that the tread needs to be repaired and it can’t move. Even if I could re-supply a unit, it would take forever. So you’re left with: a) hoping the enemy will retreat, b) send up a suicidal repair truck, or c) leave your tank. This gets insanely frustrating because you are losing your troops and you can’t even get more. The only way you get reinforcements is that the computer gives them to you. You get a couple dozen troops (AKA: cannon fodder) and a few tanks, which are your only hope of punching through anything. After a few tries with each army, this got old; very old.

To top it all off, the enemy seems to always have the upper hand in dealing with the fog of war. Before I can even see if there are any troops in a specific spot the already are launching mortars and shooting at me. So to summarize a basic attack: I would gather up and assign troops a hotkey to make them easier to maneuver. Then I would pick some tanks for the main assault. Once I had them far enough from the front line I would take a mortar team and put them behind everything. Finally I would attack. The tanks would move up so that they took most of the damage. The troops would move in to attack the trench full of enemies while a mortar team assembled behind the chaos. Thirty seconds later I would be short a whole mess of soldiers, two tanks and a mortar team, all of them dead. If I tried to fall back everything would be destroyed during the evacuation. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Try that for an hour and you’ll be ready to pull your hair out.

The units that were the best were the flying units. Regardless of army, they were well worth using. You can choose from reconnaissance flights, bombing raids, ground attack, paratroopers, and fighter planes. Once you call a plane they fly out, do their mission and then leave the map. Once you call an air unit, you have to wait a minute or two until they can be called again. I was most impressed with the Soviet bomber. It was massive. It was loud, white and beast like. It took up the entire screen and was so impressive that the music was droned out by its enormous engines. It swaggered over the strike zone, and dropped its payload: a devastating attack of fiery destruction. Needless to say I think it’s the coolest unit in the game. Currently I am running a 17 inch monitor, and I had a hard time fitting the wingspan of this behemoth on the screen, it’s that big. Be warned, make sure you use your air forces wisely; they could be cancelled at any time due to inclement weather.

One factor that I liked was the different types of formations your troops could be in. You could make them sneak, defend, attack, march, or set it on automatic. This option makes troop management a bit easier, but they still get swamped. There is another option to make your troops ambush the enemy. They hide wherever you place them until an enemy goes until they attack. This I found helpful at time when I was not being destroyed by mortars and hidden machine guns. You can also have your troops hide in houses or enemy trenches to defend against any attacks. This is a good way to hide your resources until you think of a plan of attack. Trees and buildings are also good places to hide, but Nival created the map to be totally destructible, so trees can be blown up to uncover your tanks.

To make the game more realistic, and more interactive, Nival utilized both the German and Russian languages. During debrief, maps are labeled in German or Russian and even the troops speak in the language. This was cool because it showed that Nival has gone the extra mile to incorporate more reality into the game. On the other hand I constantly wondered what they were saying. Did they say that they would attack the target or is it too far away? Also I know that the Allies said funny things if you clicked on them enough, so what were the Germans saying? I was thinking that they could have had it all in English but have heavy accented voices for the troops. Also in the name of reality, Blitzkrieg uses historically accurate battles along with fictitious battles. I enjoyed that they went the extra mile to add in some historical content to the game. Nival also included historical background as to what the armies were doing, and the forces that they used (i.e.: 4,000 tanks, 10,000 troops, 800 airplanes, etc. . .). It just made the concept of the game that much better. There was also a whole catalogue of all the units that the militaries used during the war. Each unit had a graphic and a thorough historical background of the unit. For example the allied P-51 Mustang fighter plane. It was a radically advanced plane with an enormous engine and even bigger potential. It revolutionized the art of war. Along with this there are explanations of all the different tanks and mortars in the game. It is very informative and has plenty of knowledge about things you probably would have never known.

As you progress through the game, you gain experience to earn more units and weapons. As you become a better commander you ascend in rank and better weapons become available. Before marching off to the fields of war you have a chance to tailor your army. You can switch in and out artillery and armoured vehicles to make your war an efficient one. While upgrading there is a description of the unit that tells you what it does and if it is better or worse than the enemies. This option forces you to decide on what to use for the days attack.