Finally released in the UK (it was released in Russia around 2 years ago) this relatively unknown title on the PC is a spectacular World War II real-time strategy game with at times, more than 1500 units fighting simultaneously across a map that is 10 square miles long.
Commanding the US troops the aim of the game is to smash the German’s western front and it includes some pf the most spectacular real battles of the Second World War including Operations Overlords, Millennuim and Cobra. Unlike other similar titles that have gone before this is a game which really concentrates on the scale of each battle.
Each level has a number of different objectives for you to complete and unlike other titles the number of squads you control are near endless and you strive to achieve your objectives. At lot of these objectives involves capturing territory so that you can establish a new base of operations from which you can plan your next moves. These bits of territory also include some that are not so significantly important to winning the war as such but do enable you to boost your resources and get reinforcements for your men. These not so significant areas are actually optional extras for you to choose to play or not. However, be warned, if you decide to play this game to the degree that you capture everything then it is going to be a very very long game indeed. The games difficulty level is very tough. This is not helped by two reasons. Firstly the German army seems to be everywhere. As soon as you have defeated one set of troops etc there is some more round the corner ready to take their place. Secondly their firepower seems to be greatly better than yours especially when it comes to their potential range of attacks. To such an extent that on a couple of occasions when I played half my troops were killed from shots that came from within areas that I hadn’t discovered yet so were covered in the fog that covers the undiscovered areas of the map. Now, please do not get me wrong, I like a challenge and I hate games that are too easy but plainly that is just not fair!!! Gameplay wise although the scale is spectacular in terms of the size of the map and the size of the troops at your disposal, they are about the only things that are. Tactics do play a very important part of the game but at times it just feels that you lump hundreds and hundreds of men together and send them into battle so that a number of them will get through and win the battle for you. That is not tactical it is a slaughter. Graphically the game looks like what it is, a two year old game. It is fine but nowhere near as detailed etc as the latest Total War game or other RTS of the last 12 months. Games have moved on drastically in that period and unfortunately this game just goes to prove that point. Sound wise again we have been spoiled in recent years with titles such as Company of Heroes and this title cannot compete with it. It has rather uninspired sounds for its gunfire and explosions etc and the music featured in the game is ok but nothing memorable. Overall please do not get me wrong this is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, infact I can see lots and lots of RPS fans getting a real kick out of the game especially on a cold and wet weekend afternoon when they are looking for an alternative game to play. It is just been superseded by so many other titles in the two years since it was originally released. It also has the odd crashing problem where you cannot even get off the title screen which dosent add to its cause. If you an RTS fan then buy it and enjoy but do not expect it to be Total War World War II because it is not but it is a game with plenty of potential and maybe should the developers do a follow up we will see more of that. | 
Windows 
