On the downside, unit autonomy can be a lackluster. Given the sheer number of units on a battlefield, the ability to freeze time and issue commands as needed is a blessing. Nicely, Sudden Strike 4 displays a numerical icon on units, allowing for easy identification and deployment. Likewise, unit groups follow tradition, with a simultaneous press of the control key and a number designating a squad, while a number key alone selects a previously assignment group. Naturally, players can click on a soldier or vehicle, with another button press trigger a movement or an attack. Improving on its predecessor, directing units in Sudden Strike 4 is largely intuitive. If resources aren’t completely destroyed, ordering a few infantrymen to seize the war asset can be advantageous.

One potential tide-turning advantage is the ability to sporadically re-appropriate enemy machinery and structures. Instead, you’ve given limited quantities of troops and machinery and must make the most out of the allocation. Streamlining conflict, the game shirks traditions like resource collection and building an infrastructure. Jump into one of the games missions and you’ll soon discover Sudden Strike’s divergence from most real-time strategy titles. However, during campaign missions, players are treated to much more authentic, linguistically appropriate sound bites. To a lesser extent, the voice acting is off-putting, with East Coast American English spoken by the Germans. Unfortunately, the game’s tutorial is a little too barebones, covering the basics of unit command, while overlooking Doctrines, one of the fundamental new features of the fourth entry. Even if you’re well acquainted with the real-time tactics genre, it would be prudent to take the game’s succinct introductory lesson, less you might miss details like being able to pop open the hatch of your tank to increase the range of your visual perception.

Now, nearly a decade later, Budapest-based Kite Games has seized control of the series, hoping to secure an affirmative direction for the World War II-era, real-time tactics franchise with Sudden Strike 4.īoot up the 5.2 GB download and you’ll be ushered into a main menu that offers a tutorial, twenty-five I wmissions spread across the Allied, German, and Soviet campaigns, as well as a skirmish mode that accommodates multiplayer matches.

But in execution, selecting and directing units through an obstinate user interface siphoned some of the enjoyment from the proceedings. Developer Fireglow’s follow-up retained many of the positive qualities of its predecessors, relinquishing command of colossal amounts of land, air, and sea-based units. Such was the case with 2008’s Sudden Strike 3. Occasionally, a franchise can lose track of the elements that once secured success.

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