Jason

I’ve always liked strategy games, especially real time strategy games. My all time favourite is Total Annihilation. I’ve spent a LOT of hours playing through it several times and all the expansion packs as well as quite a few multiplayer games. But Cavedog is gone, and a follow up is not imminent. And while some of the new RTS games have pretty 3D graphics, I don’t like them that much. So when I found out about Sudden Strike, I knew I just had to try it out. Sudden Strike is a new WWII real time strategy game from the German software company CVD. In the demo, you can only play on the German side, but in the final game, you will be able to select German, Allies or Russians. CVD have a demo out, with one playable mission. This demo is from march 2000, so it’s not very up to date. You can also download a second, much harder mission at www.suddenstrike.com.
The graphics in Sudden Strike are very good. Much better than in Red Alert or Tiberian Sun. The explosions are simply beautiful. Everything can be destroyed in SS. Trees, bridges, buildings and and vehicles... And the destroyed items remain for the rest of the mission. It’s quite cool to see how the terrain is changed throughout a mission.

The weapons in Sudden Strike are based on true weapons that were used in WWII. You have the Tiger, Katyusha, T-34 and a lot of other famous weapons in a wide range of categories. The units are balanced pretty well, with tanks being very efficient against most targets, but vulnerable to anti-tank guns, artillery and other tanks. Infantry is very vulnerable to armoured vehicles, but very efficient as support to tanks and against artillery. Nothing is more efficient than the artillery if they are protected. Large platoons of infantry can be killed with one single rocket battery. If left open for attack, artillery is killed easily. Air units can be called on, to attack different targets. In the demo, you have one bomber, one transport with parachute troops and a spy plane. One feature that is very important in Sudden Strike is ammunition. Tanks have a limited amount of ammunition. If you send a tank into battle with little ammo, it will be killed rather quickly. So you have to refill their supplies with ammo trucks. But they are vulnerable to enemy fire. So you have to keep them a bit behind the front lines. But then you have to withdraw your fighting vehicles from the front lines. It’s a delicate balancing act.

Sounds good so far? Well, based on the demo, I have very high expectations for this game. At the moment, there are a few things that I think could be implemented better. The control system used is not the most intuitive I’ve used. You get used to it after a while, but it could do with some refinement. The unit’s artificial intelligence is not that impressive either. But these minor flaws don’t ruin the demo. Let’s hope it will be tweaked in the final game