#Sudden strike 4 trial#

George Patton and Bernard Montgomery impressions. Playing through the American or British segments of the campaign, I expected to hear generals giving their best Gen. The sound effects are handled well, but the voice acting is very odd. There are even smaller quibbles that, while not deal-breakers, left me scratching my head. YouвЂ™re forced to keep moving, often blindly, or risk being pot shot to death by seemingly infinitely respawning troops. I donвЂ™t care how low to the ground you get, an exploding 75mm shell is going to ruin your day.ДЄnd the limited number of troops youвЂ™re provided? The enemy often doesnвЂ™t have that issue because more of his soldiers will arrive from beyond of the mapвЂ™s edges, making setting up forward operating bases entirely useless. In addition, troops will often take enemy fire without returning it, and itвЂ™s not uncommon to have one enemy in the prone position be entirely unhittable by tank fire.

This wouldnвЂ™t be so much of an issue if they werenвЂ™t wasting the very limited fuel youвЂ™re allowed per mission. If you assemble your vehicles in a fighting formation and then go to another area of the map, more often than not, the vehicles will be jumbled up, trying to drive through each other.

#Sudden strike 4 trial#

There is no strategy here, just trial and error.ДЄnother major issue plaguing what could have been an excellent game is the poor troop AI. Too often the action boils down to sending recon units around blindly and hoping theyвЂ™re not destroyed before you can locate the enemyвЂ™s artillery. This is a fine system to have in an RTS, but not one with a restrictive and overbearing visibility system. вЂњSudden Strike 4вЂќ provides you a limited number of troops per map and youвЂ™re forced to make do with the resources youвЂ™re provided. Maps laden with the fog of war are common in RTSs, but normally youвЂ™re also given control of resource management. TheyвЂ™re also highly vulnerable to anti-aircraft guns that are hidden, thanks to the fog of war. YouвЂ™re usually provided with a small number of them per map and they only clear fog of war for a very short amount of time. In reality, you have to send your ground troops blindly across the map, hoping to not accidently stumble into a superior force. As can sending a very limited number of recon planes overhead. In theory, sending your soldiers scouting ahead to spot enemy artillery can help. This mission is a simple вЂњgo here, destroy everything, repeat until everything is dead.вЂќ However, the map is dense with the fog of war, and artillery fire that quickly decimates your units comes from all corners of the map. Now, contrast that with another mission, this time in the Allied campaign. There also are multiple ways to tackle the mission, provided you keep in mind the logistical necessities of battle. The developers on this map teach the player a lesson and provide all the tools needed to make informed, strategic decisions. ItвЂ™s an important lesson to learn вЂ“ and one that is reinforced in other missions. Lose that vehicle and youвЂ™ll certainly run out of fuel before clearing the map. Each of your units is massively important in this mission, but none more so than the vehicle that carries your squadronвЂ™s fuel. In one mission, youвЂ™ll take a fleet of tanks and other armored vehicles behind enemy lines, then sweep forward to remove heavy weapon emplacements. The swings in the gameвЂ™s difficulty are so enormously pronounced that it really does feel like there were two different developers behind the maps вЂ“ or that some of the maps were thoroughly tested, while others were not.ДЄllow me to give an example. Visually, the game is a treat, with the detailed villages, unit models and effects stamping this as a game that had plenty of care put into it.ДЄll the components for an A+ game are present вЂ“ save for the one by which all RTSs live or die: balance. The controls are standard for an RTS, with no silly changeups to infuriate entrenched fans of the genre. KITE Games, developers of вЂњSudden Strike 4,вЂќ even put in some pop-culturally relevant missions featuring Dunkirk. The single-player missions incorporates many of the campaigns from the European Theater, including battles between Nazi and Soviet forces. The maps are enormous and offer various ways to tackle objectives and the missions are equally varied. вЂњSudden Strike 4,вЂќ the long-awaited sequel in one of the more historically accurate RTSs on the market, has all the components of a fantastic strategy game.Д®ach unit вЂ“ from the far-seeing infantry to the highly-destructive artillerymen вЂ“ serve a very specific purpose.