World War II Online: Blitzkrieg Preview
We've been given exclusive access to the closed beta, and we're back from the front lines with new details about this game.
Simulation gamers have long fantasized about what it would be like to fight not just a scenario or campaign, but an entire war in their favorite vehicles. Likewise, more than a few wargamers have probably imagined getting involved in their favorite historical game on a personal level, by jumping in a tank or taking off in an aircraft and heading for the front. While flight sims and tank sims do this to some degree, the limited campaigns in these games restrict you to one level of involvement in a given battle or series of battles. Massively multiplayer games like Aces High use historical units and are very accurate simulations, but they are missing a historical basis for their ongoing campaigns. What would it be like to harness the power of massively multiplayer technology to fight a continuous, online war based closely on history, not just in terms of units but as an actual re-creation of World War II? Playnet and Strategy First are going to be the first to find the answer to that question.
Last November, Bedford, Texas-based Playnet Inc. struck a deal with Canadian publisher Strategy First to publish its massively multiplayer offering, World War II Online. WWII Online is being developed by Playnet's Cornered Rat development group and could very possibly rewrite the standard for interactive military simulations.
The goal of World War II Online is stunning in scope: Simply put, it hopes to re-create the entire second World War in every theater of operation across the globe so that you can hop into combat and join the war in anything from a European hamlet to a Pacific island jungle. All of the major nations will be represented, with equipment and ordnance appropriate to the period of the war being fought at that time. This means that weapons will be introduced along historical lines. According to Playnet's Rodney "Hatch" Hodge, "We plan to start with an initial vehicle/weapon set based on the most commonly used by the European combatants in the spring of 1940. From there, we will be adding and refining other items in the first theater, and in the following theaters as the war progresses in both a historical and specialization format as development allows. This will proceed over the next couple of years until all of the different theaters are added and fleshed out. Then we will make successive passes through each time period and theater until most all of the weapons, vehicles, etc. that were used in the war are available for the players to use.
"Initially the whole thing will start with Blitzkrieg 1940. From there we go to late 1945. After that has all been fleshed out (several years down the road), it could stop there or we may try expanding it somehow or another, or maybe let the players decide who they wish to be allied with. It will probably be based on what the WWIIOL community wants to try next."
We got an extended look at the beta and came away quite impressed with what the team is trying to accomplish.
World War II Online: Blitzkrieg Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Downloads | Answers | Forum | Check Prices
- Strategy First
- Cornered Rat
- Historic First-Person...
- Release: Jun 4, 2001
- ESRB: Teen
Games you may like…
-
Battleground Europe
(PC) -
WWII GI
(PC) -
World War II Collection
(PC) -
Operation Body Count
(PC) -
WWII Combat: Berlin
(PC)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
1 Comments