Blitzkrieg Preview
We take a look at Nival Interactive's upcoming World War II real-time strategy game.
Russian developer Nival Interactive has previously created role-playing games like Rage of Mages and Evil Islands, but it's now working on a World War II real-time strategy game that will attempt to balance historical accuracy with fast-paced, enjoyable gameplay. Blitzkrieg will let you play in both single- and multiplayer games as one of three factions--the Allies, the Soviets, or the Germans--and though you won't get to fight any battles in the Pacific Rim, Blitzkrieg will cover historical conflicts throughout both Europe and North Africa.
Blitzkrieg will have a substantial and historically accurate single-player campaign divided between each of the game's playable sides. Rather than simply giving you an army of World War II units and requiring you to run fictitious missions in a World War II setting, Blitzkrieg's single-player campaign will actually feature missions based on real-world battles. In other words, if you decide to play as the Soviets, their campaign missions will consist of battles that the Soviets actually won during the Great War, so there's no chance for any historical revisionism, like having the Allies actually win in the infamously failed Operation Market Garden.
That's not to say that Blitzkrieg will be nothing more than a rigid game that forces you to follow historical battles down to every last detail, because the single-player game will also feature randomly generated missions that you can play through in between the historical missions. The random missions aren't based on any historical occurrences, so the outcome of those battles won't be predetermined, and if you wish to take a break from playing through the historical campaign, you can take a breather by playing as many random single-player missions as you like. Both random and historical missions will present you with opportunities to gain experience for your units, which they will gain from every mission and carry over to subsequent missions if they survive. But in the interest of historical authenticity, your units will improve by actually becoming more experienced on the battlefield--they'll fire more accurately, but they'll still have the same equipment they were carrying previously, so they won't arbitrarily get more health or receive an artificial armor bonus.
Doing well in battle also helps you advance your own rank from that of an army major to a general. Blitzkrieg will have more than 250 different vehicles modeled after their real-world counterparts--thanks to the help of a full-time military consultant--and all of them will be accompanied by historical statistics in the in-game recognition manual. As you're promoted to higher ranks you'll be able to commission better equipment and vehicles, including extremely powerful, extremely rare vehicles and artillery that historically didn't see much active duty during the war, such as the German Maus tank and the Karl artillery gun.
As with any good real-time strategy game, Blitzkrieg will encourage you to create varied armies consisting of mixed forces. Most infantry squads will be composed of 10 infantry soldiers and will generally be extremely mobile, especially since you can order them on a forced march, but they'll also be relatively fragile, though their speed will make them excellent scouts and help them provide excellent diversions while your vehicles move into position. In accordance with the game's goal of retaining historical accuracy, in the earlier campaign missions, which take place earlier in the war, many infantry units will consist of riflemen, but in the later missions of the war, infantry will be equipped with bazookas and other antivehicle weapons. Many transport vehicles will also be able to carry squads of infantry into battle, though the most important vehicles in Blitzkrieg will be your supply trucks.
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- cdv Software
- Nival Interactive
- Historic Real-Time...
- Release: May 12, 2003
- ESRB: Teen
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