Sudden Strike II Preview

By Stephen Poole, GameSpotPosted Jun 13, 2002 5:09 pm PT

Find out what you can expect from this World War II strategy sequel in our preview.

There's no denying that PC game publishers love seeing their games get good reviews, but not one of them would trade great sales and a large, highly devoted fan base for the honor. Just ask CDV Software, creator of the World War II real-time strategy game Sudden Strike. When Sudden Strike was released early last year, the consensus of reviewers--at least in the lucrative US market--was that it packed plenty of action but lacked strategic depth and failed to offer the realism of the Close Combat strategy series, which it superficially resembled. However, the response was much different across the pond: European reviewers almost universally gave Sudden Strike significantly higher marks than their American counterparts, and the game eventually sold some 650,000 copies worldwide.

In some scenarios you can use tunnels to bypass enemy defenses and launch surprise attacks from the rear.

Wisely, CDV took the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach for the Sudden Strike Forever expansion disc, leaving the core gameplay essentially unchanged but adding enhanced multiplayer features, new units, expanded theaters of combat, and a pretty powerful mission editor. US reviewers were again lukewarm in their notices, while fans of the original Sudden Strike heaped it with praise and clamored for even more. And while more is precisely what Sudden Strike II promises to deliver, CDV also hopes to ensure that it's not simply more of the same by addressing several of the issues that others found to be so objectionable.

The 40 missions in Sudden Strike II take place during the last half of the war (1942 to 1945), and players will now be able to fight campaigns as the Japanese as well as the Americans, British, Germans, and Russians, with each campaign providing a differing degree of difficulty (in addition to the game's four overall difficulty settings). For instance, the German campaign focuses on the early 1943 counteroffensive that resulted in the recapture of Kharkov, the Wehrmacht's swan song on the eastern front, as far as significant offensive operations were concerned. Though you'll control large groups of armor and infantry, this remains the game's easiest campaign--hints will be offered periodically for novice commanders, and reinforcements will replenish losses from previous battles.

Players who wish to guide Mother Russia on the road to Berlin might be disappointed that this campaign doesn't begin until after Operation Citadel, the failed German offensive aimed to isolate and destroy the Russian salient at Kursk. It was, after all, the largest battle in history and one that is especially intriguing for tank enthusiasts. Instead, this campaign revolves around the Russian onslaught in the south as it pushed the Germans back to and eventually across the Dnieper, with latter scenarios based on the final Russian offensive in 1945 and the horrendously bloody siege of Berlin. Except for these climactic battles, the forces at your disposal in the Russian campaign aren't particularly large, but you will be able to capture and use German tanks, artillery, and motorized vehicles to augment your numbers.

Sudden Strike II takes a few historical liberties--there probably weren't many US P-40 fighters to push across the Rhine.

According to CDV, both the Russian campaign (which we weren't able to try) and the American campaign (which we were able to try) are "moderately difficult." In the American campaign, the action is set after the successful completion of Operation Grenade to cross the Roer river, as the American 1st and 9th Divisions pushed the Germans to the Rhine and crossed it at Remagen. Like in the German campaign, surviving (and therefore more experienced) units from previous battles will sometimes be available; these seasoned veterans will have greater firing ranges, speed, firepower, and accuracy. Next up in terms of challenge is the British campaign, with its first scenario set on the first day of Operation Market Garden. As a British commander, you'll mainly have infantry units to work with, and the focus of most operations will be diversionary.

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