Hands-on: WWII: Frontline Command

We recently paid a visit to the Bitmap Brothers' London studio to check out World War II: Frontline Command, a real-time strategy game in which players will be able to relive some of the key moments of WWII as a commander with the Allied forces. The version of the game that we were allowed to see still has a couple of months of development time ahead of it, but it already looks quite polished and features some very challenging missions.

Frontline Command's single-player campaign will consist of a total of 25 missions, although depending on whether the game is being played on the recruit or veteran difficulty setting, players will actually be required to beat only 15 to 20 missions to complete the game. The campaign is divided up into five blocks, each set in a different territory and climaxing with what the developers describe as the equivalent of a boss battle. The five regions in the game are Normandy, North France, Belgium and Holland, the German border, and South Germany, and they will be played in that order as the Allied forces march across Europe. There will be no single-player campaign for the Axis forces, which is a little disappointing because, if nothing else, playing through a campaign would be a great way for players to familiarize themselves with the Axis forces before using them in multiplayer games.

We got to check out a few different campaign missions, all of which required us to complete a number of different objectives using only the troops we were given at the start of the level and a few reinforcements along the way. There will be no resource management or base building in Frontline Command, even in the multiplayer game, where players are instead allocated a number of points to spend on units before their skirmish. While this may disappoint Command & Conquer stalwarts, it certainly makes players value each and every unit, and it means that skirmishes tend to be a lot more closely contested, since both armies are of a similar size when the fighting starts.

The first thing we noticed upon seeing our troops parachute into enemy territory at the start of the first mission is that Frontline Command features perhaps the most impressive "fog of war" effects yet seen in a real-time strategy game--not only does the subtly animated fog actually look like a thick gray mist, but it also convincingly disperses as units' lines of sight penetrate it. Visibility plays an extremely important role in Frontline Command, and units are able to see only in the direction they're facing. Because of this, moving forces into uncharted territory is a dangerous business, and successful players will take the time to employ the binoculars of their commander unit in an attempt to get at least some idea of the enemy forces and their whereabouts before moving in. The commander's binoculars allow him to see approximately three times farther than a regular unit, but since they can't see through buildings or dense vegetation, it's often necessary to survey target areas from a few different vantage points before committing troops.

Of course, in real life, soldiers are able to hear enemies as well as see them, and the same is also true in Frontline Command. If one of the player's units hears an enemy unit but is unable to see it, an enemy symbol will appear directly above the target's location, but while the player's unit knows that something is there, it won't have any idea whether it's a vehicle or an infantry unit. For the most part, Frontline Command's use of the line of sight and fog of war is really impressive, but we did encounter one potentially frustrating flaw when we attempted to identify an enemy unit that was behind a building toward the latter stages of the first mission. Our squad of infantry had managed to get into a village occupied by enemies and assume what we thought was a safe position behind a house there, and when we saw an Axis symbol appear behind the building, we were unsure what was there and so moved around to investigate. Upon rounding the corner of the building, we were still unable to identify the unit and so assumed it must be a lone enemy soldier--after all, if it were anything bigger, we'd have been able to see it. As our soldiers marched around the corner to finish off what we thought we'd established was going to be an easy target, a German tank appeared directly in front of our units as if it were disengaging some kind of cloaking device. Baffled, and more than a little disappointed by this obvious flaw, we asked one of the development team to explain what had just happened and were told that because the line of sight is determined by just a single reference point on each unit, our soldiers were unable to identify the enemy vehicle until they could see the center of it. Needless to say, we felt a little cheated, and are hoping against the odds that this issue will be addressed before the game is released, as it has the potential to ruin what is otherwise looking like a very good real-time strategy game.

The only other issue we have with Frontline Command at present--before we start talking about some of the great features that are in the game--is the method that the player's units use to determine their routes between locations. Instead of taking what might seem like an obvious, enemy-free route across rough terrain, units prefer to take the most "efficient" route, with a definite preference for those that use roads. While this does actually result in units getting from A to B as quickly as possible, they're seemingly unable to take enemy forces into account, and on one occasion while we were playing the spectacular Normandy landings level we watched in horror as our infantry units actually ran past some enemies and then through the enemy base just so they could move on a road surface rather than across the rough terrain that we'd taken the trouble to establish was free of enemies before asking our troops to move. This problem is lessened slightly by the fact that players are forewarned of questionable routes by a dotted line that flashes up on the screen once a unit has decided which way it's going to go, but it's still mildly irritating when just getting a unit from one location to another safely can take two or three attempts.

Pathfinding issues aside, our experience with the Normandy landings level was most enjoyable. Utilizing a combination of engineers, riflemen, flamethrowers, and mortar teams, we were required to run our forces up the beach and then take out a number of bunkers and gun positions before moving on to the giant channel gun that was preventing further Allied forces on the sea from landing. In another level, we were required to clear a village of Axis forces and found the way that the game deals with units inside buildings to be far more satisfying than the method used in the Command & Conquer games. Rather than occupying a building and raising a flag to let the enemy know where they are, the units in Frontline Command remain hidden until they fire their first shot from the building, at which point a symbol will appear above their location. Another really useful feature is that when occupying buildings, players have the option to set up ambushes by instructing every unit in a building to look the same way. Of course, this means that the building will effectively have a blind spot in all other directions, but when unwitting enemies step into the firing line, the results can be devastating.

Blind spots are definitely a consideration with some of the vehicles in the game, and tanks in particular have a narrow line of sight. This is realistic, of course, and it makes for some really tactical gameplay, not only when using tanks, but also when trying to destroy them. Many of the tanks in Frontline Command are armored more heavily on the front than on the sides and back, and this, combined with their limited range of vision, makes them susceptible to attacks from behind. Another unit that's vulnerable to attack from close quarters is the field gun. Field guns are an interesting unit because when they're in position, they basically perform the job of a stationary turret, but in order to reposition them, the player will actually have to tow them using jeeps, halftracks, and infantry support vehicles.

World War II: Frontline Command has the potential to be a really good real-time strategy game, and one that places the emphasis firmly on strategy rather than on resource gathering and unit building. The easily controlled 3D camera is required to succeed in missions, the single-player campaign will certainly offer a lasting and varied challenge, and there will be 35 maps available for use in the multiplayer game.

Koch Media has announced that World War II: Frontline Command is scheduled for release on May 2 in Europe, but at present no release date has been confirmed for North America, where a publisher for the game is expected to be announced any day now. For more information on World War II: Frontline Command, check out our previous coverage of the game.