Reviewed: December 13, 2004
Reviewed by: Richard Cross
Publisher
CDV
Developer
Nival Interactive
Released: December 1, 2004
Genre: RTS
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
8
7
8
8
7.8
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
The original Blitzkrieg was one of my favorite RTS games in 2003. It was basically a World War II simulator and you had to keep your troops alive long enough to defeat the enemy forces against you. Some of the battles in the original game were very long and very difficult. Instead of using the good old tank blitz, you actually had to rely on good strategy to win these battles.
Blitzkrieg: Burning Horizon was then released in early 2004 and added a new 18-mission campaign. You played the roll of General Rommel in these new missions. Japan was introduced as a new nation, and over 50 new units were added to the game.
The Blitzkrieg series has been very successful over the last two years and it has become even more popular with the recent release of Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder. This new stand-alone product has added even more features to the world of Blitzkrieg. The recommended hardware specifications have been beefed up for this newer version of the game, but Blitzkrieg has always had modest hardware requirements, so you didn’t have to have the newest high-end gaming rig available.
The following is a list of just some of the new features and missions included in Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder:
- 18 single player missions
- New theatres of war: Australia-Guinea, Siberia, Spain, the snowy forests of the Ardennes
- Fight for resources: Occupation of train stations, ports, tank factories and airports ensures constant supplies for the player - or the enemy
- New infantry units: Arab snipers, Norwegian infantry, Russian partisans
- Advanced game play: Amplification of the role of infantry units by means of the "elite-camouflage" mode. Elite-infantry can hide from enemy troops and are only exposed after fire has been opened.
- Tactical variations: Amphibian landings, tank pursuits, enemy commando missions (Battle of the Bulge), POWs pass on plans of minefields
- Modern campaign system: Difficult mission targets are especially honored (fulfillment of duties in personnel file)
- Fair play: Players can often freely determine reinforcements required, but there's "Fair play" for both sides: The AI also decides as to the type of reinforcements required according to the fighting situation. In decisive missions, the AI alters the position of its own units on the re-launch of the mission.
- More realistic role played by sniper: The AI becomes active when too many gun crews "disappear" and searches for the sniper
- New buildings: Atlantic Wall, new bunkers, knight's castle, secret passages, minarets, winter textures for numerous Central European buildings, Mediterranean farmhouses
- New and modified units: Winter textures for American troops, more power for the completion of heavy tasks: Sherman "Jumbo" and Sherman HVSS, increased air support: Grumman F6F Hellcat, P51 fighter planes. More diversity: Ju 87A "Legion Condor", Panzer BT5 and Bomber TB3 - Republican Army, Churchill Mk. VII
- 29 vehicles and planes, 4 new infantry units
- 5 new medals and awards including well-known medals such as the Purple Heart or Distinguished Service Cross
- Does not require the original Blitzkrieg game!
Well, let’s first start off by talking about the installation procedure. The game installs quite well, however, it ends by asking you to reboot your system. This is where the problems began. I have numerous CD and DVD drives in my review system. I installed the game using my Y: drive, which is just a standard DVD/CD-ROM reader. Once the installation was completed, the system told me that in order to activate the copy protection, I had to reboot my system. Once the system was rebooted, I attempted to play the game, with no success. Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder uses a newer copy protection called StarForce. This new copy protection works so well, in fact, that even the person that legitimately purchases the game is sometimes unable to play it.
After numerous emails to the company, I was able to get the game running by placing the game CD into my Z: drive. It seems that if you have multiple CD-ROM and DVD drives, you may have to play the game by placing the game disc into a different drive than where you installed it from. Also, if you have any virtual drives on your system (ie: Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools) you will most likely have to uninstall them before the program will even run. After browsing various website forums for information on StarForce protection, it seems that I am definitely not the only person having problems. This protection is included in many of the newer games, and it still needs some work.
Until the problems have been ironed out, and the hidden copy protection system driver files are removed by the installing program’s uninstall routine, I would recommend that you steer clear of any games with this protection. If you have multiple drives and/or are using any virtual drive software, the best thing to do is avoid any software products that use the StarForce protection. I can understand the need for better methods of protecting intellectual property, but making a legitimate purchaser suffer - or resort to downloading NO-CD cracks, is not the way to solve it. Hopefully StarForce will improve in the future and truly protect the software manufacturers and the buyer. Sorry for the rant, but it took me two days to get it running on my system and I just wanted everyone to be aware of these potential problems.
I also experienced a few crashes to the desktop. The game as a whole seems pretty stable, however, once in a great while it would just up and crash without warning. This will most likely be addressed in a patch that will hopefully be coming out sooner than later.
Alright, now back to the gameplay. The mouse is a rodent to any other person, but a tool that the rest of us couldn’t do without. This game relies very heavily on its use. The Gameplay itself hasn’t really changed from version to version, but the commands have been modified to include some that were missing from the original game. Troops now have the ability to be placed into groups, but there are still no formation options. Also, tanks and other equipment do not have the ability to be placed into groups. I am sure that the real troops in WWII were able to create different formations based on their circumstances, and without this ability their platoon would have been wiped out.
There are a total of six campaigns, each with three missions that span various key moments in the career of George Patton. The level of difficulty, while easy at first, quickly rises to a challenge that only veterans of the series will be comfortable with. If you are new to the series you might want to start with the earlier games. You start off with the Allied landing in Africa then move on to the invasion of Sicily, the D-Day landing, and then on to Europe, all leading to the climactic battle with the Nazis in Bohemia.
The gameplay is fun, although sometimes it can become very slow and tedious. Some of the missions last well over an hour with very short troop and armor movements. Your troops can move quickly once the fog of war has been lifted and you can see your way. If you just barge into an area, be prepared to be blasted to bits by the enemy mortars. You actually have to spend some time arranging your troops, preparing your approach, and utilizing your air support before you go barging in on the enemy.
Missions come in a vareity of styles. Sometimes you get to assault a position while other missions are more defensive in nature. You might be leading a large strike force in a massive battle or commanding a smaller commando mission with only a few highly trained soldiers. Most of these missions are rooted in some sort of historical accuracy with some fictional elements thrown in to keep things lively.
There are a few improvements to the core gameplay. Unit management is now made easier by dividing up your troops into companies for easier access. You can now also recruit new specialty units by completing optional objectives during the primary missions. Past games had you play entire optional missions to get these prized units. These side-quests are conveniently placed inline with your normal objectives so it doesn't take too much extra effort to earn these special units.
There are a few annoyances that simply should not be present in a game this far into the series. You cannot lock your formations and the pathfinding is very primitive, to the point of being fatally flawed in some instances. Getting info on the number and health of your men when they are grouped is awkward, and you are forced to click on each unit to get a status report.
The graphics system hasn’t really changed much from the original. If you run at a low resolution like 640x480, you will be able to see all of the fine detail of the units in the game. I usually run my system upwards of 1280x1024 in order to see more of the battlefield, but this makes the units extremely small and hard to select. If this game had the ability to zoom in and zoom out on the battlefield, it would be much easier to see and maneuver all of your units. The graphics haven’t seen much of an upgrade from the original Blitzkrieg.
The detail of the game as I said before is very good. The game features detailed explosions, fierce battles, and flying debris. The realism definitely pulls you into the game. The text screens at the beginning of the missions are well done and an interesting read. It would have been nice to have a narrator read these to you with some sort of an accent to further pull you into the game.
The voiceovers and music get quite repetitive, but the sounds of battle outweigh this minor annoyance. The sounds of battle are excellent. The artillery exploding around your troops, the shrieks and crys of your men, and the deep rumble of the rolling tanks all add to the realism of this game. If you just disable the music, this game really has a lot to offer in sound effects.
For those of you that liked the original, there are plenty of things to like about Rolling Thunder. You may be frustrated with the copy protection system if you have multiple drives, but the game does have some high points. I enjoyed the missions, as they are more challenging that the original game and it seems that the developers have spent some time in doing their research and writing them. Another feature of the game that I really enjoyed was the built-in unit encyclopedia. It contains tons of information regarding all of the units in the game and also covers some of the historical facts of these battles. Granted, you don’t purchase a game to get a history lesson, but it is nice that they included it.
It seems that almost every day I hear that there’s a new title on the market that has awesome online multiplayer. Well, this game doesn’t include any type of multiplayer, online or otherwise. It would have been nice to challenge someone other than the AI, but hopefully that will be addressed next year when Blitzkrieg II is released. Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder has some replay ability, but once you have beaten the AI, there just isn’t much more to come back for.
I have my fingers crossed that Blitzkrieg II, due out next year, will address many of the shortcomings of this game. I also hope it will have an improved graphics engine with the ability to zoom in and out on the battlefield. This game has many strong points, most notably the graphical explosions and sound effects. I also enjoyed the strategy component as well. The missions in this game actually require some strategy and you just can’t rush your troops into battle and hope that you will win. The battles actually require planning and if you don’t flank your opponent you will have a tough time beating the AI.
If you enjoyed the original, I would recommend that you pick this game up. If you are looking for more graphical flare and less strategic planning, then you may be better off with Codename: Panzers. If you want to spend time planning and executing, then this game is for you.