Blitzkrieg Game Download
Eisenhower, Rommel, Zhukov; Assume your rightful place among the great generals commanding the Allies, Germans or Soviets as they advance through the decisive battles of WWII. Blitzkrieg is the latest development in WWII real-time strategy gaming combining flexibility, historic accuracy and endless playability into one of the most challenging and enjoyable games yet!
Blitzkrieg Game Download
The current version of the game is 2016 and it has been updated on 1/04/2017. This software is available for users with the operating system Windows 98 and previous versions, and you can get it in English and German.
"Blitzkrieg is more tactical because of the amount of units that you have to work with," says Dmitry. "This is no tank rusher's game. Best results come from using a mix of units with different capabilities. You have long and short-range artillery, tanks, self-propelled guns, rocket launchers and troop carriers. Infantry carry a diverse mix of arms from rifles to bazookas, and there is also a variety of aircraft. You can use or build trenches, barbed wire fences and antitank obstacles, as well as lay or remove mines. And as you have only a limited number of troops and vehicles, you have to choose carefully how and where you fight."
What we wanted to know was how the boys at Nival got all this hardware into the game, and with such spot-on accuracy in the models. "Being in Moscow helped immensely as most of these units are in museums here," says Dmitry. "We went to see them and we were even able to compare measurements between the books and the real thing, as well as get textures for our artists! We also have a host of material in the office concerning every aspect of WWII, from experimental weaponry right down to soldier uniforms, and we took on a military historian as a consultant from the very start of the project."
Being a fan of real-time strategy games, WWII history in general and thereby rather naturally the Sudden Strike RTS series, my first squint at Blitzkrieg made me a little anxious not to mention a teensy bit angry. It appeared to me after playing an early version of the game late last year that Blitzkrieg was little more than a thinly veiled attempt to right the wrongs of what was a disappointing Sudden Strike II. After all, not only were both games from the same publisher, fashioned in Russia and concerned with commanding and conquering hundreds of tanks, infantry and aircraft across seemingly arbitrary World War II battlefields, but, more pertinently, since 'sudden strike' is very much a literal translation from the German 'blitzkrieg', both games shared the same title. Had you bought Sudden Strike II when it was released just a couple of months ago, you might justifiably feel a little peeved that already its publisher is requesting you shell out another $35 to play the game Sudden Strike II should have been all along. I know I would.
That however is where the many similarities end, for while the style and setting of both games are entirely similar, the visuals, the focus of the battles and the way in which you progress through them couldn't be more different.
For the single-player portion Blitzkrieg offers up three very different campaigns that encompass every major front of wartime Europe. Playing as the Allies for instance, you begin the game in command of the British Expeditionary forces as they half-heartedly romp across Norway and pre-Dunkirk France. The campaign then turns to North Africa as a few US units are introduced, then to the invasion of Italy and back into France for the final push into Germany. The German campaign is similarly varied, the Russian missions marginally less so, but what the game lacks in surprises, it makes up for by introducing new or upgraded units for you to play with.
However, rather than automatically hand you bigger and better weapons and machinery, the game requires you to fight for them. Each campaign is split into several Chapters, which in turn are comprised of up to four 'random' missions, at least one of which must be completed before you can tackle the final historical mission that ends the chapter. The more random missions you tackle, the greater the variety of units you can use to upgrade your 'core' units. So, for example, if you need to replace your aging anti-tank guns, you must fight the mission that will open up that type of unit.
It may not perhaps have been the way the Royal Logistical Corps operated, but this dripfeed method of dishing out new units, together with a core group of units that are able to gain valuable experience, lends the game a sense of progression that WWII strategy games, the Sudden Strike series especially, have often lacked.
Though Blitzkrieg is being touted as a realistic game, such details as accurate armour ratios and shell penetration are not so apparent early on - partly because there wasn't much to choose between the various tanks of the combatant nations at the outbreak of WWII. However, in the later levels, when the German Tigers, Panthers and Jagdpanzers are thrown into battle, you realise how important it is to outflank, outrun and outnumber the enemy when their equipment is vastly superior to your own.
Though the balance between simulation and stimulation is near perfect. Blitzkrieg isn't quite the second coming for real-time strategy games one would have hoped for. Aside from a set of missions that vary little in their objectives, the one major concern is the Al. which although solid, is hardly consistent.
On some of the more open maps I found the enemy general to be supremely challenging, with his tanks probing along the line looking for weaknesses. On other missions, usually the random ones, the enemy would remain encamped where they had been posted, allowing you to freely bombard the map until every enemy unit was wiped away, completely destroying any sense of urgency in the game. So inert is the Al that in some missions it's possible to win supposedly difficult assignments, using just a sniper and a couple of field guns. Add to this the option of speeding up or slowing down the game at will and such missions can be completed in minutes without a single casualty.
Despite such problems Blitzkrieg remains a superior game to SS2 and in spite of the fact both games will have been released within six months of each other. Blitzkrieg is such a significant improvement that even Sudden Strike's most staunchest allies should fall in line with the new order. Graphically SS2 is crude by companson and though Blitzkrieg falls short of the spectacular set pieces offered in C&C: Generals. the smooth 3D units and detailed animations make up for the static scenery.
More importantly Blitzkrieg is by far the most accessible WWII RTS game made to date, yet it retains a satisfying level of realism combined with a wealth of units and reams of in-game background reading. Some of the missions may lack pace and variety, but there are plenty of them and together with the multiplayer game and a promise of third-party add-ons, Blitzkrieg's future looks bright. Had more time been spent on fleshing out the Al and adding a much needed Shogun-style Battle Mode, we could have been looking at a Classic. No doubt a sequel is already on the drawing board with just such an aim, though whether it will be called Blitzkrieg 2 or Sudden Strike IV is anyone's guess.
Unlike most RTS games, Blitzkrieg's infantry are preordained into ten-man squads, which make them far easier to organise across a crowded battlefield. For those that enjoy unnecessary micromanagement, you can disband infantry squads and direct each soldier as individuals, but it's hardly necessary. That said, specialist troop types do work alone, namely snipers and officers, and mighty powerful they are too. Snipers, aside from their innate ability to pick away unnoticed at entire squads and artillery crews, can even destroy trucks with their rifles. Needless to say these single soldiers are perhaps one of the most powerful in the entire game... too powerful in fact.
CTF games are more immediate, as each side rushes to engage the enemy. Assault games on the other hand are more considered, with one side quietly waiting and preparing traps and defences, while the attackers probe for the decisive attack that will win the day. Despite there being only a handful of maps available, Blitzkrieg can feasibly handle up to 16 players. Rest assured we'll be putting the game through its paces online in a future issue.
Blitzkrieg is a Real Time Strategy game with the right mix of authenticity and action that easily reaches into the area of computer game as historical literature. Presenting the best of visuals, controls and goals while leading the player through major events and more mundane encounters in three World War II European Theater campaigns, the product exhibits a comprehensive understanding of the ground war fought over half century ago.
Infantry units hold their last formation order, even after exiting a building. Controls are easy and close to standard RTS expectations. The ability to issue commands while the game is paused gives the best of both turn-based and RTS styles, allowing intense bursts of action interspersed with calm, but tense, operational planning.
Complete a mission and the next in the campaign can either be a historical or a randomly generated encounter. At some steps the player is given a choice of missions. Units upgrade, promote and carry over. Equipment bonuses are awarded for winning missions. A Personal Dossier allows you to keep track of your performance as a commander but only tracks one player at a time but player name is saved with the saved game so multiple players can still use the same installation. Many facets of performance are measured including a measure of how much the player has reloaded missions in order to solve them. More than a check on cheating, this is an innovative incentive for the solitaire player to take care in his planning and complete missions the first or second time. Blitzkrieg is a rare gem, a Real Time Strategy that works on all fronts.