Soldiers: Heros of World War II

[Cougar_DK]

I bought this game yeasterday and it rocks. Its a RTS with a twist, you can take over control of every man, vehicle and gun. You then control the selected unit with the arrow keys and the mouse.

Everything on the ground is destructable and the way houses is shot to bits has to be seen to be belived.

The SP campaign is pretty hard, even on easy, you are ALWAYS outnumberd (bad AI - I guess ) but seeing a firefight between one of your soldiers positioned in a cover position exchanging fire with antoher soldier is pretty awsome. They have go the normal forgotten part of cover right in this game.

I havn't touched the MP yet, but it is possible to play coop.

Besides that - take a look at the demo, its pretty cool.

http://www.codemasters.co.uk/soldiers/

[Scrivener]

I have to concur on this one: Soldiers is one of the best games to come out in quite some time. Unfortunately I'm having to dock it some points for some really stupid reasons: namely, the needlessly limited camera and offensively cheap packaging.

On the up note:

I have NO idea how this sneaked by the ESRB with just a Teen rating as body parts go flying and corpses & bloodstains will remain on the field almost indefinately (you can search dead bodies). Nevertheless, the battles look *real*.

The environments are completely destructable - every house, every brick wall, every stack of lumber... objects have both cover *and* concealment properties. You may start a mission in a small town - and by the end of the battle it's just a giant field of dead bodies and smoldering rubble.

You can pause and slow down time to help with complex maneuvers.

Vehicles take realistic locational damage - break the treads of a tank or try to damage to the gun.

RPG-style soldier inventories - pick up anything on the battlefield from helmets (they can save your life) to enemy weapons.

And it has COOPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER! The mp is absolutely a *blast.* Strangely enough, it gives me the same feeling I get when playing Operation Flashpoint with my friends... it's that good.

There is currently no versus multiplayer, but I shed no tears over that. Not a big fan of competitive multiplayer anyway - I'm just glad they shipped with Co-op.

Soldiers is DEFINATELY a must buy for any fan of strategy or war games.

[Mordax Blyrr]

Wowee, usually I am not this fast with buying games I really don't know, but from your discription guys the game seemed too good to be true, so today I drove by the software shed to look at the box... I could not help myself, I bought it...

Damn, I've never seem such detail in any game before!

You can use ANYTHING out there you can possibly find, you can destroy ANYTHING you see.

You can really take cover behind objects and shoot while in cover from the sides, going into cover again when reloading. Not just some line of sight trick as in many RTS games.

The sheer amount of animations for everything a soldier can do look indeed just like a movie!

All seems so real, so finsihed!

Tanks operate best with a full squad. If you don't have a full squad, not all functions can be done at the same time, like aiming the turret while driving, reloading, etc. Very nice.

Soldiers can ride along at the bodywork.

When you take damage and you have a repair kit (either in your tank or you take it from another vehicle) a soldier repairs the vehicle.

You can swap fuel from one vehicle to the other...

Just think about something and you probably can do it in Soldiers...

I have noticed some pathfinding issues and I do find it very awkward that a Directly Controlled unit is far more accurate than a RTS style controlled unit... This makes the game control sometimes a little weird.

Also soldiers seem to get stuck easily in corridors while under Direct Control. But these are probably just minor issues being fixed sooner or later (I already have the 1.12.2 patch installed).

One thing that strikes you from the beginning however....

EASY setting doesn't seem to have any effect, or at least the EASY setting is misleading to say the least. This game is NOT easy, it's VERY difficult and I don't want to think about the pain I'll suffer when playing on NORMAL or HARD.

Another good thing: There has been announced that there will be a map editor in the near future for Soldiers.

[Mordax Blyrr]

Jeez! Had a blast tonight!

Playing the UK campaign (after getting asswhooped in the Soviet Mission 1 time after time! Which one is the easiest anyway???). In mission one you will first need to take out the search lights and the artillery (taking out the men is sufficient, as long as others don't come on the idea to takeover an empty seat, lol) with only one soldier.

Then the rest of the team comes (reminds you of Commandos eh?) and you will have three men.

I decided to go via the West side of the map. Covered in bushed I sneaked toward a Flak gun, which (after finding out the hard way) can be used as easily on men than on aircraft.

Two of my mates perished in a chaotic firefight that was the result of many enemy soldiers coming to take a look after the Flak had spitted fire...

My last hero, laying behind the dead bodies of his mates for cover, was able to take out all the soldiers one by one amazingly!

The western part of the base was clear and it was time to rearm, find a helmet (mine was shot off my head) and take all the firepower I could carry.

The rest of the base didn't seem to have any attention for the slaughter that went on seconds ago.

My new objectives are to destroy the lighthouse and now completely destroy the artillery so that the Trident Submarine is no longer attacked.

I look in my backpack... not a single pack of dynamite or even matches.

Looks like we will have to 'borrow' it from the germans.

With the western part being free I could advance to the eastern part and without giving to much spoilers I will tell you that my single hero managed to kill off all germans in the camp by himself. The cover function in this game are outstanding and never seen before!

Also I discovered that if you set your soldier on the side of a door peeking inside the house, he will shoot insiders himself if not directly controlled.

Anyway... again without spoiling the game I destroyed all objectives (yeah I know, how do you take out the last artillery, eh??) and to my great amazement in the next level your units are carried over!!!

So here I am, in a hostile, completely under german control, french town, without ammo for my (luckily) taken Walter P7 from an officer, only a few grenades and a (luckily also captured from that same officer) knife.

I must get to a resistance rendezvous point to get my further objectives.

Motorcycles roaming the streets patrolling.

A armored truck riding its rounds filled with soldiers... A machinegun emplacement near the railroad track covering the sparsely populated area of the town...

Then I am seen by soldiers guarding a house!

Immediately another motorcycle approaches and three men get out on the hunt for my head.

I quickly run to some boxes behind a wall to take cover.

Luckily there's only one way to get to me so if they find me they will be in a trap... or I am...

I arm the knife, being all that I can use.

The first one, an officer, peeps around the corner, I cut his face to shreds, he carries another walter... with ammo!!

I quickly equip it and with running, taking cover, and quick wits I am able to finish off the others.

Now I also have a motor at my disposal!

I go to my rendezvous point, but my contact is not there. I suggest they have taken her...

So here I am, with limited firepower, all alone, in the search for my resistance contact!

.....

Damn, this game plays like a movie!