Sudden Strike 4

Back in the late 90's and early 00's you used to be able to buy a gaming magazine that would come with a disk. On that disk would be demo's of various upcoming games. Before the release of the original Sudden Strike game, I had TWO demo's of it and I replayed them many times. The original was fantastic. Its biggest and most obvious flaw to me was that the AI seemed to not suffer fog of war, and so you'd often get shot up before you could see the enemy. But it was still an awesome game. Then Sudden Strike 2 came along in 2002 and oh boy... Everything great about Sudden Strike but better. AI fog of war issue resolved, more accurate damage models for tanks, and a few other features that just made the game more enjoyable. Steam didn't even exist back then, but I guarantee I put thousands of hours into both games. Sudden Strike 3 came along a few years later... I can't really give it a fair review as I only played it for a short spell. I didn't enjoy it, the graphics seemed to be painful to the eye, and it would crash or bug out on me. When Sudden Strike 4 released on Steam, I was very excited to see what it would become. ... It's ♥♥♥♥♥. Sorry, I can't bring myself to enjoy this game. I have installed and uninstalled Sudden Strike 4 a total of three times now, and each time I just end up getting frustrated with some really simple issues and then going off to burn a few hours in one of the older titles. The only way I can describe it in short is that they took a working formula and somehow broke it. The gameplay feels like they're trying to keep some of the original charm of Sudden Strike but with modern graphics, which should work, but it just sort of... doesn't. I am going to push through some more missions just to see if things get better, but at this stage I'm not seeing it. Today was my third attempt at giving Sudden Strike 4 a try, and here are *some* of my findings: 1. The voices are genuinely awful. When you play the tutorial, you are given a German half-track full of German infantry... but the commander who is narrating/instructing you is American, and when you complete the tutorial you get an anecdote that is read out by someone who is British. And yet when you select your troops and move them around, they sound German as you'd expect. How do you f that up?? 2. The mission briefings make me feel sad inside. Go back to Sudden Strike or Sudden Strike 2 and look at the briefings. You would receive a relatively detailed (but not overcooked) explanation of the situation and the mission, and then given your objectives. In Sudden Strike 4, the second Allied mission brief literally goes like this: "Secure the left flank. Secure the right flank. Capture the village." Zero effort went into this, and it killed part of my soul to go through it. 3. Some of the ammunition figures are... mental. Submachinegunners carrying over 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Do you have any idea how heavy ammunition is? For a Tompson SMG, one bullet weighs about 15 grams. So you're suggesting they are carrying 15 kilograms of ammunition, and I have no idea where they plan on stashing it. For a belt-fed MG that would be a substantial load. Modern day troops tend to carry around 300 rounds depending on the situation etc. I appreciate that the infantry ammunition count on the original Sudden Strike games was probably a bit off, but we should be getting this at least close to being correct by now. 4. The maps and the missions have shrunk in the wash. Everything seems so enclosed. The OPERATION OVERLORD map for example is minuscule; they crammed the paratroopers that did the behind enemy lines bits into the same mission/map as the beach landings, and it's done poorly. You don't feel like there is any grand scale to it. In fact, the objectives that the paratroopers captured are basically just around the corner from the bunkers that the beach landing troops push through. I'd also like to complain about the rather pathetic number of troops that you get on the beach. If you're going to make a D-Day themed mission, you either need to make it focus on one particular area or - in the case of Sudden Strike - make it feel like a grand scale battle as it should. 5. Multiplayer/Skirmish feels like I'm playing DOTA. When did this tug-of-war point-scoring type of game mode become popular? Did I miss the memo? When I play a multiplayer game of Sudden Strike, I expect to be spending a lot of time moving various units around a vast map with a realistic expectation that I'm going to be sitting in this chair for a couple of hours. My first Skirmish battle against the AI was over in about 10 minutes (literally) because the enemy AI won on points. I didn't even lose any troops, let alone get caught up in any sort of campaign or firefight. And get rid of this thing of spending points to spawn more units - I captured a train station and then apparently I can spend currency (that automatically fills up from what I can tell) to spawn a Tiger tank that gets delivered by train. You have no idea how uncool this mechanic is when compared to the earlier Sudden Strike games. Conclusion: On the whole, this game took what made Sudden Strike good and somehow broke it by turning it into what they think the fans want. The only reason (as far as I can tell) that this has worked is because most gamers of today weren't even born when the original title was released. Seriously - many of my work colleagues are post-2000 babies, and it makes me feel old. I would like to clarify that this is more than a nostalgia hit. Sudden Strike and Sudden Strike 2 have not aged well at all. But this genuinely feels like Sudden Strike 4 could have taken all of the goodness from the earlier games and slapped some decent graphics on it to create an absolute win, but instead it's been dumbed down and turned into some sort of Hollywood-like mess. I am a die hard Sudden Strike fan who virtually grew up with it and learned a lot of what I know about World War 2 weapons/vehicles/etc from it, and I cannot recommend Sudden Strike 4. I see Sudden Strike 5 on the horizon, and I remain optimistic.

Это была бы великолепная стратегия,если бы не эта непонятная механника обзора, ощущение,что танкисты заварены в танках наглухо. Очень часто возникает ситуация,когда враг стоит на 1 мм дальше дальности обзора и безнаказанно стреляет, в то время как ваши юниты ведут себя как стражник из скайрима - "наверное ветер".

Being categorised as a strategy game yet it offers nothing of it. This game fails on all fronts except maybe graphics. I'll just list the main points as I do not think giving this trash any attention is worth it. - The game holds your hand every step of the way in every campaign and mission. What I mean is exactly that. Every objective has to be done in a specific way and they are: go to a point, clear enemies, repair or escort something and defend waves. And this goes on and on. - Pathfinding is awful and units tend to get stuck a lot. - RNG in penetration and accuracy. - Game used to crash often at first until I reinstaled it months later. - Prestige is a solid system but useless since unit composition is the same and, as stated, there is no strategy involved here. And the repetitive nature of the missions is insulting. You complete the 3 stars and have no idea how fast they fill up to 3 (you just have to kill everything - which means going out of your way to clear maps around the objectives because missions cut short if you don't). - Enemy units have greater vision for some reason and ALWAYS shoot you from the Fog of War, no matter if you have points into certain prestige perks and open hatches on tanks to extend range. Their positions are always given up by them shouting for some reason. - Voice acting is done by the same few people when it comes to commanders and narrators. Yet the units have localised dialogue, though only a handful of voice lines that repeat nonstop after every single action. Why is every commander voiced by some guy from Texas LMAO. - Wonky physics and ragdolls. Soldiers always have a silhouette of them T-posing when ordering them to move. This game fails on all fronts. It is repetitive, boring and doesn't require cognitive process more than the level of a zombie. The presentation is weak and uninspired. It feels and plays like a cashgrab. Made by people who have never played an RTS game and just wanted to get quick cash on a famous franchise that they bought the rights to. It is insulting. Copy paste missions and endless braindead "action". Dont bother

经典即时战略游戏系列，挺好玩的。

The original sudden strike games were iconic. You controlled thousands of units in epic massive battles that were realistic. In this one you basically control a small squad, and your infantry will heal back to full health no matter that they just took 5 tank shells to the head.

Дальность видимости/обзора юнитов, даже снайперов или "командиров" (чей значок содержит изображение бинокля), просто никакая - они, словно, "слепые". Это очень сильно не вписывается ни в какие принципы "военных стратегий" и совершенно убивает атмосферу игры.

I don't really understand how you can use the words 'tactical' and 'realistic' in a historical RTS, then have a single infantry unit able to survive 3 direct hits with 75mm HE tank rounds. Couple that with vehicles running on a simple HP bar system and you just have a mess that simply doesn't feel good to anyone looking for something vaguely 'tactical' and 'realistic'

玩这个游戏一定要记住，视野是最重要的，你军队的射击范围远比他们的视野大，所以如果你先看到敌军，你就能远距离无伤的打击敌军。你的军官拥有更大的视野，你的步兵开停火模式钻进树林里，都可以先发现敌人，运用这个机制无阵亡通关也是轻轻松松