Sudden Strike 4

Review

The second World War was the most devastating conflict in terms of cost of human lives, from the battlefields to civilian casualties. It was fought across Europe, North Africa, the Pacific and Asia between 1939 and 1945. It took the Wehrmacht only six weeks (blitzkrieg) from 10^th May 1940 to defeat the allied force and conquer Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and of course, France! On the other hand, their Eastern campaign was the beginning of the end for the third Reich! As happened with Napoleon’s army, Hitler’s forces were stopped at the battle of Moscow by the Red Army with the help of a glacial winter! Around the same time, America officially entered World War II and took part of Operation Neptune (D-Day) on the Normandy coastline on 6^th June 1944, the biggest seaborne invasion in warfare history. So, if you like strategy games and want to take command of the Wehrmacht, Red Army or the Allied Forces during that period, here is your chance in Sudden Strike 4.

Sudden Strike 4 is a WWII Strategy game developed by Kite Games and published by Kalypso Media Digital on 12^th of August 2018. The game is available on Steam (PC), Xbox One and PS4.

The main game consists of three campaigns (German, Soviet and Allied) each of which has 7 missions to complete in the base game. There are an additional 4 DLC’S available for purchase and each has two mini campaigns to complete.  If this is your first game of this franchise, I recommend that you jump into the small tutorial to familiarise yourself with the interface. Don’t worry, it’s not long at all.

From here you can choose to start either the German, Soviet or Allied campaign. You’ll be able to access all missions and select which one you want to start first in the German campaign, but in the Soviet or Allied campaigns, you’ll have to beat the first mission in order to unlock the next one until you reach the seven mission.  

Whatever campaign you choose, you’ll be presented will a beautiful relief map of Europe where all missions will be displayed and indicated by a flag with three stars above it and a battle name. A small written briefing will appear next, where you’ll be able to select to play that mission on an easy or normal level of difficulty, or just press the challenge mode for a bit of hardcore gameplay.   

Then it will be time to select your commander from the three that are available, each from a different doctrine (infantry, armored and support) and each with a certain skill tree. You can unlock skills with medals you earned on your previous battle. A briefing will show you your objectives one by one, and the next thing you know, you’ll be right in the thick of the battle!

At the start of each battle, you’ll be assigned a certain number of troops and as you successfully complete an objective, you’ll be given reinforcements to help you achieve your next objective, and so own and so forth. You’ll also be given points every time an objective is completed, as well as each time you destroy an enemy unit (vehicle, soldier artillery), and these will go towards the star gauge which is located on the top right corner of your screen. It is also important to make sure you keep as many units alive as possible as they will be added to your score at the end of each battle (and you might even earn three important stars).

What I like about the command interface is how easy it is to learn and use. It’s located on the bottom right of your screen. In terms of the units, you can select one or more at a time and it is easy to put them into a group.  The main obstacle you will encounter, apart from the enemy forces, is to make sure you keep your unit stocked with plenty of ammunition. In a few maps, there are ammunition stacks and a few petrol stations (so to speak) but mainly they will be present as trucks and they are usually pretty easy to knock off, so be aware of that. Repair trucks are also vulnerable and as for the infantry . . . well, you have MEDICS! They also need to be looked after otherwise your infantry might be quickly wiped out. In any case, you might receive some help from above by calling bombers, attack planes or observation planes to locate the enemy armies.

What I also like in Sudden Strike 4 is that you are rewarded with historical footage each time you complete a mission, which is great.

If you manage to finish all missions and the challenge mode, you can play a skirmish against the AI or jump online and find a server near you (America, Europe, Asia & Oceania) or create your own!

Absolutely superb graphics, and personally, I love playing these historical units! In terms of settings there is everything you need and could possibly think of, and you can rebind any keys and play with a controller too.