16-Jun-2004 Blitzkrieg is that WWII RTS that looks like Sudden Strike, plays like Sudden Strike and is from the same publisher as Sudden Strike. The saving grace being that it's better than Sudden Strike - which is no mean feat. This expansion pack (standalone, mind - meaning you don't need the original game) doesn't really change the winning formula of realistic-looking tanks, pretty explosions and carnage-filled missions at all, merely adding a new 18-mission campaign, around ten individual scenarios and 60 new units. The experience is the same: you have a mass of units to control, and making do with what you start with, you have to defeat the far stronger enemy.
Again, each mission is like a puzzle rather than a test of strategy: usually, you have to play each one a few times to work out how to complete it, learning enemy positions through trial and error (they never change). Artillery and air support are still incredibly important, and as a general rule, the levels are extremely tough.
But also fun. The allure of commanding formations of period-perfect Tiger tanks never fades, it seems. Watching buildings being slowly reduced to rubble by your pounding artillery is always a joy, and sending screaming Stuka dive bombers to wreak havoc on your enemy's supply dumps is surely never anything less than one of life's finer moments.
Don't have any illusions: this is simply more of the same. But then as they say, if it ain't broke, carpet bomb it with a Lancaster.
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