Developer: Kite Games
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Release date: August 11, 2017 (Europe), August 15, 2017 (US)
Available on: Linux, Macintosh, PC, PS4 (reviewed)
War has long been a go to for RTS games, and World War Two certainly had enough varied theaters and environments to test out armchair generals. Taking over for defunct developer Fireglow Games, Kite Games makes its debut with Sudden Strike 4, the first title in the franchise to land on a console. It brings a decent amount of content- 21 missions spread over three campaigns (German, Soviet, and Allied), which you can also replay to get the three stars necessary to unlock a challenge mode, which puts modifiers on the mission. There are nine commanders to use, three per campaign, and they represent infantry, tank, or support. Each commander has a separate skill tree, and you can use stars earned in missions to choose which other perks you’d like your units to have. The perks are a combination of active and passive, and help to make your units a bit more efficient.
Controlling the units on the PS4, where I played the game, is accomplished by using the left stick to move the cursor over your units, hit X to highlight them, use the stick to make as wide a circle over how many units you wish to move, then releasing the X button. You then use Circle to tell your units where to go. This should be simple enough, except it sometimes takes an additional button press to get the units to move. Plus, sometimes they all will move, and other times some units will need special prodding. When trying to get units in motion in a hurry this can get a bit clumsy and cause a bit of frustration. The poor AI doesn’t help things, either. Sometimes your units would use the optimum path to your objective. Other times, they would backtrack, run into each other, or have your infantry march directly into enemy fire. In the Soviet campaign, it gets really frustrating, as heavy tank units will just go across thin ice instead of using the road. You can guess the results of that fiasco.
Furthermore, the game almost wants you to micromanage units, while often making things difficult. Your vehicles will often need repair or fuel, or both. If you need repairs you either need to have a repair vehicle available or have a repair kit perk equipped. For fuel or ammo, you need to have a supply truck available. This wouldn’t be bad if there were more supply depots to raid for supplies, but they’re often few and far between. Run out of fuel or can’t repair? Then you have no choice but to abandon a needed armored vehicle, sometimes leaving you only infantry to go up against a squad of tanks. Then you better hope you chose the proper commander that allows infantry to carry demolition kits, or else the tanks will make short work of your troops. Trying to manage infantry units is harder yet, like searching for your medic to help your wounded before they expire. Sometimes these units will act on their own and other times they won’t. That truly can be frustrating when they ignore what you tell them to do. I’ve had times where I had my troops set to fire freely, only to have them stand around and not continue an attack. The inconsistency really holds the game back from being what it could be. Hopefully some patches arrive to fix these issues, but for now they’re there to be dealt with, and can make the difference between a successful battle and defeat.
On the plus side is the environments, which are varied and nicely detailed, as well as destructible to a point. While parts of the Soviet campaign may require you to move units individually to avoid armored units heading out onto thin ice, the Normandy section of the Allied campaign really let you use the environment to your advantage. You can hide infantry units in tall grass to ambush enemies, or have them sneak around hedgerows to flank an enemy unit. The enemy AI will do the same, forcing you to proceed with caution. Certain missions that have you engaging in a bit of espionage vary things up from moving the whole bulk of your forces from point A to point B. Other battles will have you holding a line of defense, engaging in both retreat and counterattack maneuvers. These were more prevalent in the Soviet and Allied campaigns where the German campaign had you primarily on the offensive. This at least mixed things up over the 21 missions, and that gave some incentive to look forward to the next battle.
Another area where Sudden Strike 4 succeeds is in the sound design. Each bit of artillery or small arms fire sounds different, as do the various vehicles. Hearing the squeak in the tank treads as you crash through trees or fences adds a nice touch of realism, and the heavier tanks have a different sound than their lighter counterparts. Sadly, this superb sound design didn’t extend to the voice acting. End mission journals are always read in an English accent, regardless of campaign. Most dialogue during battle has an American accent, again regardless of campaign. For the most part there didn’t seem to even be an attempt to alter accents from German to Soviet to Allied commanders. Some differences were used for infantry units, but even they weren’t the most convincing, and centered more around three different ways of yelling “Fire!”. Apparently Kite Games didn’t have the budget for better, and while not a game killer, it does hold it back from being a better title.
The game does have a multiplayer component, where you can engage in 4v4 battles across four different types of terrain. Victory goes to the side that captures all enemy headquarters. Sadly, I didn’t get much of a chance to try this out, as the multiplayer seems to be very empty at the time of this writing. I got into one bout, only to have the other player simply walk away. Another round had computer bots fill in for other players (which wasn’t very satisfying). One other round actually had a full lobby, shutting me out entirely, but that only happened once. Perhaps this may pick up as more purchase the game, but for now multiplayer is a bust. At leas the single player portion is relatively robust, as each mission can take you anywhere from 35 minutes to over an hour to complete. With the challenges you can unlock by getting three stars, this can at least extend the gameplay, and somewhat give you your money’s worth.
In all, Sudden Strike 4 is a flawed strategy game, where for every good point there is a negative one. It’s not a bad game, as it does have its moments and some fun can be had. But its flaws keep it to being just okay, something to pick up more on a sale than for full price, even though there is enough single player content to justify a purchase. Added value can come from the multiplayer, but for now, unless you have a group of friends with the game, multiplayer is empty of other players. The bots don’t provide much of a satisfying substitute, other than giving you a couple extra missions to play around in. It’s nice to get an RTS on consoles, but there are better out there. Still, for those willing to take the plunge, it can satisfy that armchair commander itch decently enough. At least it looks nice.
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