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| | Publisher: Virtual Programming  Genre: Strategy & War | | | Min OS X: 10.4 CPU: Any CPU @ 860 MHz RAM: 256 MB Hard Disk: 2600 MB Graphics: 640x480 @ 16-bit, 32 MB VRAM |
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Mac gamers seem to be a thoughtful lot with the popularity of strategy games such as Age of Empires being clear enough. Just log onto GameRanger and you'll find that a large portion of the matches being played are RTS (real time strategy) games. Nival Interactive hopes to appeal to that crowd with the release of Blitzkrieg, a World War II strategy game that shows you all angles of the conflict, from the German invasion to the Normandy landings of 1944. Can this dated game make it in a market filled with such great contenders?Now those of you who enjoy a quick and easy game will be disappointed in this case, as Blitzkrieg is a complex and deep RTS that will involve more of your time than you may wish. Prepare to learn endless key combos and strategic methods in order to crush your enemies – it may be tough, but it is rewarding. Gameplay: too complex for some? Blitzkrieg is divided into several modes, including single player campaign, custom game and multiplayer. The most rewarding of the three is most definitely the campaign, which is split into a three part story involving all sides of the war. You will find yourself playing as the British, German and Soviet forces throughout the game, depending on the order you choose. Missions usually revolve around capturing a certain base or performing reconnaissance in a certain area. There is always more than one way to accomplish things. For instance, you could decide to order a sniper to sneak around the enemy and take them out rather than assault them with hundreds of machine gunners and tanks (the former proving a better option). Missions are fairly difficult, but this can be changed if you wish.While some games take a simple strategic route, Blitzkrieg does the complete opposite. Every unit has a multitude of options, including stances, projectile types, modes of movement, the list goes on and on. What confused me more than this, though, was how they expect you to execute these commands on the fly when the default movement speed is so ridiculously fast! Unless you regularly induce yourself with an excess of caffeine you will probably have trouble with this and will find the speed reducing hot keys very useful indeed. Unfortunately they did not function on the laptop I used to review the game. (for some reason the equivalent keys on the laptop did not respond). Some irritation came from the speed at which you move along the screen. Placing the mouse at the edge sends the screen view flying along the environment, even with mouse sensitivity set to low. This can make it or break it when playing a fast paced game as it is very easy to overshoot your target position. Multiplayer includes two game modes: capture the flag and assault. Capture the flag involves holding as many flags as possible. These flags generate points every second. Once you reach 150 points you receive more troops and so the game goes on. The second mode, assault, is a bit more interesting. One team defends the flags in it's base while the other strives to capture them. This aside, I could not find anyone to play with, an obvious sign that the online feature is a dead duck. Hopefully this will pick up as more people buy the game.
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