Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

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Playing Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2 is akin to following a struggling football team. A team that often thrills and delights you with its periods of flair and beauty. A team that fluffs it all with flagrant displays of stupidity at the most inopportune times. A team that you often wish the most horrible pain upon and that leaves you more frustrated then a perv at a free peepshow with his hands tied behind his back. But a team which then stuns you with a strong run of results which eventually rewards all of your long devotion to gloriously ascend to the top of the game.

It's like the result of some genetic splicing using DNA from Commandos, X-Comm games, Cannon Fodder and Medal of Honour. After mixing all the material together in a bubbling vat and applying a vigorous stir the developers Best Way have unleashed a magnificent hybrid breed. Whose occasional behaviour leads you to suspect that they are some hidden side effects caused by the experimental nature of the beast.

If you have played any of the above titles you should feel comfortable playing Soldiers. It wears its influences on its sleeve but by using one of the most impressive new engines I have seen in a while it manages to do something that is almost completely original. The game will take you through the four separate campaigns of five missions each, one for the Russians, British, Americans and Germans, along with an extra seven bonus missions that will test you to the limit. The missions see you in charge of a small band of soldiers, usually on foot but sometimes accompanied by an armoured vehicle or two. The soldiers will have a primary objective to complete which is often accompanied by some secondary and often optional objectives. These range from hijacking trains, to blowing up lighthouses, rendezvousing with the resistance or just generally blowing up the other side's chaps.

The voice acting in the mission briefings strikes the right solemn tone with a hint of daring-do and is uniformly well delivered. The unit chatter is also well voiced, but horribly limited in its repertoire and shutting them up will probably be one of the first options that you go looking for. The intro movies themselves were very stuttery on my machine, displaying a level of jerkiness that far exceeded the occasional hic-up experienced during otherwise smooth play.

There are two methods of control both of which need to be mastered to maximise the chances of success, not to mention the amount of fun to be had from the game. The standard and most oft used method is the traditional RTS point and click way of doing things. The pointer is context sensitive, so if you point to a wall the soldier will go up to it and take cover behind it. Point on the other side of the wall and he will leap over it. Aim for an empty gun emplacement or vehicle and your squad will get behind the wheel. Holding down one of a selection of keys will force a specific action. With these extra options you can order your men to repair damaged vehicles, pick up discarded weapons and loot the corpses of fallen enemies. Your men also have a weight limited inventory which gives you plenty of tactical choices. You will often need to locate and acquire specialist equipment to achieve a certain goal although the game does try to give you alternative ways of completing your mission. Moving your men around is typically a breeze, and as your men seem to have passed their orienteering scout merit badge the pathfinding works very well. There are some niggles, with troops crawling up to a tree only to stand up and assume a standing stance, which exposes them to the enemy and a resulting hail of gunfire. Your men will also prefer to sprint round the side of a wall unless you specifically order them to vault the obstacle. With some deft manipulation of the stances of your men you can arrange themselves in some effective ambush formations yet it would have been nice to see some extra tools to direct the troop's defensive behaviours. But on the whole these controls strive to aid the player in winning the game and do allow you to interface with the gameworld.

Then there is the direct control method. Press the escape key - or temporarily hold down control - and you take complete command of an individual unit. So if your paratrooper is stuck up against the side of a crumbling farmhouse with a squad of Germans rushing him through a light wood, you can take control and pick off the soldiers as they come at you. Using the keys you can move the unit around, so in effect you are playing the game with FPS controls. The added accuracy in this mode makes it an essential choice in many situations while this innovative combination helps to make SHOWW2 that something extra special. It also is the best way to enjoy the destructive capacity of your little band and I've spent a lot of time just happily blasting a village to bits with my captured King Tiger. Or running over fleeing infantry. SHOWW2 would still be a good game if it just had the RTS control system in place, but with the direct control it becomes a great game and the fun factor is raised to another level.

One of the other impressive features of SHOWW2 is its incredible physics engine. I would go so far as to say that it has the most complete implementation of real world physics that I have seen in any game. Everything has its own physical property and will react according to the forces exerted upon it. And when I say everything, I really mean everything. Walls are made of individual blocks, which will crumble underneath tank tracks or spin through the air with the flames of an explosion on their rear. Wooden fences will hold back no vehicle and turn pretty colours when a flame is applied, just like every tree, bush and clump of long grass. Many buildings will catch fire, with some only burning through a few beams of wood while others turn into a furnace and the final, crispy resting place of enemy soldiers. Blow up a tank and pieces will fly everywhere, with large chunks like turrets offering up new places to find cover.