There is also an Italian front
The first impact is definitely positive: as opposed to what’s usually happening with this kind of titles, all menus and voices are translated into a great Italian in Sudden Strike 4 , as well as briefings and goals during missions. Even more surprising, the RTS signed by Kite Games is also entirely dubbed in Italian, with a first acting voice acting, without strange accents unnecessarily forced to simulate the cadence of Russians, Germans or Anglo-Americans, three factions present in the game.
Unfortunately, the good news is almost over and the warnings that leave unhappy feelings already emerge in the tutorial, consisting of a single mission, where the basic movements of the troops are explained and the basic actions, those who have a bit of familiarity with the strategy world has already seen at least a hundred times.
When a tutorial runs out in just a few moments, the streets are two: or the introduction is left deliberately smoky to give the player the burden of learning all the tactics and the use of the individual media and the infantry, or the strategy has already run out after a few clicks. Both ways are negative but, while the first one is a remedy, the second one is a path without exit and, unfortunately,Sudden Strike 4 embraces this second philosophy.
Compromises are not very few, and when it comes down to the ground of war, it’s easy to see how Sudden Strike 4 is a title thought first of all for a console user less willing to split between moves and contorts.
Forget base building, recruitment and resource management – especially in the campaign, there is no room for economic management or the selection of the most suitable troops for a possible war ground or for dealing with a certain threat. Steel Division: Normandy ’44he taught how such elements could ultimately be limited, leaving the field to the toughest and pure strategy, where to master it are the only tactics of encirclement, support fire, environmental factors but, unfortunately, in Sudden Strike 4 is nothing but a faded memory.
War tactics
The battles are lacking in thickness and the tactical variables made available to the player count on the fingers of one hand. There are some positive points, but they are limited to a superficial exploitation of the environment and the ground: there is no coverage system unlike what the Company of Heroes set for , the infantry troops enjoy a defensive bonus if placed inside the palaces, or they can be concealed by exploiting the high corn fields, while undergoing a heavy slowdown when they must cross rivers or mud stretches.
One of the most successful aspects is the simulation of supply lines: The wagons make it a master during the clashes, but they must constantly be fueled with bullets and fuel. Heavy vehicles also require constant support from trucks and engineers to be repaired, and so, bumping into the enemy, even if in numerical superiority, is not always the best choice because there is always a risk of being lacking resources in the middle of the clash.
A bit like for the Company of Heroes,the means abandoned by enemies, as well as obi and other artillery pieces without shooters can be occupied, creating some fluidity and dynamism in the field of war: Attacking an enemy fixed position does not just mean to free the passage through its own row, but it also means securing a base to fire against the enemy front.
The troop layout is also of paramount importance, so attaching a Panzer IV front is a suicide, and the best choice is always to curb its progress with the fire of the mortars, then move it behind it and finally hit it most exposed part. The battles, however, take place in rather narrow theaters – also because of a virtually useless zoom – and unfortunately there is the wide breath of the Great Maneuvers: the action is always concentrated around a small handful of troops, in duels that hardly involve more than a dozen units, on a map with limited boundaries.
Sudden Strike 4 does not have that the ambition of wanting to revolutionize the genre and not want to submerge the player with statistics and numbers, but proposes an “Arcade” version of the strategy, much simpler and more immediate .
