RTS: Frontline Attack *War Over Europe*

RTS: Frontline Attack *War Over Europe*

First go to the shop and buy it, only after that you can waste time reading this review

Yes, I know it?s bloody long but please read it especially if you like great rts games.

I've been waiting for this game for quite some time now and finally got it. I always wanted to play some good WW II rts yet there was none that would meet these criteria (Sudden Attack, if I remember the name correctly, never managed to get my interest - it was uninstalled the same day I installed it).

Now let's move onto Frontline Attack which was to be previously called "WWII - Pazner Claws"

The game?s environment is obviously 2nd WW and you can play one of three powers: Allied, Germans or Soviets. A thing I want to boast about it's been made by Polish.


Units:

Even though each side has a similar set of units they vary tremendously: German units are high tech, tough reliable stuff, Soviets' units are cheap and weaker while Allied forces take the middle ground. The only thing I dislike about units is that each side has V rockets at its disposal. IMO it would be better if they gave each side an unique unit of its own. Oh well you can?t have everything.

Of interesting things you can take over enemy structures and units (and use such units for reckon!). Also you must reload set ammo supply for your units so that you don't end up with 20 King Tigers with depleted ammo ready for enemy takeover. Reload is not bothersome. You build/capture ammo factory b/c supply tracks and they'll do the rest. You can of course supply ammo manually to certain units if you feel like it.


Graphics and Sound:

Both are of a very high level. Music is interesting and makes a very nice background for battles. Graphics is great. It is based on improved Earth-3 engine. It is 3D obviously and you can admire great light effects as well as continuous day/night changes (units can use lights in the night but you can also try to sneak on an enemy with lights turned off). Water - hell it looks like water with waves and light shining nicely on its surface.

You can change camera views freely (or set camera in place and leave yourself only zoom function enabled) though I must admit that the camera freedom is slightly limited compared to for example "Black Moon Project". Thing is that there?s no much difference between angle change and zoom option. Also you can?t zoom out up to ?over the clouds? like in ?MP?. Not that it bothers me lot.


Gameplay:

It is very good yet sometimes I wish I could make my units move faster - then again you can?t expect King Tiger to move like Ferrari on a highway.

Most importantly this game allows for many various strategies: be it night sneak or an open ride with air and artillery (huge range) support. Or perhaps you?d rather take over some enemy units and place them inside his base - then activate them after he rushes to meet your main forces and perform a neat backstab this way.


Multiplayer:

I have no means to test it obviously yet one thing in the options screen caught my eye. It's the "voice transfer method". Hell it must be great if you can communicate using voice with your allies.

Miscallenous:

Box doesn't really look nice - unless someone reads a review I doubt the box could draw his attention. Don't let the mere box appearance fool you though.

I have only played a little so far therefore I have not encountered whether change which is supposed to influence unit movement speed.

Languaue: This is the second game in Polish in which language doesn?t bother me. Unfortunately I don?t know how good the translation to other languages will be.

Problems

I can't say I encountered any real bugs so far - rather tiny ones.

- During install the music played but there was an annoying peek from time to time coming from the speakers: no problems after I installed drivers for my sound card

- When you hear your orders they're also presented in the written form - the slider on a sidebar is not too well visible

- During install you have to insert CD1 then 2 and at the end I got "wrong volume error" instead of "change back CDs" prompt (hardly a bug yet it's surprising they overlooked such a thing.

- After I first run the game and then quit after some time my wallpaper didn't display - F5 did the job and it happened only once so far.

As you can see these things can be hardly called bugs.


PRICE:

Hard to believe yet this game costs ~20$ here. Plus since there was a promotion at the store I purchased it for 12$. This should be another argument that it's worth purchase for you - even I bought original.

I do not know who will distribute it abroad (I think I heard something about Eidos).

Overall mark 9/10 (9.5 if you take price into account and assume that no game can actually get 10)

When I find official English site I?ll give you a link.

http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/games ... l?gmid=136

Btw, you have a better box - I hate you

I have taken a few screenshots yet I will upload only 2 of them so far since they're around 300KB each. For the same reason I give links rather than use command. They?re worth looking at (esp. the 2nd one).

This one pictures an uninteresting lake (I wanted you to see how great water looks).

WARNING: I just viewed those screenshots and they look worse than the game actually does (might be because I converted them to JPG due to their original size)

[url=http://endrjuu.republika.pl/images/SShot000.jpg]http://endrjuu.republika.pl/images/SShot000.jpg[/url]

This one pictures a night Soviet ride on my base (not too many units since it's from a training mission).

[url=http://endrjuu.republika.pl/images/SShot003.jpg]http://endrjuu.republika.pl/images/SShot003.jpg[/url]

I will probably remove these screenshots after some time so don't hesitate with clicking.



[b]Now this is one fine post to become "Safeguard of the Wild" with.[/b] 200 more posts and I?ll have the great 36 shot rifle.

 

QUESTION MARK DISCLAIMER: Apparently when I copy/paste word documents apostrofie's change into question marks. I tried to correct them but might've missed some. Bloody office XP.

Ok, enough of derailing my own thread.

 

*BUMP*

Oh no you're not getting away this easily. I know a few people here like good rts games so why no one replied? 30 views no reply? Don't be cruel. Tell me at least whether I managed to get your interest for but a while. Post whether you read the review at least. Post anything.

 

really?












well i am not really a big fan of RTS
the only RTS game i played was of the Blizzard Series
and i played it because of the story and cinematics (does this game offer this 2?)
maybe if it was TB i would gave it a second look
and i guess most of the member here prefer TB
or am i wrong?

 

Wow, you really are getting treated like crap, Dragoon . Long Live RTS! I've been wanting a WWII 'True' RTS for ages, and now two come my way (the other one is as yet unnamed, codename WWII: RTS , from 1C Maddox Games, the Russian developer that made the beautiful IL-2 Sturmovik). I'll definitely have a look.

I recommend Close Combat III for some top-down WWII RTS goodies. Don't get 1, 2, 4, or 5 - 3 is a brilliant game, much better than the rest. It's set on the Eastern Front (Russia vs. Germany), so there's no Allies, but if this doesn't put you off, it's fantastic.

 

Dragoon, just to show willing, I would like to say that I HATE RTS. There, I have said it.

 

Why? I'm not objecting, just wondering - most people that say that, when asked why, say something like "they're boring", then jump out a conveniently placed window.

 

Dragoon I was interested. It sounds good, cause I have wanted to play a WWII rts game. The only RTS games I have played are the Age Of Empire series, and I like them, but I am never good at them. I got my ass kicked at the lowest levels, so I kinda moved on from them.

But I would like to play a more modern RTS, like this one you're talking about.

 

They're boring.

*jumps out of ground floor window*

Well ... I don't like them because there seems almost no variance in the gameplay from game to game. Way back in the early days, Dune and C&C seemed like great games, but since then the number of clone games has probably exceeded triple figures.

The gamplay they share is too simplistic to warrant that amount of replayability. It amounts to "Get resource, drop building, send trooper to attack/defend." The progression is limited to building and troop types, through which you see bigger guns and more spectactular effects, but the gameplay remains the same throughout. I was bored of the format after the initial Red Alert, and have made various unsuccessful attempts to rekindle my interest since.

The only RTS to capture my attention in recent years has been Majesty, which had an interesting variance in gameplay.

 

Majesty!!! now thats the only RTS i have played that has completely different gameplay from the traditional RTS
this game is kinda old but anyone who is interested in RTS should check this one out highly recomended

 

I thought there are much more rts fans here, but I based my assumption on the number of people discussing Warcraft 3.

I still couldn't play a lot but I did notice a few things:

Limited camera freedom: it's not limited compared to Moon Project like I wrote before. There are two options which limit camera freedom in the menu and I had only one unchecked.

Camouflage - you can set mount a camouflage net on your vehicles which combined with turned off lights and night time make your units virtally invisible (unless someone plays with brightness on the max setting - but then it's his eyes not yours


The game definitely has some issues with my wallpaper. As I said before F5 brings everything back to normal but I still hope it will be patched.

More on graphics. Watching my own tanks drive through the landscape at close-up is great. Also during one battle I did a close-up on a watch-tower. There was a german soldier visible firing a machine gun!

Anti-tank guns are tough and have very long range but heavy ones can shoot only in the direction they were built to face - so if you can find a rout around...

So far no Starcraft like story emerged. There was a cinematic before the campaign (Barbarossa) but there wasn't one between 1st and 2nd mission. Another disadvantage is lack of starcraft like heroes who would have their own faces, stories, strengths and weaknesses. You have a leader who has a name and is stronger than other soldiers but it's not the same. So far these two are the only things I dislike about this game. Well, one more thing maybe - tanks don't knock over trees. I wish they could - at least the smaller ones. Of course you can destroy tress shooting at them but it's a loud option.

 

Sheriff, if you want something different, play CCIII! Really, it's amazing how many factors come into play - apart from the normal 'health' stat, there's ammo, fear, suppression, fatigue, morale, and a few more that I can't remember. Units will disobey your orders if they're scared or in an impossible position - no more kamikaze troops winning games. Tactics in their purest form. Give it a try.

And could you say no to a tank named Ferdinand?

 

Majesty... I forgot about that one. I have it here somewhere. Maybe I'll reinstall it and play it for awhile. It was rather fun - and did have a different twist to it.

Thanks for reminding me, Sheriff! 8)

 

ouch.

I downloaded a 400 meg demo of div div recently - and even with DSL it took forever. I couldn't imagine trying to get a file that size with dialup!

You are a glutton for punishment, eh?

 

Gooood - a follower.

I noticed a new thing about this game. When I attack machine gun posts with tanks they get destroyed. When I attack these with Machine guns shooting units these posts' crew gets killed, posts get only damaged so I can occupy them with my own soldiers.

Also it's easier to destry Tiger Tank shooting at it from the back.

And I like carpet bombings though more bobms should be dropped.

 

Can i drive t-34? With a flamethrower?

 

you can use Download Accelerator Plus
it can be found here
http://www.speedbit.com/

 

Resumed downloads are supported by many clients, including IE (I think). It has to also be supported and enabled on the server, though.

Microsoft FTP server does not support it, but IIS supports it for HTTP downloads. I think most web servers support it and default to having it enabled, these days. If it isn't working, someone may have turned it off. If that's the only server where you can get the file, and they HAVE turned it off, there's nothing you can do as far as I know.