War, War never changes. This comes from the Fallout series and it seems that many developers and producers are attracted by the war theme.

Developed by Digital Reality and published by CDV, War Front tries to recreate once again the attack on Berlin and to implement a possible situation from the WW2. What if Stalin decided to take the whole Europe by himself? This is the story of War Front: Turning Point.

 

War, War never changes

Once again, the combative forces will be Germans, Brits, Russians and Americans. You will have two campaigns at your disposal to try and remake the WW2 history. Both Allies and German campaigns have 11 missions, each one with plenty of action. I won't start spoiling the story but each campaign will start in a different manner, according to the real history and from a certain point you will play the same missions but from the opposite side point of view.

 

The Allies

The Allies campaign will provide you with enough units to create your own strategy. You will have at your disposal infantry (up to 4 units), tanks and support units (12 units) and air units (3 units). All these units will have enough firepower to overcome the enemy. Each unit has its own strong and weak points so make sure you play a strategic game and not a "kill them all" type. You will have Matilda, Sherman, Pershing tanks, Caliope, M40 and Bofors for support, repair trucks and much more to give your enemies a hard time.

In the air, P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning are your support. When it comes to major destruction (bombardment, of course), the Allies have B-17 Bomber and two prototype aircrafts: Aphrodite, Earthquake Bomb and Nuclear Strike. Played smart, no fortification or enemy base will be safe enough. In addition to the airplanes, you will be able to call reinforcements. Only if you have a barracks built and you have the money to call them. Able to call them anywhere (watch out for the enemy AA), these reinforcements can change dramatically the game. You can make a nasty surprise to your enemy by landing some bazooka troops in the middle of their base or at a weak spot and create havoc or the enemy might decide to do the same to you right when you have no troops to defend it.

Most of the strategy games have some research involved. War Front has no intention to leave this behind and you will have buildings that will allow you to research special techs for your units and buildings. Some units and buildings will only be available after you research the tech level 1 and two from the HQ.

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The Germans

Germans have some interesting infantry. The third units have jetpacks and use flamethrowers, making them very efficient against both infantry and buildings. Ideal for hit and run, they are weak if undefended. As you advance into the campaign, the Exoskeleton will be at your disposal. Equipped with heavy machine guns, these walking robots are very effective against almost all kinds of ground units, including light and medium tanks.

On the land, you will have rocket launchers, four tanks including the Panther, Tiger and Maus, a sonic tank that is an experimental, advanced high-end prototype technology, which is able to blast sonic waves, dealing great damage to ground forces, damaging everything in their path. The Germans have also repair trucks for the same reasons as the Allies.

In the air, the Germans have the Messerschmitt and Stuka. In addition to these two, the Germans have an airborne fortress named Giantzeppelin. For mass destruction, the Germans have less options. Only two bombers can be called to calm the enemy.

The Germans have less air units but they excel in ground combat. The Maus and Elephant tanks are very powerful and if they gain level are deadly. With four such tanks you can go like a hot knife through butter. Repair them and they are ready for another assault.

 

The Heroes

Each side has three heroes available. Each hero has four skills. One ability, one active skill, one passive and one as radius which gives a certain bonus to all the units in that radius. I won't start describing them but they get better as they gain levels. If at the beginning of the game they will be very useful, as you advance into the campaign and you will be able to recruit powerful units they will become obsolete. To benefit from they radius and passive skills, just put them into a tank and voila, an easy solution.

 

Tactical info

As each units kills enemies, it will receive experience and will increase its attributes. More hit points, damage are some of them. It is wisely to try and keep your units alive as they will be more deadlier on the battlefield as they achieve more experience. As you pass from one mission to another, some of your veteran units will be available on the next missions. Hand picked or chose by you, these units will be available right from the start, allowing you to sometimes rush the enemy and ease your job.

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Gameplay: 80

War Font is what some may call a medium game but at the same time addictive. I agree. Play it for 15 minutes and you will keep on playing. One interesting thing is that the game allows you to try what your allies had to face from their perspective. No major bugs, enough units and cinematics after each mission give you what you need.

 

Graphics: 81

The game doesn't benefit from an excellent graphics but the engine allows you to play the game as you should. Nice explosions, weather effects, good modeled and textured units give you a good RTS.

 

Sound: 86

The sound experience is excellent. The music and sound effect work excellent together and give you that combat feeling, pushing you to feel the fights.

 

Multiplayer: 83

After the completion of the campaigns you will be able to test your skills into skirmish games. Up to 10 people can play with the three factions available in the game (Allies, Germans, and Russians) on either a LAN or the Internet using the Gamespy match-making service.

26 different multiplayer maps are available and Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Conquest, and Secret Orders are four distinct game types in multiplayer.

 

Hardware: 82

The game doesn't have major bugs and its requirements allow most computers to play it. If you are a RTS fans you must test and put this game into your collection.