Sol Invictus
Erudite
I just received word that the demo for Soldiers was just released in my usual Codemasters newsletter so I decided to give it a go. I was expecting a game like Ground Control, C&C Generals or any other RTS these days but lo and behold - it's nothing like any of those games.
On the contrary, it's like a cross between Syndicate/Wars and Silent Storm/JA2. BAM. It's only a 1-mission demo but I've been playing it for the past 2 hours. The graphics are superb, with flexible graphics settings (including a framerate limiter) so old computers should have no problem running this one. Most of the environment in the game is destroyable or interactive, much like Silent Storm.
Your soldiers (you control only 3 of them in the demo mission) can crouch behind fences, sandbags, destroyed buildings and in trenches. You can even man tanks, trucks, german attack motorbikes, AA guns and a variety of other vehicles. Vehicles need fuel to operate and ammunition is limited. You can even loot enemy bodies for weapons and ammunition. Just as well, your soldiers can equip items they find lying around or swap their guns, just like in Syndicate.
Here's the fun part: you can have your guys automatically fire at people (with little accuracy), or you can control them yourself by pressing the CTRL button. This mode works exactly the way the combat in Syndicate and Syndicate Wars did with one exception - you have a realistic amount of ammunition and reloading takes a couple of seconds (though this is done automatically). Left clicking fires at the spot while right clicking allows you to switch to your grenades if you have any to throw them. Ragdoll physics exists here, as does realistic environment. Toss a grenade into a sandbag and they all go flying. Bodies even get torn to bloody little pieces with limbs flying around.
Your soldiers can run, crouch or crawl.
The AI has got to be one of the smartest I've seen yet. Enemies can flank you and they know what weapons to use against you depending on the situation. If you're hiding behind some barricades or sandbags, the Nazis can smoke you out (or kill you) by throwing grenades over them instead of mindlessly walking around to die. Soldiers even know how to jump over sandbags (as can you). They know how to take cover and behave very realistically. If you're in a tank, they're clever enough to send their tank hunters to blow you up while a few of them might wait behind cover for you to run out.
The coolest part I've seen in the game was when a truck full of nazis were unloading and were blown up by my tank. A few of them jumped to safety (though receiving some damage) while others ran for the nearest available cover to shoot at the allied troops.
What's truly fun about this game is that buildings are realistic and utterly destroyable, much like the houses in Silent Storm. Being that it's in real time, it looks a helluva lot better, too. imagine the nazis surprise when I went to hide out in the ruins of the building I had blown up.
Oh hell, just check it out: http://www.codemasters.com/soldiers/
On the contrary, it's like a cross between Syndicate/Wars and Silent Storm/JA2. BAM. It's only a 1-mission demo but I've been playing it for the past 2 hours. The graphics are superb, with flexible graphics settings (including a framerate limiter) so old computers should have no problem running this one. Most of the environment in the game is destroyable or interactive, much like Silent Storm.
Your soldiers (you control only 3 of them in the demo mission) can crouch behind fences, sandbags, destroyed buildings and in trenches. You can even man tanks, trucks, german attack motorbikes, AA guns and a variety of other vehicles. Vehicles need fuel to operate and ammunition is limited. You can even loot enemy bodies for weapons and ammunition. Just as well, your soldiers can equip items they find lying around or swap their guns, just like in Syndicate.
Here's the fun part: you can have your guys automatically fire at people (with little accuracy), or you can control them yourself by pressing the CTRL button. This mode works exactly the way the combat in Syndicate and Syndicate Wars did with one exception - you have a realistic amount of ammunition and reloading takes a couple of seconds (though this is done automatically). Left clicking fires at the spot while right clicking allows you to switch to your grenades if you have any to throw them. Ragdoll physics exists here, as does realistic environment. Toss a grenade into a sandbag and they all go flying. Bodies even get torn to bloody little pieces with limbs flying around.
Your soldiers can run, crouch or crawl.
The AI has got to be one of the smartest I've seen yet. Enemies can flank you and they know what weapons to use against you depending on the situation. If you're hiding behind some barricades or sandbags, the Nazis can smoke you out (or kill you) by throwing grenades over them instead of mindlessly walking around to die. Soldiers even know how to jump over sandbags (as can you). They know how to take cover and behave very realistically. If you're in a tank, they're clever enough to send their tank hunters to blow you up while a few of them might wait behind cover for you to run out.
The coolest part I've seen in the game was when a truck full of nazis were unloading and were blown up by my tank. A few of them jumped to safety (though receiving some damage) while others ran for the nearest available cover to shoot at the allied troops.
What's truly fun about this game is that buildings are realistic and utterly destroyable, much like the houses in Silent Storm. Being that it's in real time, it looks a helluva lot better, too. imagine the nazis surprise when I went to hide out in the ruins of the building I had blown up.
Oh hell, just check it out: http://www.codemasters.com/soldiers/
