f13.net

I don't usually play war games but I was thinking of giving  one a go.  Just to see...  A friend at Codemasters directed me to this one.  Will I have fun?  I'll let you experts tell me...

http://www.codemasters.com/soldiers/downloads.php

I looked and thought it looked pretty.  But then I went in depth and saw it was WW2 and Real Time.  Then I went back to playing the Gameboy Advance Wars games.  Real Time Strategy blows ass.

I don't like RTS, either, but I thought this game gave a choice.  Well, I took this:

"Command troops by either using group control RTS style'point and click' commands or by using the direct control feature for individual units, providing a more realistic and precise style of play. The choice is yours."

to mean that, anyway.  I'll fiddle with the demo, maybe, and see if it's any fun.  Not having played a game like this, I may be completely misunderstanding the "direct control feature".

I noticed that and thought it was interesting.   I know a similar feature was feature was in the Spellforce demo I played, where you would be able to pan down your perspective to the individual unit and move it around.   It wasn't terribly well implemented but it was an interesting way to watch the action unfold.  I'm not sure how Soldiers compares.

I've been playing through the demo this afternoon, and I'm enjoying the game for the most part.  The graphics are really nice - the attention to detail is really incredible.  All of the buildings, sandbags, walls and other structures are destroyable, and it all looks really nice in motion.  You're able to search through the bodies of enemy soldiers and vehicles  and take whatever they were carrying: fuel, ammo, weapons, etc.

I'm having some problems with the control scheme.  When you take control of a soldier, you have to use the arrow keys to move him around and the mouse to direct his aim.  I would much prefer a WASD style movement while controlling a soldier.  You scroll the overhead view of the camera by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen, but when you do that, you can't see the soldier you're moving around.  I find it kind of awkward, so I've mostly been playing in the RTS mode which brings me to another problem.

Difficulty.  This game is damn hard - or else I'm really losing it when it comes to gaming.  I've played over and over again on "normal" difficulty and I get my ass handed to me every time.  I've switched to "easy" and I've been able to progress further into the mission, but I'm still not able to complete it.  The German forces outnumber you at least 3:1 in the mission on top of having many tanks and APCs.  You, the allies, get one lousy tank that is out of fuel.  Blah!

I'll keep messing around with it though.  I really like WWII games, even though I know most people are sick and tired of them.  Thanks for pointing this title out; I've never heard of it before today.  

-Liquidator

Anyone goty a link to a non-rego needed download? :)

If this is the game I think it is, it's COmbat Misson, the RTS (though I'm not sure who realistic it is).

3D Gamers (http://www.3dgamers.com/games/soldiersheroesww2/)
Happy Puppy (http://www.happypuppy.com/files/getFile.jsp?game_id=1117&gf=soldiers_sp_demo.zip&fid=4142)
Fileshack (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5008)
Filefront (http://topic.news.filefront.com/5852)
PC Gameworld (http://www.pcgameworld.com/download.php/id/5286/folder/demos/filename/soldiers_sp_demo.zip)
FilePlanet (http://www.fileplanet.com/files/140000/141060.shtml?r=5)
nVidia's nZone (http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_soldiers_downloads.html)

-Liquidator

I don't think this one is it. The one you're thinking of is the one done by Maddox/1C yes? I've seen that one in action and it doesn't look anything like this one. I think the working title of the Maddox one is Combat Commander or somesuch.

Edit:

This is the one you want Comstar:
http://www.codemasters.co.uk/wartimecommand/

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I tried to like this game, but I couldn't. They just didn't make it clear on how to go about things. I didn't realize the bins around the house with the general had stuff in them until my 3rd time around. Even then, I couldn't fine a use for them. When the hell did you need to be practically kissing a tank to shoot a rocket at it? NEVER!

You can't control anyone other than the 3 soldiers you start with, which is pretty stupid. You're up against a large company of germans who have many more tanks than you, y'know since you only get 1 and it runs out of gas before you can make use of it.

The controls aren't practical for the type of game they want you to play and they spent way too much time worrying about you being able to blow EVERYTHING up that you can only interact with useless objects. I would of liked to be able to put my soldier in a building so I could tell him to hold fire until AFTER the germs passed by. Y'know, flanking/pincer and all of that. Apparently they don't feel the same way over at Codemasters.

The graphics were the best part to me. The textures were well detailed and everything about it made me say "wow." At least for a RTS. The explosions were cool (despite them bringing my shitty video card to a crawl, but that was expected from the start.) Watching a house just dissapear into tiny bits from your AT gun is fun.

I'm going to wait until the full version to pass any final judgement. So far I'm on the fence. There's a tiny disclaimer message at the level loading screen that says the demo is only 80% done. That can mean alot or a little so, I don't know. We'll see.