When we all heard Stormregion’s new game was going to be a World War Two RTS, I don’t think many members of the world’s gaming communities were exactly surprised. Makers of both Codename Panzers: Phase One and its sequel Phase Two, both fondly reviewed on this very domain, the Hungarian team have already proven themselves capable developers of graphically pleasing, tactically deep WWII RTS games, of which Rush for Berlin is highly, and unsurprisingly, reminiscent.
The focus of RfB’s trio of combat-packed campaigns is strictly the closing months of the war, from early 1944 to the fall of the titular Berlin in April ’45. Suitably, there is an array of traditional “clear the city of German forces” missions that see your ground-pounding troops supported by artillery bombardments, skulking snipers, recon planes, bombing runs, and rocket barrages. So far, so cliché, perhaps – but Stormregion have deviated from the standard formula in some areas, namely the concepts of time, of officer units, and others that we’ll come back to later.
Perhaps that first thing that strikes you about RfB as you fire it up for the first time is its agreeably impressive ‘40s visual style. Even on the menu screen you don’t feel safe as silhouette Stukas dive-bomb overhead and what sounds like the entire Soviet Fourth Rifles Division stomping past. There are titles that look as though ripped from a 1943 comic book, and suitably stirring music carries the whole thing along throughout. The whole game cleverly evokes the period in which it is set, immediately and impressively setting the scene.
Once the trio of informative tutorial missions are over (Which, crushingly, the “British Campaign” turns out to be) it’s on to either the Russian, Western Allied, or German campaigns, with the option of a brief French campaign later on. Naturally, there are multiplayer options too that will no doubt take off as the game ages. Each campaign mission is introduced by slickly made intro videos that suitably set the scene, and then a unit selection screen and objective video that allows you to prepare for the battle ahead. Your decisions on what kind and how many units to take determines your mission timings, and can consequently influence your final mission score and even your mission rating, which can be reviewed from the main campaign screen – so the tactical options begin even before your troops hit the dirt.
One relatively minor criticism comes with the nature of your campaign objectives: they often seem slightly misleading or vague. Battling through the streets of Belgrade, you’re instructed to capture an Abwehr officer on the run before he escapes to a plane. Fair enough, you’d think – but in actuality your real objective is not to capture an actual officer (whom I never even saw in-game) but simply to destroy the defences near his impromptu airfield. This is never made properly clear – and for a timed objective, you can be staggering your men about in a desperate attempt to figure out what’s going on – you can even destroy the plane and fail the mission, bizarrely.
But the missions, when you know what you’re doing, are frequently very spectacular – especially when there are beefy units like the hugely satisfying Soviet Katyusha rocket truck and the fearsome Mark V Panzer fielded by the Germans around, as well as flamethrower troops, snipers, shock troops, mortar teams and many, many more. The graphical effects on flame, explosions, building collapses and so on are amongst the game’s highlights – the Katyusha’s fiery rocket barrages with their pretty visual and sonic effects are a particular favourite.
Despite a few confusing or by-the-numbers missions sprinkled through the game, combined with the frequently frantic, last-gasp battles the campaigns often offer, we are beginning to talk about a genuinely rewarding RTS, most definitely a sum of its parts. My only criticisms concern a slightly weak and near-hidden skirmish option, the brevity of the otherwise satisfying campaigns and their sometimes awkward objectives, and a couple of infrequent sound glitches. No doubt some of these will be overcome in patches – and regardless of anything, RfB remains a satisfying slice of WWII RTS, although still not the revelation we may have hoped for.
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