I may be different from many, in that I pay more attention to previews than reviews when it comes to gaming. After all, when I get the chance of reviewing games it helps knowing which ones I would like. Also I find myself in the minority that I actually seem to look forward more to many of the “smaller” titles as opposed to the big blockbusters.
Soldiers was one such game. As soon as I saw the screenshots a few months back I knew this was going to be a game I wanted to play, and a quick read-up on the game got me even more excited. As you may know by now, I’m not a huge RTS fan, but Soldiers seemed to go more along the Commandos route of control and gameplay.
In many ways Soldiers is to Commandos what Call of Duty was to Medal of Honour. It takes the genre one step further. Each mission gives you a handful of units which you must use against the enemy, who seem to outnumber you ten to one. The first thing you will notice just from the screen shots are the graphics. They look gorgeous and are full of detail. Not only do they look the part but they play the part too. Everything can be interacted with – Tanks can drive through walls and knock down trees, whilst your troops even have the option to set fire to much of the scenery with matches. Whilst this wanton destruction sounds fun, it actually affects the game strategically, as the environment can be used for cover. The physics engine is also fantastic, making the game seem much more realistic than any before it.
Back to the game; as mentioned, it’s very close to the Commandos series of games – part RTS/part puzzle game. It’s down to you to work out how best to meet the mission objectives using your very limited resources. There are four campaigns to play through (UK, US, Russian and German) and each plays differently with different missions and objectives. Each mission is broken into segments wherein certain objectives must be met before you can progress. In the first UK mission for example, you must use your one solitary Soldier to swim ashore onto a small island (which is full of Germans) and take out the searchlights and the patrol boat, which will allow the rest of your crew to come ashore unseen. This very first mission highlights just how freeform the game is and offers the imaginative gamer numerous ways to overcome each problem.
I have mentioned the graphics already, but they need mentioning twice – they do not just look good for the sake of it. They are essential to how the game plays. Everything you see can be used and gives an added depth to the strategy element of the game. See a tank then get in it – see a dead body then loot it. A wall? - Well you can either jump over it, use it for cover, or drive a tank through it. There are no fixed paths through the missions and this is never more obvious than when you drive through a house rather than around it. Going into even further detail, each vehicle has its unique ammo and also a finite fuel supply which must be kept topped up. Oh - and the more people you have inside a combat vehicle the more efficiently it performs. It really is deep.
Even as I write the above I actually find myself getting excited – as I type I am thinking of various different tactics which I could employ in various sections. The problem is though, for all the good stuff I’ve mentioned above, I don’t actually like the game. Yes you read that correctly. I want to like it. I have lost track of how many times I have loaded it up just to see if it gets better, but it doesn’t. I find the whole thing incredibly fiddly and annoying. Things like the camera zoom that never goes close enough in or far enough out, making it difficult to see what’s going on around you. It’s also incredibly difficult to work out who is who on the field of battle. Numerous times I have run towards someone I think is on my side only to be taken out by a blast of his machine gun as the figure was so tiny I could not actually see he was a German – and that was in a daylight mission, things get more confusing in the dark.
Soldiers comes with a fantastic tutorial which does help you get a feel for the game, but even that can’t help when it actually comes to the missions for real. You have two modes of control; the standard ‘point and click’ method which will be familiar to most PC gamers, and then a direct control which allows you to take control of an individual soldier using the arrow keys. However, I found both methods to be rather fiddly. The direct control was a real pain and the soldiers always seem to lag a second behind you. The standard control, whilst working fine for movement, always seemed to be hit and miss when it came to the important part of killing an enemy. You would think that a soldier armed with a gun would actually shoot their opponent, but for some inexplicable reason mine always seem to prefer running straight at the enemy and then getting killed. I have figured it out though; the soldier didn’t have his weapon equipped at the time I gave him his order! – and despite confronting an enemy the AI doesn’t make him draw his weapon and use it (seeing as he just shot someone a little earlier I’m not sure why he would put it away though).
Soldiers is not a bad game as such and has some real high points, it’s just a game that I can’t get on with. I suppose it’s a testament to the game that as I mentioned earlier I’m thinking about it when not playing, and I will without doubt return to it. Each time I hope something will click, and that I will be able to work out why it is so fiddly to play, because I honestly feel that if I can get to grips with the controls then Soldiers will probably be a game that plays as good as it looks.
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