I have World War II RTS games falling out of my… ears right now, they are currently de rigueur in the genre. I open cupboard doors and they come streaming down on top of my head in a comical manner. Therefore, Black Bean, the developers responsible for the latest addition to the fray – Stalingrad – need to pull something magical out of the hat to avoid being buried under the competition.
Interface
Stalingrad has a nice, clean look to the user interface. All the actions are readily available, with pop-out sections that add to the detail. You can check your progress or access commands really easily. The setup is quite slick and simple compared with other WWII RTS games I have played recently such as the Codename: Panzers 2 preview or the terrible WWII: Panzer Claws 2. The minimap is in a nice 3D and you can relate it to the terrain topography in the main screen, which can be strategically important.
Gameplay
Stalingrad has a horrible learning curve and there is no tutorial to ease you into the campaigns. You can choose to start the Wehrmacht or the Red Army campaigns from the new game screen, but I’d advise starting with the Germans, as the Soviet levels run directly on in difficulty from the last German Mission.
Straight away in the first Wehrmacht campaign, you are thrown into a difficult advancing situation with few troops and even fewer armoured units. If you move your column up the road even a few metres, you will be met with an initial opposing force and you will have no light vehicles and fewer infantry left to complete the campaign.
The gameplay relies heavily on creating a strategy and safe route to the objective. Unfortunately, this means that you will probably have to resort to trial-and-error, replaying the mission or sections of the mission until you find the best strategy or route through the terrain. This can be pretty tiresome, especially if you want to be able to get into some big pitched battles, there are really none here. At least it’s historically accurate (or so the developer claims).
Graphics
The graphics in Stalingrad are functional but they aren’t going to blow you away. Terrain detail is reasonable, mind you, the snowy landscapes of the USSR don’t really lend themselves to a lush colour palette. The vehicle and infantry models aren’t particularly detailed, but they manage to convey their function well enough with a small amount of in-motion animation. Not a patch on Codename: Panzers 2 though. The same goes for visual effects such as smoke and explosions. They create a pleasing result in a slightly rough way. However, the game runs very well on my mid-range machine with all effects on, no noticeable slowdown or jerkiness detected. Cut scenes are of the black and white newsreel-style taken from original recordings of the Stalingrad campaign, from both points of view. It’s interesting from a historical standpoint.
Sound
The sound is a bizarre mixture. On the plus side, voices are authentic (sounding) German and Russian, explosions are pleasing. Vehicle noises sound really good, with all the right amount of clanking and engine noise, especially the German scout bikes with their moped-like putt-putt engines. It’s a shame that there is little ambient noise to be heard, and it’s an even bigger shame that they decided to partner the game with some awful-sounding rock/metal instrumental. This is especially jarring in the newsreel sequences.
Story
This is what Black Bean big up in all the promo material. They proudly announce that the game is completely historically accurate. That’s great, but it’s not enough. At the beginning of each mission, you will look through a wealth of historical information explaining the history and strategies of the mission as they were in 1942/3. This is really interesting stuff, but there is so much text to wade through and only a couple of maps with a few arrows on. This information is also repeated quite copiously throughout the run-up to a new mission and I can’t help but think that they should have edited it down a bit to make it relevant and enjoyable to read as a break between missions.
Conclusions
To stand out in this packed marketplace you need a unique hook, something to capture the attention of the spending public. Stalingrad tries to do this by infusing the game with historically-accurate details, but it’s presented in such a way that you are better off getting a history book out of the library, it would save on eyestrain. The budget price tag takes the edge off, so might be worth a punt if you have some spare time and some spare change and aren’t already sick to the back teeth of WWII RTS games.
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