Blitzkrieg II promises some really compelling content and inspired innovations over previous real time strategy titles set against the backdrop of the "War to end all wars." In fact, the documentation I received with my preview code actually states; "What makes Blitzkrieg II different from other 'wanna be' World War II RTS Titles?" and then goes on to enthusiastically detail each of these key features.

And so, as part of this preview of Blitzkrieg II, let’s examine each of these features and make our own decision about Blitzkrieg II, shall we?

Feature 1: Three sizable, historically accurate campaigns.

Of course the documentation is considerably more loquacious when describing this feature, but what it really boils down to is that these campaigns are the basis for everything in Blitzkrieg II. While the preview code did not contain complete campaigns for each of the three factions (German, American, and Soviet), the German campaign was very good and quite sizable. In fact, I would say this is the best campaign of any World War II based strategy game I have ever played.

Feature 2: A dynamic campaign interface that rewards historical accuracy.

This feature is inextricably linked to the first feature. In fact, they are so tightly coupled that one might question the need to call it out specifically or how it can be called a feature at all. The answer is fairly simple. While the campaigns are historically accurate, you are not really forced to follow the historical path. This feature is given it’s own spotlight because when you choose to detour from the path of history, you actually change and affect the remaining stages of the campaign. That’s not to say that you can manifestly set aside the entirety of history, but rather that you can make minor alterations to the minutia of details that go hand in hand with the event of history. You cannot, for instance, choose not to cross the Marne. But you can choose to heavily use bombers or infantry in your continuation of the "Lightning War" (blitzkrieg) as opposed to tanks and other armored vehicles. But the most subtle changes occur between battles. After each step along the road of history your performance is calculated and medals and promotions are made available for you to distribute to your commanders. Of course, each commander has specific skills and abilities which make them valuable to a military operation and as such, their rank and use within your military directly affects the abilities and action of your military. For example, if you were to award a medal or promotion to a commander of a light armor division instead of a heavy armor division then your military would subtly shift toward the manufacture and use of light armor units. Again, this is preview code only and I have not had the opportunity to thoroughly test the dynamics of the promotion system. It is entirely possible that the changes I have made against the doctrine of history had purely coincidental results.

Feature 3: Over 250 realistically modeled military units.

All this really means is that someone took the time to find out what the units actually looked like and created models based on those findings. In truth the units do look really good. Crisp and detailed, each unit looks as though it were pulled from the screen of “Saving Private Ryan”, that’s how realistic they look. If it’s realistic you want, then let’s be realistic for a minute. How detailed and realistic can a unit really appear from an isometric viewpoint while partially covered with buildings, trees and other units? Sure you can zoom in and get a decent look, and what I saw looked excellent, but I would not say the units were any more realistic or accurate than those of other strategy games based on this era.

Feature 4: A full featured editor.

In all honesty, I never check out the editors from preview code and rarely in production code unless the buzz makes it sounds like the something really special. But including a solid editor is an awesome addition to any good RTS.

Feature 5: Realistic combat modeling.

Now this is a feature. The documentation claims that combat actions consider such things as each units armor plating, penetration effectiveness of a round, the reload time or each weapon, the experience of each unit, and the angle of a each shot. In fact, the documentation states that tracking is done for each round fired. Again, I was unable to verify most of these claim, but I can state unequivocally that the features regarding armor and reload times are dead on. Tank and other armor units are the most obvious beneficiary of these new features and as such show their effects most obviously. Smaller weapons clearly have less armor penetration with specialty units, such as anti-tank artillery, have an insane amount of armor penetration. It was difficult to create and apples to apples type comparison as the game does not lend itself well to such activities, but I was able to manipulate the units in one campaign to get pretty accurate test scenario. Essentially the test consists of a long stretch of open road with one unit of heavy armor charging toward my position. First I assigned an infantry unit to that position and tried the affect of a hit on the enemy armor by watching for changes in the health meter. As you might expect, the infantry unit had little affect. Besides the infantry unit I was also able to use an anti-tank gun, a light armor unit and a heavy armor unit. The anti-tank gun had the most affect, followed by the heavy armor unit, and so on. That alone is pretty cool, but taking the test further I used a similar arrangement to hit the unit from the side and the rear and each time I changed firing angles, the damage continued to be more pronounced based on the amount of armor for that strike location. This is very important as most games simply overlook this factor and apply one armor value for the entire unit, including the top and bottom. That’s right kids, the top and bottom appear to have their own armor values which means that land mines, artillery and planes are exceptionally nasty again armor units. Just like in real life.

Looking beyond the listed features I also found that combat control was very awkward. It was difficult to keep units grouped together and formations seemed to fall apart quickly, even if you could get them established in the first place. This awkwardness extends to the calling of reinforcements. This was really ungainly and completely detracted from the flow of the game. Any time you think more about using the interface than playing the game, you have a poor design.

The preview code also had a very annoying habit of locking up my computer at very inappropriate times. A lot of screenshots were lost thanks to this. Again, this is preview code so some problems are bound to occur and I would not expect this issue to make it into the final retail build.

While I found many of the new features to be quite cool or downright awesome, my favorite piece has to be the destruction of terrain objects as the armor units move through them. Trees, fences, buildings, monuments, everything is susceptible to the thundering power of a heavy tank. Sure there are roads that stretch from town to town, and sure traveling the roads is faster than going over and through the rough, but then again, that’s where people tend to place land mines and set up ambushes. Nah, much better, and more fun, to send your tanks overland and watch them mow down trees and turn fences into kindling while creating a better angle of attack on the enemy position.

In conclusion, Blitzkrieg is a solid title that should deliver on most of it’s promises. Fans of real time strategies, World War II aficionados and those with an interest in historical military actions with enjoy this title. If you are all three, then Blitzkrieg II is a must have.