For publishers like CDV Software and Paradox Entertainment World War II is the most popular setting for many of its real-time strategy offerings on the PC. Hungarian developer Stormregion has taken the concepts it created in its popular Panzer Commander series and has switched things up to create an alternate universe where players can change the "last days" before Berlin fell using experimental "super weapons." For the record, Rush for Berlin isn't a part of the Codename: Panzers series from Stormregion, but you can see that the last game in that series has an influence on this game. But the similarities end there as Rush for Berlin uses a whole new graphics engine, and offers a bunch of gameplay mechanics that make it one of the more interesting WWII RTS gaming experiences in the distant horizon.

The Story

Rush For Berlin tells the tale of the German capital of Berlin in its last days as Allied Forces and Russia converged and stomped the Axis forces into submission. The game offers the historical scenarios as you would expect from any WWII RTS game (including an interesting one involving the French trying to liberate their own country from the Germans), but it also adds a number of other interesting elements to mix things up. Rush For Berlin lets players play a hypothetical scenario involving Axis forces where Stauffenberg's July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler succeeds and a new government is formed. In this hypothetical settings the German forces find a way to mass produce prototype weapons "super weapons" that could have changed history drastically.

Beyond these hypothetical scenarios, historical scenarios and the introduction of prototype super weapons being put in play, Rush For Berlin also adds a number of other features like a hero-skill system that gives you the power to increase your officers' ranks and give them special active and passive abilities. The best way to describe officers in Rush For Berlin is to call them "hero units" like you'd find in fantasy games like Heroes of Might and Magic or Warcraft with powerful and upgradeable abilities. These abilities could include such skills as propaganda -which obviously hurts the morale of opposing forces, or more active skills like one shot kills that increase accuracy on a shot serving up some pretty deadly results.

Time Will Tell

Rush For Berlin also throws a time management system where players basically try to reserve time much like you would a resource. Time left over during each mission is moved forward to the next mission, giving players a slight advantage depending on how quickly the managed the last mission. This also makes the strategic choices players make during a mission more important. For example, using slower but more powerful units might seem like a good idea at first glance, but it will take a lot longer to accomplish the mission, whereas using ground forces might be more advantageous because it takes less time to queue them up.

From a presentation stand-point Rush For Berlin is a decent looking game, due to the enhanced version of the Gepard engine that it uses. The game offers fully 3D environments populated by tons of living breathing citizens that go about their business until war breaks out. The world is populated with plenty of trees, people, traffic and historically modeled buildings and structures you'd expect to find in Europe. It should also be noted that the environments in the game are fully destructible. Buildings get destroyed, terrain gets deformed and things catch fire as players battle it out in multiplayer and in the single campaigns. The game looks good and the presentation - from the world to the mission briefings - are done in a way that meld together to form a cohesive and well done presentation.

Rush For Multiplay

But the real icing on the cake for Rush For Berlin is its myriad of multiplayer modes and the promise from Paradox that its plans to offer plenty of tournaments for fans. Rush For Berlin will offer multiplayer modes which run the gamut from the traditional like deathmatch. domination and cooperative to new game types like rush and risk modes. In rush mode players race to secure objectives against other players, with those making it to those points and holding them without destroying them the ultimate winner.

In risk mode each player is assigned a specific task at random. The first player to accomplish that task is deemed the winner. Since no one knows what each player is trying to accomplish this makes for an interesting challenge. Perhaps players will be able to surmise what's going on and interfere with the other players' tasks, while trying to accomplish their own resulting in an interesting game of cat and mouse from every angle..

Berlin or Bust

Rush For Berlin may look like the same old tired WWII RTS title you've seen a thousand times but don't be confused - there's a lot of interesting gameplay mechanics at work here, and delving into the gameplay proves that this isn't just an updated version of Stormregion's other RTS titles. Players won't be able to truly appreciate it until they try it out for themselves and see (you can get started on that by grabbing the recently released multiplayer demo ). We'll have more on this game, including a full blown review in the coming weeks. You can learn more about Rush For Berlin by visiting www.paradoxplaza.com - James Fudge.