One of these days, we're actually going to win World War II. There will be that one, great and final battle that leads the Allies over the Axis in one final clash of arms. We aren't there yet, though. World War II continues to get a tom of play in computer and video games. It's understandable. From an historical, marketing, and tactical perspective it just makes sense. Still, the Great War is a bit long in the tooth and it takes a pretty special game to capture the attention of a jaded gaming public who have stormed the beaches at Normandy and defended Stalingrad dozens of times in 2D, 3D, and on tabletops.

That's the real kicker when discussing Rush for Berlin, a real-time strategy game from the same people that brought us Codename: Panzers. This is a highly competent World War II RTS. It's not too heavily bound by realism as to forego good RTS style gameplay but it's got enough authenticity in it to please most hardcore historical gamers (a notoriously tough lot to please).

This is not a game with any new and brilliant features that will turn the genre on its ear. It's just a very solid, well-designed World War II real time strategy game. If that's what you're looking for then it more than fits the bill, If, however, you just cannot get excited about yet another trek to Europe circa 1945 then it's highly doubtful that this game is going to change your mind and get your historical RTS juices flowing.

The game's big 'twist' is in how it uses time as a resource. Each game mission has a time limit that is portrayed as a sliding bar on the game screen. If you take too long to do a mission you lose time for the next mission – this is, after all, a 'Rush for Berlin' and time is of the essence. Conversely if you win a mission quickly you'll gain additional time for the next fight. It's a neat little twist.

There are four campaigns in the game (and no skirmish mode so it's the campaigns and multiplayer, and that's it). Each campaign focuses on a specific theater: Germany, the East Front, the Western Allies, and the French. The missions are like a greatest hits of the war – from Bastogne to Berlin. There are 25 missions in all, so you're going to get your money's worth because the missions take at least 45 minutes to an hour to complete. The AI is no pushover, either, particularly on the hard setting. Thankfully the game provides you with the ability to save the game when and where you want (and you'll be using this a lot because some of the fights are brutally tough).

The game itself pretty much runs things by the numbers. You get the typical World War II units such as Sherman tanks, mortar teams, Panzers, etc. This isn't a typical "build 'em up" RTS, however; you won't be harvesting resources or worrying about how much raw material you have collected. This is a pure tactical game. You do build units, though. You can choose to construct new tanks or recruit new GIs from factories and HQs, but the meat of the game is in the planning and the execution of that plan – not the building of an army itself. The mission maps are very large and objectives update and change on the fly so there's very little time to rest during a scenario even after a tough fight – there's always another objective.

Officers serve as the game's 'hero' units. They provide all sorts of advantages and abilities from basic morale boosts (Russian officers carry vodka, which is just plain cool) to being able to call in paratroopers. These officers (as well as some other units) will serve as your armies "core units" which may be carried over from mission to mission. This is an underused feature in today's strategy games because it allows you to get attached to certain units; this in turn makes it even worse when you lose a group of tanks that you have had for several missions. This hurts double because units earn experience through combat and veteran units are much, much more valuable than green units with no combat history.

Rush for Berlin has some of the best sound effects in any wargame to date. This is actually one of the features that stand out the most. The explosions, the weather, and the tanks – everything sounds incredibly authentic. The music is forgettable but the sounds of war are crafted perfectly here (sans blood curdling screams of death, thankfully they spared us that). In addition to the sound of it, the use of weather and the environment as a gameplay dynamic is brilliantly executed. Trucks move faster on a road than in the grass or mud. Sounds simple, sure, but a lot of games screw this up. It's hard to see during a snowstorm, limiting range and accuracy. The list goes on and on but Rush for Berlin does a wonderful job in both slapping you in this setting via its use if sound and then making it more believable by using weather as a device and not just for show.

Multiplayer mode introduces a few new wrinkles. There's the new RUSH game ((Relentlessly Utilized Score Hunt) and RISK (Race Intensive Strategic Kombat). RISK is pretty much a straight-forward game as players try to achieve certain map objectives; RUSH allows teams or players to try to reach varying objectives, which provides for a bit more fun. Sadly, hardly anyone is playing online so it's best to set the game up on a LAN rather than try a random 'net game.

In the end, Rush for Berlin is very easy to recommend for wargamers and real-time gamers who aren't tired of the genre. Stormregion obviously knows this landscape backward and forward and it's hard to find any glaring faults with the game – other than that it is yet once more unto the breach that is the Second World War. - William Abner