The single-player missions touch some “greatest hits” moments from German, Allied, and Soviet campaigns, plus a (remarkably timely) two-mission Dunkirk campaign for both Germans and Allies. Instead, you’re getting exactly what it says on the tin: a tactical real-time strategy game about tanks and soldiers that includes three seven-mission campaigns, plus multiplayer and AI skirmish modes that accommodates up to 3v3 matches. There are no production queues, and no meta strategy campaign.
It’s been nearly ten years since the launch of Sudden Strike 3, and playing the fourth game in the long-running series feels a bit like a time capsule from a simpler era for RTS. Kite Games’ Sudden Strike 4 doesn’t try anything fancy, and while it’s a nice return to tactical basics at its core, the flaws make it hard to shake the feeling you could be playing a better, older game. StarCraft II’s success frightened off most competition for years, and between the excellent Company of Heroes and the janky-but-loveable Men of War series, it’s tough to keep your steel pot above the water line. The problem facing any developer setting out to make a real-time strategy game today, particularly one set in World War II, is how to distinguish their title from a pack that’s already chock-full of very good games.
