The idea behind the Soldiers series was to create a RTS game that had its roots deep in realism, a place where few games dare to tread. Now, after years of success world wide, especially in Russia, the Soldiers series has received its latest edition, Men of War: Assault Squad.ĭeveloped by Best Way's co-developer Digitalmindsoft, Assault Squad takes the original formula and enhances it to an even greater level. Now, you may roll your eyes and say to yourself “Bah! World War II? I heard enough about that from my grandpa! Lets go fight off alien scum or disgruntled Chinamen as samurai!” but Soldiers was the innovation that RTS games needed. Initially developed by Ukrainian company Best Way, Soldiers: Heroes of World War II was one of the first real-time tactics games of its type to be set in World War II.
That is where the Soldiers series comes in. Collect resources, build unit building structure, mash the button to build inexpensive unit, rush enemy base, win. While both of those scenarios were distinctly interesting in their own right, the gameplay of both is largely the same. The other involves the typical xenophobe human space marines marching around the universe acting as universal pest control against hordes of ravenous flesh eating alien bastards. Both distinctly different in design, one being about time travelling scientists killing Adolf Hitler in order to prevent World War II only to cause the Soviets to take his place in an alternate history scenario. Compare, if you will, the recently released Starcraft 2 and the classic Red Alert.
Admittedly, it is hard to change something that has worked for decades. Or does it? Most RTS games fail to take the genre anywhere new, apart from a quick change of scenery.