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Blitzkrieg - Burning Horizons
PC Format from CDV
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I am no whizz kid when it comes to PC games, in fact I am a bit of a dinosaur, and I wondered about passing this item on to one of our other reviewers, But then I thought, maybe having the opinion of a novice may produce as fair a review as any so here goes...
Burning Horizons is an expansion module of the Game Blitzkrieg, which was released last year to positive reviews. It is however a stand alone game in its own right containing not only new vehicles and troop abilities for the original game, but also a series of one off missions and a campaign sequence unique to this game.
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I began by working through the training missions, which are presented in a logical and, thank God, easily understandable format. I found though that despite the point and click features I still had to take notes to remind me of the shortcuts. This though tells you more about me than about the game. The training sessions are fun to play for a novice, and I would judge them useful even for the experienced player to become used to the new features in the game.
The units you command begin, as you would expect with the title of the series, with Armoured Fighting Vehicles, and the range is interesting from German Tigers, and jagdpanthers through to Japanese light tanks, and including a range of self propelled artillery. Next comes the infantry that can be used in a number of roles including
mine clearance, sniper/scout, airborne, and assault troops. These are supplemented by support sections including combat engineers and mechanics for mending bridges and damaged vehicles, transport for ammo and reinforcements, towed and vehicle mounted artillery, and anti aircraft batteries.
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And these are very important as airpower is reflected in the game with (depending on the scenario) fighter cover, ground attack, bombers, transport and reconnaissance aircraft being available. The key to the game is how you combine these various arms to face the developing battle. And you have to keep your mind agile, if you get too fixated on one part of the battle, you can be certain that the enemy will jump all over you in another area.
It is a very good idea to play your way through the one off missions before diving into the campaign. These include assaulting the Italians in East Africa, defending Singapore, and taking on the Russians both on the Eastern Front and the Far Eastern border. Watch out for air attack, and for artillery, both of which can be murderous to your forces. I managed to get myself wiped out half a dozen times before I learned the tricks of selecting and
targeting my artillery, and of changing the infantry formations.
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The campaign scenario is excellent placing you in control of a certain Erwin
Rommel, leading his units through France in 1940, then into the victories in North Africa, the long retreat to Tunisia, and then back to France. I have not yet completed the campaign, but am certainly enjoying
trying, though why Rommel needed tanks when he could have used snipers I will
never know!
The look of the game is excellent, with the terrain features being important to the action, burning trees creating smoke, building blocking line of fire can be destroyed. The Infantry look a bit
awkward when the crawl forward on their bellies, and you do not really have the option to create alternate rushes, leapfrogging forward to assault a position. However the little chaps certainly die in a gloriously gruesome way. And the AFVs brew up in a pretty spectacular manner, if your weapons are able to penetrate the armour (so keep looking for the flank or rear shot, and hide your Shermans).
All in all an excellent game, and one that allows you to simply slip in the disc and start playing without the trouble of redesigning your forces and developing a scenario. Excellent! For more information on CDV products check out the website at http://www.cdv.de
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