Rush For Berlin Preview

January 1945 saw the combatants in the European Theater of Operations take different approaches to the war. The Germans, mindful that only a miracle could save them, fought viciously just to defend their homes. The Allies started pursuing divergent post-war aims. The Yalta agreements notwithstanding, the Western Allies and Soviet Russia knew that the power with the most territory under its control would have the upper hand after the guns fell silent. Hence, a race for territory gained priority over mere destruction of the Wehrmacht. This situation has made for some interesting strategic and operational games but the tactical RTS designers seemed to have shied away from this period. Paradox Games and Stormregion are taking on the subject of the end stages of the war with Rush for Berlin.

Rush for Berlin is a squad/vehicle/character level pausable continuous time tactical game that combines some serious wargame play with role playing aspects. Players can be Western Allies (British and American), Russian, German and French resistance. Solo players start as either the Western Allies or Russian campaigns with a series of interlocked missions - complete with primary, optional and secret objectives - with core units being carried over through the missions and gaining experience and skills while doing so. After both of those campaigns are finished, the German one is unlocked; after that, a French resistance campaign is available. On-line play has the usual mix of game types like "Massacre" or "Hold Objects" So far, this system seems standard fare.

Much of the interface will also be familiar to many gamers. Units on the main map are selected, moved and group by, left click, right click and click-drag, CTRL+# with health bars showing unit status. The mini-map shows objectives, friendly and enemy units and allows quick shifts in view and orders. Icons along the bottom are used to select individual units, change stances and modes along with activating special skills. Production facilities work via easy clicks up to resource limits.

Familiar as all this may seem, Rush for Berlin seems to stand out in some areas. The 3D graphics are very detailed and are shown off to best effect by a good rotatable, zoomable camera view. Even the most jaded serious gamer will be dazzled by the terrain and animation. Weather and ground conditions are not only visible but appear to be critical for play. A T-34 is worthless when led on to thin ice. Sound effects are pleasing and audio feed back from units is entertaining and can be modulated by the player if they become annoying. These features indicate a passion to get out of ruts other companies remain in. Although not vital to game play, the cut scenes at the beginning of each mission are cleverly done.

Russian troops stop near a fire on a snowy night.

This Sherman didn't move fast enough,.

The game also features fifty-three different vehicles modeled for appropriate speed, armor and rate of fire. Each nationality has many types of infantry units, special troops and officers. Each of these entities have special skills; some far fetched such as a few officers calling in paradrops, some amusing such as commissars doling out vodka to boost moral but most are believable like the German tank aces' proficiency with their vehicles. A few vehicles are innovative as well as accurate, e.g. dummy vehicles to confuse the enemy. Each nationality has overarching abilities such as increased production of infantry for the Russians.

In a cutscene, Russian infantry charge down a hill.

Rush for Berlin has some interesting concepts at the beginning of a mission. Players start with their core units but the missions have limited number of slots so players must choose the units best fit to accomplish the task at hand. The game throws a further curve ball by dividing mission slots into green and red slots. Players can add extra troops using red slots but only at the cost of shortening the time available to win a scenario. Therefore, players must start thinking tactically immediately. Decisions on force composition are made easier by another innovation: a streaming video in the mission screen showing good routes to both the main and optional objective. The video can be paused and re-run using VCR-like controls. Players have at least some idea what forces may be required.

The lower half of the mission screen show available core units and mission slots. After unit selection, the screen in the upper left will show possible routes.

A mission itself can be paused anytime and commands issued while paused. Pausing early allows players to review their friendly forces. Along with the core units, missions have additional standard units, some of which may not be immediately under player control. These units may become available when option objectives are completed. Gaining new units by this method presents a paradox. Going after optional goals takes time away from achieving the main objectives, a fact constantly pushed at players by the progress bar across the top of the screen. Yet, the additional troops may be necessary to gain a win. Splitting troops available at the start to take on more than one objective at once may be a solution but dividing a force may cost more resources and power than it gains.

The type of mission may settle such quandaries. Rush for Berlin's missions vary from Special Forces escapades to regular combat. The "night and fog" scenarios often have hidden objective and resources exposed by a change in the tool tip when the cursor passes over a spot. These missions seem more scripted then others with directives like "Follow the partisans to the hidden mine shaft." Normal combat requires the usual defend/occupy/destroy goals. Players may choose to use brute force to accomplish this with all units in one group or they may use units' special abilities to finesse a situation. Another problem arises here. Most special abilities take time to "re-load" so using them early may prevent use when they are needed most. The AI as well as on-line opponents complicate this factor by singling out the most useful units such as medics for early extinction. Players will have to juggle many balls to succeed in the later, larger missions. Fast decisions may be the key to success in this game.

A German detachment starts out to throw the Red Devils out of Arnhem.

The preview copy provided six missions: three Russians, two Western Allies and one German. While these missions had a positive glow, things mentioned in the tutorial and manual were not available. No production was available but seems to be included in the full campaigns. Not all unit or vehicle types were present. At the same time, some ahistorical elements were noted but Rush for Berlin doesn't claim to be a grognard-level game. We liked what we saw and can only hope the gold version carries through with the preview's promise.

• 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium® 4 or similar AMD
• 512 MB RAM
• Windows® 2000, XP with SP1, XP64
• ATI Radeon 8000 or GeForce 3 video card with at least 32 MB RAM (DirectX® 9.0c compatible)
• DirectX® 9.0c compatible 16 bit audio card
• DVD ROM drive
• 4.0 GB free hard disk space
• 56K modem for multiplayer mode