Imperial Guard
When playing as the Imperial Guard strength in numbers is the key to success. For example, whilst playing one of the missions in the solo campaign I managed to gather a total of seventy three men which included Sergeants and a Command squad… but trying to storm an enemy base on foot is not a good idea and I got slaughtered. Thankfully I had men ready to be deployed so as one unit was taken out another appeared at my main base at the start of the map. Now one of the things I have really disliked about RTS games in the past is that if the army you deployed gets destroyed and the main base was at the other end of the map you could be waiting nearly ten minutes for your new troops to get to the battle. Of course, while you’re waiting for the next group of soldiers to arrive back where you got to, the enemy are busy rebuilding their base leaving you to nearly have to start all over again with your attack. It could end in a bit of a deadlock situation if the next group of soldiers end up getting themselves killed and so on and so on. With Winter Assault and the Imperial Guard scenario though you have a quicker means of travel. The Chimera tanks which can carry three ten man squads but actually move only slightly faster than on foot (most RTS games have a vehicle similar to this), or even better you can put men into a bunker and move them through tunnels underground to the next bunker closer to the action. Simply select a unit and move it into the bunker, then find a bunker close to where you want your troops to be, left click on it and you can move the men out onto the battlefield. This makes life so much easier and quicker to get about! On a final note on the Imperial Guard scenario you don’t just play as the Imperial Guard, occasionally you will take control of groups of Eldars working behind the scenes helping out the Imperials… much to their disliking. This makes the scenario a lot more interesting and adds a bit of variety to the story (sorry, no spoilers here at all!).
Click for larger imageThe A.I on Winter Assault isn’t too bad; however I have noticed a few things that could be improved on. Firstly if you have a large squad of men that get taken down to only one or two they don’t really seem to care whether they survive or not, they will just stand there whatever cause they have chosen! It would have been much better if they decided to turn tail and run whilst waiting for you to send along additional troops to give them the backup they need (the most you get out of them if this happens is shouts of we’re outnumbered etc..). Another gripe with the A.I is if you click on a building to attack it you guys will just carry on attacking, regardless if they come under fire or not. The only time they’ll attack the enemy is if enemy troops get in the way of their target and they have to get into a fire fight to clear a way through. I know I’ve clicked on the building and not the enemy troops but you’d think they would have the intelligence to take out the heavy firepower before proceeding! My final niggle is a bit of a bug type one… on one of the missions you get backup from a few Basilisk tanks, however you can’t get access to them at all. They arrive on top of a raised area but there’s no way down for them so they just sit there looking pretty without doing anything at all no matter how hard you try to get them off it! Annoying…
Visuals and sound are what you would expect from most RTS games, there’s nothing overly groundbreaking but they are functional and look decent enough. On the visual side of things the cut scenes are all rendered by the games engine, nice and close up, making full use of the game’s zoomable view feature. The explosions are nicely impressive with realistic looking smoke coming from vehicles when they are severely damaged and the rather cool, large explosions when a power generator blows up. Textures on Winter Assault look good when zoomed in on the characters and the scenery and overall I must admit the textures are some of the best I’ve seen on a RTS so far. Sound, on the other hand, is less inspiring. You occasionally get a sort of dramatic low key score running in the background which is fitting for the situation you are in but the music is much of a muchness otherwise. Weapon sounds can be very similar, regardless of what faction you are playing but they are functional once again and in keeping with the rest of the game’s sounds. Speech is pretty high quality though, although at times it can get a bit tiresome and repetitive with the same phrases constantly repeated when a certain action is performed. I found the speech on the Orc scenarios much better and didn’t tire of it at all because some of its damn funny!
Click for larger imageNow before I sum everything up it’s time to take a quick look at the multiplayer side of things on Winter Assault. This is something you’ll soon find yourself doing as the solo campaigns don’t take too long to get through for either side. After patching up to the latest build you get connected to Gamespy Arcade to play online. There are a few different setups for the game so I decided to try a 4 on 4 fight, Chaos Marines against Space Marines. It works in the exact same way as the skirmishes you play against the CPU but obviously you’re playing against less predictable human players. The basic premise is to build up your base as quick as possible whilst also getting as much tech and firepower behind you before the enemy four player team decide to attack all together. You’ve got to be quick, I was obliterated by two other (may have actually been three, I was to busy trying to save my base at the time!) attacking teams…. so that shows that even beating the AI still means you’ve a lot of play left in the online side of things. The multiplayer side of Winter Assault is fun, everyone in the chat lobby was very welcoming whether you are seasoned player or complete n00b so it has a decent supporting community and not one person commented on me being a complete amateur after I mentioned this was the first time I had played this online… which was nice. With the multiplayer side of things Winter Assault has a lot more to offer than just the solo campaigns and should keep people that enjoy the RTS genre entertained for a good while.