Full Review

5 May 2004 - Blitzkrieg Burning Horizons is the stand-alone, follow-on expansion pack to Blitzkrieg. This time rather than focus on the more popular Second World War battles, publisher CDV has opted to steer the game towards that of German General Erwin Rommel and his battles that took place when Germany invaded France and North Africa.

The game is played over 28 missions, 18 of which are from the above campaign and the rest as stand alone missions dotted around the world including the Pacific rim. While the game fits into the real-time strategy genre, like Sudden Strike and other CDV RTS titles the lack of ability to build bases to launch a strike from will be off putting to some (although Ground Control fans will feel right at home in spite of the departure from SF). That said for the hardcore WWII buff this only ups the ante even more as troops become as precious as rare gems. Send in a convoy of tanks without infantry and they will be shredded to pieces by small skirmishes and ambushes before they make their final destination. If there is one valuable thing to take note of it's that coordination is the key to this game.

Graphics are still your typical 2D RTS standard and nothing as exciting as the Command and Conquer Generals interface has been employed here, like its predecessor, is rather flat, however making up for this is the ability to interact with virtually anything on the map. Trees can be set on fire to cause smoke cover and buildings destroyed to get a better shooting advantage in some cases.

VERDICT
With multiplayer support so you can spend hours battling it out against friends and with such a high level of detail once again from German developer CDV, this game isn't for the casual RTS fan looking for a quick fix. However to the serious RTS player who has enjoyed previous titles such as the Sudden Strike series this will quell the need to look for a similar title for some time.