Blitzkrieg: Burning Horizon (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Brett Todd
• Reviewed on: 06/09/2004
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 06/13/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Blitzkrieg: Burning Horizon (PC) Review

Blitzkrieg, a pretty good 2003 tactical real-time strategy game set during--wait for it--World War II, is spawning a pair of expansion packs in 2004. The first of these releases, a stand-alone add-on called Burning Horizon, has been cranked out quickly by developer Nival Interactive and partner La Plata Studios, and it provides more of the same gameplay with the noteworthy absence of multiplayer modes. Solo missions here are so similar to those featured in the original that they might as well be outtakes from that game. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, since Blitzkrieg's captivating blend of real-time mouseslinging and realistic handling of WWII combat tactics still holds up.

There still isn't any economic model or resource gathering to be found in Burning Horizon, so you just take the troops and hardware provided at the beginning of a mission and try to complete objectives with what you've got. Occasionally you'll be rewarded with reinforcements, but play overall is focused on making do with the starting allotment of soldiers, tanks, artillery, support units, and aerial support.

The big difference here is the subject matter. Where the original Blitzkrieg missions saw you fighting across European battlefields that have been depicted in so many strategy games that they've practically lost all impact and relevance, here the main focus is on an 18-mission single-player campaign fought by German General Erwin Rommel. You fight with the Desert Fox from the beginning of the war in Belgium to the North African campaign and then back to Europe for the D-Day aftermath. All of the key battles in Rommel's career are featured, including Ardennes, Tobruk, El Alamein, and Sicily. There are also a number of one-off missions in other regions, including some in the Pacific that pit the Americans against the Japanese.

In all, there are over two-dozen big missions in the expansion. These missions can provide a good several hours of gameplay, which is impressive for an expansion pack. However, it must be weighed against the complete absence of multiplayer modes. Nival and publisher CDV have excised all multiplayer options in Burning Horizon, presumably to make buying the somewhat inferior original game still an attractive option.

Along with the new theaters of war comes around 50 new units. Most are just variations on familiar themes, like the Panzer IV tank and some new German artillery types. Others, however, are brand new. The US Marines, Japanese infantry, Japanese Zero fighter planes, and troops from nations such as Australia add a lot of spice to the original complement of 300 or so units; they also expand the scope of the game to encompass more of the war.

Missions follow the same lines as those in the first game. It's vital to use units efficiently and effectively. Combat is much more realistic than it is in traditional RTS games. Despite the name of the series, in Burning Horizon you can't blitz the opposition or fight battles of attrition. You have to match units and send them into engagements that they will have a good shot at winning. This means that you can't band-select a mass of infantry and throw them into battle with even a small tank column--unless you want to see your troops splattered across the landscape.

To avoid this fate, you have to appreciate the complexity of the combat engine. All units have appreciable strengths and weaknesses. Tanks, for instance, are powerful, but vulnerable to individual soldiers with grenades in close combat. Artillery pieces, even the mobile ones that don't need to be towed into place, are very slow moving and take forever to rotate into firing position. So while the artillery pieces can decimate single columns of advancing soldiers and armor, pincer movements take them out quite easily. Even the effectiveness of air support is limited by the ready availability of antiaircraft guns and the vulnerability of low-flying planes.

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