Blitzkrieg 2: Fall of the Reich

Like its predecessor and countless other add-ons, Fall Of The Reich is another game that features the words historical' and 'authentic' on the back of the box. It's also a game that, on first play-through, seems to have barely evolved since Sudden Strike arrived on the radar back in 1999.

Set during the final months of WWII on the Eastern Front, the game gives you a stack of units to nudge around and it's up to you to make best use of them. That there are so many units to play with if you choose to play as the Germans is surprising too - they seem far better equipped and motivated in this game than the history books would suggest.

Dour authenticity aside, Fall Of The Reich is a very competent strategy game, where unit placement and timing are absolutely crucial. Panzer IVs and T-34s roll about in a convincing way and the units all do what they're told without any display of inanity. The problem is that this standalone expansion' does absolutely nothing that hasn't been done before. Different circumstances perhaps, but you have the same units doing the same things on the same terrain with the same strategy required as in other Blitzkrieg games.

Given that you can pick up the original Blitzkrieg 2 for a fiver, and that Company of Heroes has wowed all in its path, this is a series that increasingly looks stuck in the past.