Frontline Attack: War Over Europe

If you have ideas for a real-time strategy game and are unsure what direction to take, World War II is always the best option. That notion is the premise of Frontline Attack: War Over Europe was developed, or at least it feels that way. Here we have an experience more focused on using your limited resources rather than spending time to build up a base, then go on the offensive.

However, no matter how to sound your RTS ideas, setting a game in the World War II era means you'll have hefty competition, and delivering a thrilling experience is essential to succeed. While Frontline Attack: War Over Europe has appeal in visual and gameplay angles, we'll need to get the feel before any judgment if it can compete with real-time strategy titans.

Straight to the Front

Let's establish the core gameplay of Frontline Attack: War Over Europe. Players will start with a handful of units, either in one of the various famous WWII campaigns or in a skirmish, tasked with establishing a presence and going on the offensive. Standard RTS mechanics come into play. You'll raid warehouses and seize assets for cash to build new buildings, create units, and get support from heavy artillery and bombers.

However, Frontline Attack: War Over Europe puts more emphasis on tactical combat than building a base to stand up to your foes. Players must focus on winning battles by effectively maneuvering units and using limited resources correctly, not using an endless supply of tanks and gunmen, as usually seen in genre titles. It's a more intriguing gameplay approach but falls a tad short.

The critical issue with Frontline Attack: War Over Europe is a different gameplay dynamic that is not entirely in sync with the game engine's capabilities. Units tend to be unresponsive, don't do as told, or generally feel glitchy. While those are typical growing pains of an RTS, the problem is that it breaks the fundamentals where there's a focus on tactical combat.

The varied gameplay, like repairs and strategy-building, does bring a decent level of entertainment to players. However, the core mechanics' issues make it challenging to see campaigns through, where Frontline Attack: War Over Europe's best bits come from the relatively short skirmishes.

Unsung Battles

Overall, Frontline Attack: War Over Europe feels like a swing and a miss. One has to respect the different angle approaches for gameplay, attempting to get players' brains rolling to achieve victory with limited resources. However, if you have to compete with WWII RTS games like Sudden Strike, the title is entirely forgettable in comparison.

Round-Up - Pros & Cons

Pros:

• A more innovative approach to the WWII RTS game
• The limited resources make gameplay more exciting
• Varied mechanics provide battle immersion

Cons:

• Controlling units can get frustrating
• Relatively dull visuals compared to other similar titles
• Difficult to form strategic approaches to victory

Frontline Attack War Over Europe is very nearly everything you could possibly want in a WWII RTS. Graphically it’s polished; the presentation is good; the background music and sound effects are atmospheric and you can choose to play as Germans, Russians or Allies. Unfortunately, like a lot of other RTS games, Frontline Attack's problem lies with its control interface and Al. There are times when your units simply do not want to be selected; you can left-click them until your forefinger blisters - fact is, some units just don’t do orders. Whereas others just don’t understand them.

Indecisive Nazis march back and forth trying to figure out the best place to stand, while mighty Panzer tanks weave across the landscape in a vain attempt to avoid squishing them.

Working out terrain elevation and positioning your army accordingly is also tricky. In fact, you can’t really decipher the lie of the land until you zoom in so close to the landscape you can’t see your units anyway.

To counteract this you have to zoom back out again to locate your errant army and hope they’re still there. Frontline Attack is frustrating - but it’s not a total disaster. The multiple objective missions are well designed and there are plenty of historically accurate edu-gaming moments to savour. There’s also a level editor and multiplayer skirmish to mess around with - so there’s no shortage of depth. Feel free to give this a shot if you're into your wargames, but don’t expect Sudden Strike or Commandos 2.