Blitzkrieg II Multi-Player Demo

When it comes to properly simulating war conditions in a video game, especially in multiplayer, the most important aspect needs to be the freedom of choice, in order to allow the players to come up with virtually any kind of strategy or cunning tactics and put them into action using the available units. This also means being able to take advantage of the environment itself, so that choke points have the desired effect and ambushes work out more or less as they would in a real situation.

Blitzkrieg II, as the name clearly states, is the second entry in the popular real-time tactics series, although the tradition spans even further than that, given the fact that it evolved from the Sudden Strike franchise. Thanks to the impressive fan support, the developers managed to improve on every chapter over the years, thus creating a very complete and refined product, with plenty of features to please even the most hardcore supporters of the genre.

As far as the gameplay improvements go, a lot of work went into perfecting the underlying mechanics that assure an overall smooth experience, such as the user interface, unit pathfinding and accurate ballistics. While these may not be observable right from the get-go, they are instrumental in creating an authentic atmosphere and you do learn to appreciate them after a while, by observing the significant influence they have in the tactics you employ on the battlefield.

The multiplayer component received its fair share of improvements as well, in order to accommodate the new selection of units and scenarios that are available. As until now, it is possible to choose from a variety of maps of different sizes and go head-to-head with one or more players. In order to give you the opportunity to customize every aspect of the match, the game includes a hefty number of settings that can be changed, such as whether the units can gain experience, or whether the players spawn randomly around the map.

There is also an automated matchmaking system in place, which functions by rating every participating player and pitting them against each other based on these ratings, in order to make it interesting both for beginners and hardened players alike. To top it all off, all of this is rendered with the help of a very potent graphics engine, capable of accurately displaying a massive number of polygons and special effects on the screen at any given time.

Even if Blitzkrieg II is still slightly aimed toward a niche audience, it is still one of the most complete and immersive games of this type out there, which should be incentive enough even for those who are not all that familiar with the genre. Moreover, the tactics are that much more exciting to put into practice against human opponents, which is why the multiplayer component is indeed an important part of the game.