Squad Assault: West Front Demo

In war, brute force is rarely the best approach, especially when the two confronting sides are of equal strength and power. Thus, tactics come into play and the ones who are able to outsmart the enemy usually come out on top, as it was proven on multiple occasions over the course of history.

Squad Assault: West Front is a strategy game that enables you to use whatever tricks and gimmicks you can muster in order to win some of the most famous battles of World War II. Thus, instead of charging in with every man and tank under your control, you are invited to plan out assaults and ambushes, as well as organize exactly how your troops spread out and attack when the fight starts off.

To achieve this, before each battle, you are allowed to get an overview of the battlefield and give the desired orders to each and every division that is under your command, which are to be carried out as soon as you decide to start the round. Once you do that, the units follow your instructions and you can see your strategy in action in real time, although it is possible to reissue new commands whenever you want to do so.

In case you prefer turn-based strategy instead of the real-time action, the game also gives you the opportunity to change the entire gameplay, by activating the auto-pause feature, which stops the action every 60 seconds. Hence, you can give new orders with each round and also have more time to ponder on the possible outcome of your strategies.

Technically speaking, the game does not really impress, although it does feature quite large maps and many units on the screen at the same time. It is, however, rather unpolished when it comes to the objects that are scattered around the environment, while some textures might flicker from time to time. The sound, however, makes up for it, thanks to the multitude of gunshot noises, music and explosions that give you no time to notice anything wrong on the screen.

Squad Assault: West Front's greatest advantage is the multitude of tactical options that are put at your disposal, which enable you to put your wildest ideas into practice. The fact that you can switch to turn-based gameplay at any point also constitutes a powerful incentive to give the game a try.