Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

Soldiers: Heroes of World War II is the first in a series of real-time tactics video games set in World War II, developed by or under the supervision of Ukrainian company Best Way.
The player can take control of American, British, Russian, or German forces to play out battles that are set in World War II. The game is primarily a strategy game, but the player can take control of his or her forces and direct them with the keyboard and mouse for additional depth of control.

In the single player missions, players are generally allotted a very small amount of soldiers, and losing just one soldier can be a huge loss. Thus, the game is about conserving your soldiers and keeping them safe for most of the time. The game simulates close combat military tactics, allowing the player to place their soldiers behind cover and move them around all at once, yet also allowing the player to take control of their soldiers to make them do more advanced commands.

There are many types of vehicles, ranging from tanks to anti-aircraft vehicles to simple jeeps. Any soldier could drive or man any position in a gun, which, albeit unrealistic, allowed for many interesting gameplay implications.

Further, soldiers have inventories, which allow for the implementation of an ammunition system, as well as for soldiers to loot better or simply different weapons and grenades from dead enemies, as well as dead friendlies. Even vehicles have ammunition, which players can scavenge from disabled (though not destroyed) vehicles.

Another interesting side effect to using vehicles under direct control is that this allows the user to aim at specific points on enemy vehicles. A player can aim for an enemy tanks treads for example, which would prevent it from moving, but still allowed it to fire. Thus, by doing this, a player can stop a tank from harassing him, while creating a “dead zone” that he can’t move in without getting attacked.

Aside from realistic location damage on vehicles, the game offers a virtually completely destructible environment. This is especially taken advantage of when using a vehicle in direct control, in which a player can aim the turret and literally blow buildings apart.

Originally, the only way a player could play this game multiplayer was to play a cooperative game mode which took up to four players through any mission from the single player mode. The soldiers in each map were divided between the players, but otherwise this mode was exactly the same as single player. However, there was no server browser, and players were forced to directly connect by IP Address to play.

In a more recent patch, players are able to play different multiplayer modes, including escort missions and king of the hill type scenarios. No in-game server browser was created, but a player could use GameSpy Arcade as a server browser.

http://es.codemasters.com/soldiers/index.php
http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/forums/viewforum.php?f=17

there are plenty of mods that greatly enhance the game by adding many new units, is a game that should have every lover of the Second World War:army:

Here some videos :cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7K1rp0WdWQ&feature=PlayList&p=AA6652196E8DBD17&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVTXfrjEP_E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXqCNu6mx7Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YELQBwRBOUk

Old game now but still a great one.
Think it was the VILLERS-BOCAGE level that i played over and over, lone tiger.

You are right, is an old game.
but still are mods for this great game and play online

Try also the Faces of War and Men of war they are sequels you might like them as well :slight_smile: There are plenty of mods for these as well . :slight_smile:

Very true about the Mods, just need a little work on the AI.

An Old game, but a good one…!!!

A really really great game, still play it sometimes with my friends. I simply love this game, my only point of criticism is that the AI can act on occasions pretty dumb, in the sense of killing friendlies or letting itself killed by friendlies. While they evade grenades and enemy fire not so bad.

There are many mods, true, but unfortunately only a few add new sides. Would have loved to see one set in the Balkans or dealing with Armija Krajowa (I do not know why exactly them, but I think the game would fit) or some other theme. But I am so, I would love to have all such games covering even more than they cover already, even if they cover pretty much :smiley:

Btw, there is an addon, called “Silent Heroes: Elite Troops of WW2”, giving you another Soviet campaign, but much larger. I found the scenario to be a little less realistic, still very fun to play and partially very hard!

And I heard that there is another one, but I do not know about it much, does anyone else have more info?

Faces of War is the second game, there is supposed to be more but no western distributor.
Not the same series but along the same lines, Men of War and all its expansions/addons.

I know that Soldiers has 2 addons, one also sold in the West, while the other seems only to be sold in Russia. Still, I can’t find much info on it, maybe some of our Russian friends can help me?

Faces of War also has an addon, also only sold in Russia unfortunately (also, if you guys can help me, I would be happy!)

It is new to me that Men of War does not belong to the Series. What I have always understood, it does :confused:

Especially, since the graphics seems to be the same as in Faces of War (only a little improved).

And Men of War has till now only one Addon as far as I know, “Red Tide”. 3 shall come for what I know, one of them dealing with Vietnam and another one with the Wars in Georgia a few years ago (I think the addon was for Men of War).

Didn’t know that Silent Heroes: Elite Troops of WW2 was a part of the series but it’s not an addon as game addons go, it’s a standalone expansion. It’s released by Paradox so gamersgate has a digital download version.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-PDX18/silent-heroes

I can’t find any info on Faces of War expansion, even the game maker is lacking any info on it so might be done by another company.

Men of War isn’t a part of the series, similar game and done jointly between the Soldiers/Faces of War creator and someone else so a series in it’s own right i guess. Not sure how many expansions are actually released, Russian/Eastern Europe releases seem to come first then the rest of the world.

http://www.looki.de/video/faces_of_war_addon_trailer_video_v557.html

It is called Faces of War “Brothers in Arms”. I think it was only released in Russian (although not sure). I like the games very much and I would like to buy also the addons when I get the possibilities.

Yeah seems that way, might be due to Faces of War not doing as good as the other games.
Thanks for the info, certainly something to keep an eye out for.