Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

E3 2004: Real-time strategy meets third-person shooter in a tale of heroes

On: PC - OUT: June

THE PITCH: It's a third-person tactical action game from Codemasters that has you mixing real-time strategy gameplay with a third-person shooter, as you command a small squad of kicking soldiers. The title comes from some of the game scenarios being inspired by heroic acts during World War II and you can play as British, US, German or Russian forces.

Directing your squad as in a real-time strategy but then being able to jump into the action as a selected individual of that squad adds a novel and interesting aspect to proceedings. In action it's impressive on a number of levels, from the explosions and scenery interaction to being graphically detailed enough that you can shoot the helmet off a bad guy - not that we were aiming at the helmet, mind...

KEY FEATURES

30 missions with objectives inspired by the actions of war heroes
Freedom to complete missions though different tactics, use anything in the game world to succeed
Huge array of accurately modelled vehicles
Ultra-realistic physics - all objects in the game can be destroyed
Two distinct levels of control - point-and-click command your way around the battle field or gain direct control over a unit's movement
Multiplayer: LAN and online, co-op or adversarial
THE BUZZ: We liked this when we saw it some time ago and think it will appeal to most fans of the war genre. It certainly has a different and original feel to it and the switch between real-time strategy and third-person shooter is simple, effective and darn good fun.