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Loaded with tons of action and realistic war time simulations, SA2 even with its flaws, gives any RTS fan a realistic taste of war.

Kiss the Weimar Republic goodbye! The German Blitzkrieg is beginning to take shape. Hitler’s ascension to power has brought the world to its knees. A few good soldiers are needed to dethrone Hitler’s war machine. Walker, Mueller, and Captain Smith are just a few names that are attached to Easy Company. Command and recreate their heroic assault on the beaches of Normandy, your way.



Squad Assault: Second Wave, is the latest 3D Real-Time Strategy with Multiplayer by Got Game that will allow you to immerse yourself into a historical survey of over 100 battles which took place on and after June 6th 1944. The fate of the world is at your fingertips. You have the choice of changing history by thwarting the advancing allied forces or maybe you didn’t think Eisenhower had an effective plan? You make the orders, relive and rewrite allied history your way.



My initial onslaught onto the shores of the European Theater was something left to be desired. During my first campaign, I took control of Easy Company, yeah, the same guys from the mini-series “Band of Brothers”. Too bad for those poor guys they died in a most heroic fashion. My strategic prowess would have made even Custard proud. This is not your run of the mill everyday RTS, you actually have to implement a realistic plan.



Advisory: I strongly advise a thorough reading over the instruction manual before you begin your offensive. There are a lot of features that this game offers only if you read the manual. This is not the type of game where you can delve right and learn the game as you go.



Each individual game, mission, or campaign begins with giving you a set number of troops or armor (depending on the mission, the pool varies). In addition, some missions call for a barrage of artillery, air support, or a lethal battery from 5 inch guns from an allied destroyer just off shore.



In addition to the troops that are allocated for each mission you are given a pool of points to pick and choose any additional ranks that you can use to supplement your current pool. Because I lack the military know-how, I found this feature to be quite useful. I found the most useful way to defeat my enemies was to roll in the big guns. I’m taking about Sherman’s! No, not Sherman T. Potter, rather, the Sherman M4 Tank loaded with a 75mm gun! Yeah!



This is the most tactical RTS that I have played. But, (and this is a huge but) because this game is so in depth of re-creating authentic battles, troop deployments, and war time realism they have left out one major factor. With all this cool stuff will this game still be fun to play? The answer is, no not really.



I judge games mostly on game play. SA2 lacks the core fundamentals that make games fun. Too much emphasis was placed on details and graphics rather than fun factor.



The graphics are very pretty, like your daughter on prom night. But as we all know, a game cannot stand alone on graphics. They have placed so much on the casual user that they cannot keep up with all of the action during a given battle. You can control up to 20 units. There is no artificial intelligence to assist in helping your troops make critical decisions. If you choose to attack from three different positions, you have to maintain three positions at once. I found it highly challenging to maintain a bird’s eye view over all of the action.



However, for our connivance, there is a feature that can make the game flow at a slower pace. If the game is too fast, like it was for me, you are able to slow the game by turning on the “turn based, or battle pause” feature located in the game set up options.

Loaded with tons of action and realistic war time simulations, SA2 even with its flaws, gives any RTS fan a realistic taste of war.


Review by Stewart Sullivan.