Attempts to refocus WWII games from FPS to RTS, but is it a good poster child?

Moscow to Berlin: Red Siege brings WWII to the RTS with mixed results. In Moscow to Berlin you get to fight the war on both sides of the trenches as you do battle with alternating German and Russian forces. The game features 3 campaigns and 20 missions to be completed as you try to follow history through to Berlin.

The gameplay of Moscow to Berlin is focused mainly on battling and not on gathering resources and building. For the missions you are given main and side objectives to be completed and a limited amount of troops to accomplish the mission with. To keep you focused on battling the missions usually start with a fair amount of troops to complete objectives with and will supply you with reinforcements at just about the exact and most opportune times they are needed. The game gives great variety as it plays host to over 100 weapons and units that are all historically correct to the war. Another unique addition to this game is the affect that units have on vehicles and heavy weaponry.



Since the game is focused mainly on vehicular combat the addition of upgrades to your tanks and artillery makes ground units much more valuable. An example to an upgrade would be placing a scout within a tank to pick up a sight bonus or a machine gunner in a tank to increase the tanks rate of fire. Giving bonuses to vehicles is one interesting way to keep the player on top of troop distribution. The game also features air strikes that can be called in to destroy an area of battle or to give you a break from besiegement while reinforcements make their way to your position which can turn the tides of a battle.



The game does provide great variety in units but it also falls short in its camera and AI pathfinding. Like most RTS games you are dependent on seeing all aspects of your units from above and being able to navigate to them smoothly. The camera in Moscow to Berlin allows you to zoom in extremely close to your 3D soldiers but does not allow you to zoom out far enough to encompass many of them at the same time.

This zoom limiting makes controlling several battles at once nearly impossible and limits your focus to one set band of brothers. Another frustrating aspect of Moscow to Berlin is the AI pathfinding or in some cases lack there of. The game puts you on rural streets with downed buildings and trees which is great for immersion but is difficult for troop movement. The AI often finds itself continually running into a corner and with a limiting camera you often don’t discover your unit’s disbandment until only half arrive to their destination.



Moscow to Berlin regains some of its quality with its dramatic cut scenes that set up the plot and objectives for the mission extremely well and its encyclopedia of all units and vehicles allows you to examine unit’s strengths, weaknesses, and purpose. Unfortunately the game also loses out on a lot of smaller details such as lack of accents for the narrating commanders for German and Russian missions and not keeping gameplay settings into the next mission.

Review by Erik Wilkinson.