Soldiers: Heroes of WWII

Post by **Nightshade** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:45 am

http://www.codemasters.co.uk/soldiers/
Anyone playing it? I like it so far, but it has the same annoying camera crap that Silent Storm does. I've found a kloogy camera hack that's supposed to make it somewhat better, but I haven't tried it yet.
Just working through the training missions, and it seems to be rather deep, gameplay-wise, for an RTS. Looks really nice, too.
I'm a hardcore military sim fan (Combat Mission, anyone?) and I hate WWII games that allow infantry with bolt-action rifles to plink away at tanks until they're knocked out.
I have high hopes for this game.

Post by **Ryoki** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 10:07 am

Damnit, i was going to download the demo and see for myself but it's making me register and i'm not in the mood for that atm.

Post by **phantasmagoria** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:44 pm

I got it about a year ago. It's fucking brilliant. There's no set way to do a mission. The AI is a little dopey at times, but it usually does pretty well. If a soldier hears gunfire he'll go to where he heard it and sweep the area and look in all the trees and bushes after clearing out the area with a few grenades. If he's on his own he'll usually go and get help. They even sometimes set up an ambush. However if they're stood having a fag with their soldier buddies and you pop one off with the sniper rifle, they do just stand there and don't get alarmed their mate just died infront of them.

It's also fucking hard, which is a good thing. I've played through it on medium and it took me probably about 30 hours, dispite only having a few missions.

Tips:
Always wear a helmet, if it gets blown off, plunder one from a dead German, it'll save your life. Same with body armour if you can find some
At the end of a level, go round and pick up anything that you think might be useful in the next level as you carry everything over. But make sure you've got enough empty slots to put your gun back in your backpack, otherwise you'll be weaponless next mission.
Bushes are friends
Lay mines on the roads, even if there's no patrol. Often tanks, infantry and other vehicles come as reinforcements later in the mission.
Learn the keyboard shortcuts.
If you haven't already then patch the game, there are a number of improvements to the gameplay.

Possibly the best game I played last year and it still looks good now.

The only thing that annoyed me about it was the voice acting, which after playing the game for a while got very predictable and almost ruined it. They attempted to make it funny, but it just isn't and it gets rather irritating after a while, especially the Germans

Post by **Nightshade** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:40 pm

How the fuck do you get a tank to hold his position when firing at an enemy unit?
And yes, it is hard as fuck so far.

Post by **phantasmagoria** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 4:22 pm

I always used direct control when I had a tank, but in order to stop tanks, and men moving on their own click this icon:

likewise with the icons next to it, they tell your men to hold their fire, return fire or fire at will.

Post by **Nightshade** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 10:34 pm

I've been doing that, they keep moving.
The first mission seems a bit ridiculous to me. Taking on that many German armored units with 1 T34, a BA-10 and two soldiers?

Post by **phantasmagoria** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 11:30 pm

Hmm, they shouldn't do. Knock out the first German tanks with your T-34, it's armour is better than theirs. Get in close, if they knock off one of your tracks don't worry, you can repair it later on. Get on close and try and get yourself into a position where their side/back is exposed. If you aim at the turret you do quite a lot of damage. Then repair the German tanks and put your guys from the BA-10 and the two blokes who don't have a vehicle in the German tank(s) and storm the village using a sort of hit and run technique. It should inspire some tanks to come after you which you can ambush, using houses as cover.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 11:36 pm

Have it.. Havent installed.. Roommate has tho, he likes it i think..

Post by **Nightshade** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:37 am

phantasmagoria wrote:Hmm, they shouldn't do. Knock out the first German tanks with your T-34, it's armour is better than theirs. Get in close, if they knock off one of your tracks don't worry, you can repair it later on. Get on close and try and get yourself into a position where their side/back is exposed. If you aim at the turret you do quite a lot of damage. Then repair the German tanks and put your guys from the BA-10 and the two blokes who don't have a vehicle in the German tank(s) and storm the village using a sort of hit and run technique. It should inspire some tanks to come after you which you can ambush, using houses as cover.

I'm trying to get that PzIII to come towards me, out of range of the three Pak40s. I haven't tried using Direct Control to knock it out, too much else going on.
So I should be able to get the crew to bail and then take it?

Post by **Duhard** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:37 am

lol...girls playing games

Post by **phantasmagoria** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:51 am

Nightshade wrote:
phantasmagoria wrote:Hmm, they shouldn't do. Knock out the first German tanks with your T-34, it's armour is better than theirs. Get in close, if they knock off one of your tracks don't worry, you can repair it later on. Get on close and try and get yourself into a position where their side/back is exposed. If you aim at the turret you do quite a lot of damage. Then repair the German tanks and put your guys from the BA-10 and the two blokes who don't have a vehicle in the German tank(s) and storm the village using a sort of hit and run technique. It should inspire some tanks to come after you which you can ambush, using houses as cover.
I'm trying to get that PzIII to come towards me, out of range of the three Pak40s. I haven't tried using Direct Control to knock it out, too much else going on.
So I should be able to get the crew to bail and then take it?

No, they'll get slaughtered by the tank's machine gun, unless you have some anti tank grenades (I havent played it for about 6 months, so i cant remeber what you start with, if you do have some anti tank grenades, get a single bloke to drop everything, apart from a grenade so he has more stamina and can run away without getting breathless and creep up to the tank, and leg it as soon as you've attacked the tank. Remeber your guys slowly regenerate health). Use direct control, press delete so it's on constantly. Just ordering the tank to attack is futile, they fart about, miss and generally do everything wrong. You can aim with the mouse and manouver with the keys.

Post by **Nightshade** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:11 am

No, I meant that if I shoot the PzIII accurately with the T34 I should be able to make the German crew bail out, thus enabling its capture by my troops.
The one thing I really can't stand so far is the limited camera angles. Evidently the existing hacks to free the camera were borked by the most recent patch.

Post by **phantasmagoria** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 11:49 am

I didn't have too much of a problem with the cameras. I got used to them fairly quickly.

If you damage the turret, the engine or the main body of the tank, the crew will bail out yeah. Basically anything that causes a major fire within the tank