''Blitzkrieg 2'' (russian: Блицкриг II, italic=yes) is a

real-time tactics Real-time tactics (RTT)(Article at IGN discussing their perception of RTS and related genres as of 2006. RTT is discussed as a new and not yet established genre from the publisher's perspective, so currently all RTT possible titles are still con ...

computer game based on the events of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the game is an evolution of its predecessor ''

Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') is a word used to describe a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with close air su ...

'' and is the second title in the

Blitzkrieg (video game series) The ''Blitzkrieg'' series is a collection of real-time tactics (RTT) computer games set in World War II. Gameplay Similar to the ''Sudden Strike'' games, ''Blitzkrieg'' focuses on battles rather than real-time strategy aspects like base building. ...

. The game takes place in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and features the 6 different factions portrayed in the game that fought in their battle respective grounds during the war.

Gameplay

As its predecessor and the similar '' Sudden Strike'' games, ''Blitzkrieg 2'' focuses on the battles of

rather than

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

aspects like base building and resource extraction. The game features many new features and units over its predecessor; the graphics engine is upgraded, allowing for full 3D and the game features over 250 units compared to ''Blitzkriegs 200. In ''Blitzkrieg 2'', the players can choose from three separate campaigns: The Nazi German Campaign, the American Campaign, and the Soviet Campaign, each divided into four distinct chapters. The German campaign begins in France, 1940, where the player is put in command of German offensive forces in an effort to conquer France. Here, they may use the signature

strategy. The second chapter is set in the North Africa Campaign, which ends with the capture of Tobruk by Axis forces. The third is in the Soviet Union, during

Case Blue Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the German Armed Forces' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of the Cauca ...

. The fourth chapter is staged in the

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

during the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...

, 1944. The American campaign has its first 3 chapters in the

Pacific theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, where the players lead your forces against the IJA (

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

) and IJN (

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

) in a number of missions beginning shortly after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

. The final chapter of the American campaign is set in the German

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

in 1945, during the invasion of Germany. The Soviet Campaign begins shortly after

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

, going through the 5 years of the war against Germany eventually ending with the Soviet victory at the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

. At the end of each campaign, a short cinematic plays. The game contains six factions:

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Reception

The game received positive reviews before release, yet never achieved the same long lived success its predecessor had achieved, even though two expansions and numerous spin-offs were made.

Add-ons

The base game Blitzkrieg 2 was released together with both add-ons as ''Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology'': * ''Blitzkrieg 2: Fall Of The Reich'': the first

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or an ...

, it was released in Russia and Germany in Autumn 2006, and in the EU and the US in January-February 200

It was subtitled as ''Retribution'' in Russia, and ''The Last Stand'' in German

* ''Blitzkrieg 2: Liberation'': the second expansion pack, was released in January 2007 in Russia and on October 12 in the European Union, EUbr>
It was developed by MindLink Studio Lt

Spin-off games

* ''Frontline: Fields of Thunder'': this spin-off from Nival Interactive and N-Game Studios was released on April 9, 2007 (probably initially in the Russian market at end of 2006) at a retail price of US$29.99.

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

entry indicates the game was on sale in USA & Germany in March 2007, and Australia in Apri

It was released by N-Game Studios. It is also known as ''Great battles: Kursk Bulge'' in the Russian marke

* ''Great Battles: Battle of Tobruk'' by the company Arise Games was one of various other spin-offs of which however, some were released exclusively in Russia, Nival Interactive's home country.
''Battle of Tobruk'' was released in February 200

* ''Great Battles: Landing in Normandy'' by the company Arise Inc. was another unofficial spin-off game in Arise's Great Battles lineup. It was released in April 200

* ''Great Battles: Stalingrad'' by a different company, N-Game Studio

It was yet another iteration in the unofficial Great Battles lineup built on the ''Blitzkrieg 2'' engine. It was released in August 200

It is unrelated to the ''Stalingrad'' spin-off game built on the ''

'' engine and released in 2005.

Non-WWII based

* '' Stalin vs. Martians'' (2009) by a consortium of three developers - Black Wing Foundation, Dreamlore, & N-Game Studio

Using the ''Blitzkrieg 2'' engine. It was a parody of WWII real-time strategy titles, with the story pitting the Soviets against fictional Martians in Siberi

It was released in April 200

It was sold on Steam (service), Steam at the same time, but it has since been deliste

* ''X-Team: Day of Freedom'' by Ukrainian developers N-Game Studio

It is a ''Blitzkrieg 2'' engine based game with a sci-fi setting where the player organizes an X-Team squad to defend the Earth against an alien civilizatio

It is a classic mix of role-playing game and strategy, inspired by '' Fallout (series), Fallout'', ''

Command & Conquer ''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game ''Dune I ...

'', ''

Rage of Mages ''Rage of Mages'' is a PC game that combines role-playing and real-time strategy. Produced by Nival Interactive it was first released in Russia under the name of ''Allods: The Seal of Mystery'' (''Аллоды. Печать тайны''). The game ...

'' and ''

Dungeon Siege ''Dungeon Siege'' is an action role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft in April 2002, for Microsoft Windows, and the following year by Destineer for Mac OS X. Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Ehb, the hi ...

''. It was released in retail in May 2008, and re-released on Steam in December 201

References

External links