Blitzkrieg 2: Liberation
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Language - Mild,Violence
Publisher: Ascaron Genre(s): Strategy Home Page:
More A Mule Than A Racehorse Camera rotation done right; even a top-down view is possible Technically, the game is competent. Where niche releases are often bug-plagued, not once did I experience a crash or other glaring error during my time playing (Blitzkrieg 2 has been out for a few years, so stability is to be expected). The in-game interface is a bit kludgy, and it doesn't scale particularly well to higher widescreen resolutions, but it does its job. The minimap is functional, and it's possible to order units around using just the minimap itself (saving time in scrolling the main view). While unit selection worked wonderfully (as did both homogeneous and heterogeneous unit grouping), there's no clear method to orient units at their destination (though artillery units have dedicated commands for this action). Kudos, however, for the pathfinding, which is quite functional and rarely gets confused when navigating obstacles. With just a quick glance at the in-game screenshots, Blitzkrieg 2 has the appearance of an isometric 2D strategy game. However, this is not the case: the game world is fully 3D rendered. And though the end results are a far cry from the caliber of contemporary big-budget releases, the visuals don't detract from the gameplay (but do expect some underwhelming textures, models and animations, however). The camera can be rotated and angled with one button, tasks that other strategy games inexplicably manage to complicate to no end. Special effects, such as explosions and smoke trails, convey an appropriate level of carnage, and the environment is sufficiently destructible: there's a certain satisfaction in directing a tank to plow over trees and through fences on the way to its eventual target. Perfect For Your Grandmother's RigAs you may have guessed, Liberation doesn't put undue strain on modern PC hardware. That's not to say that you'll be running at 60 fps on eight-year-old hardware (as the publisher's minimum requirements would have you believe), but even moderate hardware will deliver a playable experience. Aside from resolution, there are only two substantial graphics settings – Texture Quality and Image Quality - and visual quality degrades quickly if either of these are scaled back. On the GPU side, either a 128MB ATI Radeon X700 or a 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT is sufficient. With 1 GB of RAM and a decent CPU – an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ or an Intel Pentium 4 650 - Blitzkrieg 2 hums along nicely at 1600x1200 (or 1650x1080, for those with widescreen displays). The frame rate won't be pinned at 60 fps, but it will rarely drop below 50 fps, and 16x AF can be enabled through video drivers with no noticeable performance decrease.
The YouGamers minimum hardware listed above gives a playable experience, and throwing newer hardware at the game affords a higher resolution and antialiasing (forced through the video driver). And while you won't mistake Liberation for Company of Heroes, enabling 4x (or even 8x) antialiasing adds an extra layer of visual goodness. For a YouGamers recommended setup, 1 GB of RAM is still sufficient (though you'll likely want 2 GB when running under Windows Vista), coupled with something like an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 processor.
If you hadn't noticed, it's a great time to be in the market for a new GPU. If you do happen to be in the market for a new GPU and want a video card that will run Liberation and much more, then the 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT are both choices that won't break the bank. With either of these cards (and the Athlon 64 X2 or Core 2 Duo CPU), Liberation keeps a steady and usable frame rate no matter the in-game situation.
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