You know you’re onto a winner when playing through the tutorial leaves you feeling exhilarated. I normally avoid tutorials because I’m stubborn and feel as though my experience with games means that going over instructions I’ve heard a thousand times before isn’t required. This cocky attitude has landed me in bother a few times in the past and I wasn’t about to make the same mistake with Officers which describes itself as being “the first WWII real time strategy game to let you fight on a truly massive scale”. Not only was the tutorial helpful in getting me up to speed with the controls it also gave me a taste of the intense battles this game had in store for me, at least that’s what I thought, but nothing could have prepared me for how epic Officers really is.

The campaign kicks off with the Omaha Beach landing. This bloody battle was made famous by Steven Spielberg in his 1998 masterpiece Saving Private Ryan. The historical accuracy found in that film is enhanced here with a briefing before you head into battle and the level of detail remains impressive throughout the campaign. The briefing screen includes a mini-map showing the layout of the land with highlighted points of interest and helps you plan ahead.

Rarely have I played a game where battling over and winning a single strategic point meant so much. Attrition warfare is something which the great Sun Tzu frowned upon as he saw the loss of life as needless but my initial tactic was to throw men at the Nazis in the hope of wearing them down. I quickly realised this wasn’t going to turn out well for my guys and I opted for some carefully placed artillery strikes to bash a hole in their defence.

While my ground-troops were engaged with this first line of defence I chose to call in some recon planes to scout out the area surrounding the next major strategic point on the map. For a few precious moments this revealed that the area in question was heavy in enemy numbers so I called in some planes and carpet bombed the area. It was quite a sight to pull the camera back and witness the explosions and smoke off in the distance. This filled me with a new determination to break through this front line and attack the next objective in their weakened state. As my American troops were attacking Small Beach the British forces were taking Big Beach and they captured that objective just as I took my second major strategic point. It felt good to scroll over and see my allies doing so well as the battle raged around us and I was even happier to uphold my end of the bargain.

The battle raged on for many hours as I worked my way through the map and ultimately captured the final strategic point. I was promoted to Second Lieutenant for my “outstanding leadership” and earned the Joint Service Commendation Medal for “courage and honour in eliminating the enemy and capturing fortified installations during the Normandy invasion”. The battle statistics showed that although the Nazis had a slight advantage in the air I smashed them in every other way. I destroyed a grand total of 12,743 enemy units and lost just 1,586. Huge success!

That was the first of six gruelling missions and I loved every minute of it. This game is not for the faint of heart and when you put your energy into capturing a strategic point on the map only to hear news that you’ve lost an early point it can all become overwhelming. In most other RTS games you can build up a significant army and steamroller your way to victory, and while this can prove a useful tactic in individual battles, with Officers patience is very much the key to winning the war.

• Historically correct battles, beginning with the Normandy landings

• Infantry can barricade and entrench in houses, trenches etc.

• Up to 1,500 units simultaneously in one sector

• Multiplayer mode for up to 8 players involving Allied, German and Russian troops

• More than 70 different unit types (Infantry, light vehicles, tanks, artillery, air troops, navy)

• Map Editor to design scenarios and missions in either single or multiplayer mode

• Elaborate winter and summer scenarios

• Surroundings completely destructible

• Sophisticated resource management

• Taking of enemy emplacements with house-to-house combat in an urban environment

• Realistic change between day and night

• Combined artillery, infantry and air-force operations

You can zoom in quite close to the units, which I did on a number of occasions for close-quarter skirmishes, but for the most part I prefer pulling the camera out for a broader view of the battlefield. The music is suitably stirring in the tradition of war epics of the silver screen and the sound of explosions going off in the distance ensures that you’re constantly aware that the skirmish you’re involved in is a small piece of a much larger battle. There is one negative, which is not such a big deal, and that is the limited vocal responses your units give you when you give them an order.

I have a feeling Officers is going to be overlooked as this is normally the case with real-time strategy games unless their title happens to contain the words “Command” and “Conquer”. If nothing else I hope this at least gets much deserved recognition from war-game enthusiasts because a title of similar quality in any other genre would garner 90+ ratings across the board. This will not be to everyone’s taste but if you have an interest in WWII and enjoy depictions such as Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers I am sure you will fall in love with this game as I have.

9.5/10

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