''Blitzkrieg 2'' () 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The game is an evolution of its predecessor ''

Blitzkrieg ''Blitzkrieg'(Lightning/Flash Warfare)'' is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with ...

'' and is the second title in the ''

'' series. The game takes place in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, 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 the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, 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 does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

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 The North African campaign of World War II took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943, fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. It included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, Desert Wa ...

, 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 ''Wehrmacht'' 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 Baku ( Azerb ...

. The fourth chapter is staged in the

Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...

during the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Die Wacht am Rhein, Wacht am Rhein, was the last major German Offensive (military), offensive Military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western ...

, 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 the 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 Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

) 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, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

) 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 Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

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

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , 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 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

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

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

, 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–Od ...

. 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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

, it was released in Russia and Germany in Autumn 2006, and in the EU and the US in January-February 2007. It was subtitled as ''Retribution'' in Russia, and ''The Last Stand'' in Germany. * ''Blitzkrieg 2: Liberation'': the second expansion pack was released in January 2007 in Russia and on October 12 in the EU. It was developed by MindLink Studio Ltd.

Spin-off games

* ''Frontline: Fields of Thunder'': this spin-off from Nival Interactive and N-Game Studios was released in April 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 game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

entry indicates the game was on sale in USA and Germany in March 2007, and Australia in April. It was released by N-Game Studios. It is also known as ''Great battles: Kursk Bulge'' in the Russian market. * ''Great Battles: Battle of Tobruk'', by the company Arise Games, was one of various other spin-offs of which some were released exclusively in Russia, Nival Interactive's home country. ''Battle of Tobruk'' was released in February 2007. * ''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 2007. * ''Great Battles: Stalingrad'', by a different company N-Game Studios, was yet another iteration in the unofficial Great Battles lineup built on the ''Blitzkrieg 2'' engine. It was released in August 2007. 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 Studios. 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 Siberia. It was released in April 2009. It was sold on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

at the same time, but it has since been delisted. * ''X-Team: Day of Freedom'' by Ukrainian developers N-Game Studios. 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 civilization. It is a classic mix of role-playing game and strategy, inspired by ''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material that is created by the reactions producing a nuclear explosion. It is initially present in the radioactive cloud created by the explosion, and "falls out" of the cloud as it is moved by the ...

'', ''

Command & Conquer ''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise created and originally developed by Westwood Studios and currently owned by Electronic Arts. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself ba ...

'', ''

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 gam ...

'' 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 high ...

''. It was released in retail in May 2008, and re-released on Steam in December 2019.

References

External links