For those of us who couldn’t get enough of real-time strategy games a decade or two ago, the name Blitzkrieg might well bring back a few fuzzy memories. It probably shouldn’t, seeing as it’s name derives from a blistering military attack, but the Blitzkrieg games of yore were tense, tactical affairs, with just about as much forgiveness as its nomenclature suggests.
Blitzkrieg 3 marches on in this fine tradition, for the most part, but creates an interesting massively multiplayer infusion in the process. By the time Blitzkrieg 3 trundles it’s way out of Early Access it will have a full campaign, but in the meantime it’s the multiplayer that’s the bulk of the content this time around.
Now, head-to-head multiplayer is all well and good, but where Blitzkrieg 3 differs in its asynchronous mode. Over a number of missions you’re tasked with building a base, setting up defenses to make it difficult for other players to attack, all the while invading other bases. This can all happen without you even being present. So the basic premise is to build a sturdy base that can naturally withstand attack. When you're playing you’re going to be plundering other bases for resources and ploughing it back into new fortifications for yours.
It’s like a mixture between those old X-COM play by e-mail games and the F2P, Clash of Clans-esque setup. If that sets off alarm bells, it probably shouldn’t. Blitzkrieg 3, on early impressions, rewards well thought out play rather than time or money commitments. As it stands there aren’t any monetization features, and it would be a great shame if they did manage to creep in. Buildings pop up instantly, there’s no wait timers or micromanaging resource gathering, so it’s very immediate in that sense.
When it comes to the moment to moment gameplay, Blitzkrieg 3 doesn’t yet reach the highs of its predecessors. It’s, dare I say it, much simplified, with a more traditional action-RTS vibe. You know the drill by now - it’s rock / paper / scissors. You’re going to want to need the right units for the right situations. Likewise, certain defensive combinations can prove immensely strong if the attacking team doesn’t have the right mix of units to combat them.
For single-players there isn’t a great deal to be getting on with here. There’s a bunch of tutorials and some sample missions, but nothing to keep players hooked for the long term. I’ve got little doubt that Nival will pull all the stops out for the single-player campaign by the time launch trundles into view, but the asynchronous multiplayer has the benefit that it can involve players that typically aren’t into competitive play. Without the threat of direct PvP, it’s an intriguing middle ground between single and multiplayer.
Nival’s rolling out the updates thick and fast at the moment, so fast that more than a few times I found the servers down while Blitzkrieg 3 was patched up. One recent update added real-time PvP, and the maps are arriving in a blitzkrieg fashion of their.
Blitzkrieg 3 will almost surely be a hugely enjoyable strategy game when it eventually arrives, but your mileage for it right now in Early Access is going to vary hugely depending on your feelings towards multiplayer. The series to me has always been single-player first, and there’s really not much to cater to these players yet. If you’re willing to tackle Blitzkrieg 3’s asynchronous multiplayer however, there’s some excellent attack and defend basics here that could well go from strength to strength in future updates.
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