Game Reviews

The game focuses on Germany’s invasion of the USSR during World War 2. It’s possible to play with both sides of the conflict, although each campaign is more or less separate from one another. Thus, the Axis one consists of nine scenarios starting at June 22^nd all the way through Operation Typhoon. Unfortunately it just ends there, not giving the player the possibility to continue through later stages of the Eastern Front campaign. As for the Soviet one, it begins with the winter offensive of 1941 at the gates of Moscow and ends at Berlin. A somewhat bizarre design decision that limits the game’s scope considerably. Although there are a few scenarios available such as the Axis summer offensive to Stalingrad, Kharkov as well as the obligatory Zitadelle, they feel disjointed from the whole affair. After all, they are just that, singled-out scenarios instead of being part of a campaign or two. Struggle for Russia seems to ‘struggle’ in terms of scale, scope and a non-dynamic campaign.

Not really at the cutting edge…

Being a turn based wargame, Struggle for Russia does not require top of the line 3D graphics. Complicated textures and lighting effects powerful enough to melt your graphics card or send your CPU back to its factory crying are not necessary for this type of games. As long as they are functional, informative and above all ‘working as intended’ they can be seen as good enough. However, the game’s visuals are dated, bulky but most importantly deviate from historical accuracy. First of all, the map overlay is lacking in detail as well as information with respect to terrain types. Two dimensional maps are fine as long as they are done right but in this case, things could definitely have been done better. Blending 2D generic colored hexes with pseudo-3D elements is easy on system specs but hard on the eyes. Wargames require from you to stare at a map almost constantly so it’s important to have a well detailed and informative one. Struggle for Russia’s digital battlefield succeeds partially on the informative part but fails miserably on the artistic aspect.