Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps review

Tanks are great. Tanks are great because they trundle and anything that trundles, by definition, must surely be a most worthy creation. There's a definite certainty, an ominous inevitability about things that trundle. Something mechanical that rolls forward at a leisurely pace, that rumbles with immense strength and power, is obviously pretty unfazed about whatever might be going on and such contraptions possess the cool detachment that rivals even The Fonz.

"Safe as houses" might be a popular British phrase but it's a pretty silly one too - wouldn't you feel safer still with several inches of metal plating about you and an 88mm cannon to point at anyone who looks at you the wrong way?

Against the grain

Provided you can adapt them to the rather harsh, sandy conditions, tanks are extremely useful in desert warfare. The broad, open and often lifeless plains of North Africa were the focus of many epic and pivotal tank battles during World War II and saw both sides pitting not only their wits against each other, but ever improving technology. The British Eighth Army possessed more men and tanks than Rommel's Deutsches Afrika Korps, but the famous German tactician had more advanced equipment at his disposal - sounds like a counterbalance that's perfect for a real-time strategy game, right?

As well as featuring an impressive armoury, reflecting the great and not so great war machinery of this notorious campaign, Desert Rats also makes sure the many nations that fought in the lengthy conflict are represented. Many Hollywood directors would do well to take note that the second World War was not a two horse race and represented here are forces from Italy, Poland, Hungary, New Zealand and Canada, among others. For this alone the game deserves praise - any contribution to the war, large or small, inevitably cost lives. It's rather apt, then, that the long-term survival of your units is the key to success - it would benefit you to become attached to them, rather than waiting for replacements to arrive.

Well-oiled

You see, although this is a real-time strategy affair, you won't be mining resources or controlling a battlefield economy in some abstract representation of war. It's all about making the most of the forces you have at your disposal and Desert Rats allows you to retain units from mission to mission. Going into battle with veteran troops who have previous experience and knowing that you cannot squander the limited assets at your disposal forces you to focus on the tactics you use. Armour rules the battlefield, but infantry are not without their uses and their ability to occupy buildings and capture abandoned enemy units broadens your options.

These captured vehicles, when combined with your growing force pool of increasingly experienced units, allows you to diversify your army considerably and a shrewd general can broaden his options by rescuing battlefield scrap and making it serviceable, rather than waiting for mid-mission allocations from headquarters. Medics and engineers may be able to prolong the life of man and machine accordingly, but battles are inevitably won by tactics and a wise pre-mission selection. Oddity rears its head when it becomes apparent that vehicles themselves seem to be gaining experience, rather than the individually modelled soldiers who crew them, however. Nevertheless, you cannot rely on attrition or half-baked battle plans here - diversity, ingenuity and a little caution are far more important.

Coarse feelings

Although infantry are largely powerless against tanks in an open battlefield, they must still be recruited as vehicle crews regardless and specific troop types, such as scouts and grenadiers, offer extra bonuses when mixed with vanilla crews. Machinegunners increase the rate of fire of a vehicle's weapons, scouts improve its field of view and so on. Heroes, who are campaign-specific men linked to the ongoing story, also give additional bonuses and, of course, must be kept in one piece. Now, you might be thinking that all these nationalities, these special units, and the many tactical options open to you (tell your units to dig in, target the tracks or turrets of enemy tanks, make use of reconnaissance fly-overs and make sure your own AA cover is good) means that Desert Rats has become an almost chess-like tactical experience. Unfortunately, due to some shoddy game design, it falls short when it could've gone all the way.

The AI is terribly inconsistent; it often makes awful tactical decisions and enemy forces under fire so frequently remain stoically ignorant. This is all rather baffling as, at other times, enemy units will demonstrate ruthless intelligence, conducting rolling retreats to draw you into traps or using spotter units to direct artillery fire at you. What first appeared to be a game offering tremendous tactical variety and a wealth of customisation reveals itself to be flawed and inconsistent. There are some lovely graphical touches, such as impressive unit animation and environmental details such as the way palm trees are crushed under the tracks of tanks, but this too is ruined by little glitches, such as the first time you see one truck actually drive inside of another and occupy the same spot.

Rubbing you up the wrong way

Desert Rats shoots itself in the foot once more when it approaches multiplayer. Cutting out that dodgy AI and simply embracing the wealth of units and tactical tweaking on offer, strategy-heads could have had hours of fun with this game... if only it had included more maps. Multiplayer is under-represented and another example of how the game almost gets something right but then falters so disappointingly.

This game is good. It cuts out all of that resource management filler, it encourages players to develop an attachment to their units, rewards careful planning and gives you more tanks to play with than any big kid ever deserved, all finely balanced in terms of relative cost and effectiveness. It's such a shame that it continually falls short. This is nothing that a patch couldn't fix and if Desert Rats can address its most severe problems - a very variable AI and a rather stunted mutliplayer - then it might be able to up itself to an 8/10 rating. As it stands, it's only just earning itself that 7...