It’s been eight years since the last entry in the long-running Sudden Strike series. In that time tastes, technology, and tactics games have evolved. It might seem like just another RTS game to the casual onlooker, but it became clear to me (a casual onlooker) that Kite Games has taken careful steps to modernize Sudden Strike 5, with its fan community in mind.

I sat down with members of the team to watch roughly half an hour of gameplay simulating conflict in the European Theater during World War II, first in Crimea, and then in the Battle of the Bulge, each showing a different approach to combat and tactical design. 

Each level starts with a choice between generals with Offensive, Defensive, or Tactical expertise before catapulting their legions into a battlefield shrouded in the fog of war. Like your typical RTS, this fog clears away as your units explore the battlefield. Sudden Strike 5 adds new features to make this exploration easier, more rewarding, and more efficient thanks to the new “Smart Squad” system. By highlighting a group of foot soldiers, for example, you can see how many riflemen, infantry, etc. you have at your disposal in a separate pop-up menu. You can then divide them up to form specialized squads based on your tactical needs.

Let’s say you want to capture one of the many enemy camps in a specific encounter that has helpful vehicles you can repair and repurpose to your advantage. You can set up specialized squads to help dispatch a troublesome turret or tank without reassembling or reorganizing your army.

Taking that base might then free up a radio tower that allows you to call in for reinforcements. This is where Kite Games has started to update the core elements of Sudden Strike. In the past, each combat encounter was shaped by a scripted amount of reinforcements, you could choose from. Now, you can choose any type of soldier or vehicle (as long as it’s historically accurate to the army you’re controlling) to aid you in battle. Though you can’t just start ordering a fleet of tanks willy-nilly; your ability to call in reinforcements is tied to a prestige system based on your accomplishments on the battlefield. And for bigger, slower help like tanks, you'll need to take over a train station to ship the tanks to the battlefield via rail. You can also capture an officer's camp to reveal every point of interest throughout the level.

This change from static, predetermined units to a more flexible source of reinforcements takes successfully completing a battle from a matter of survival to a matter of success, especially if you want to take on some of the additional side objectives that present themselves over the course of a level. Most of these present themselves at the beginning of a battle, but you can also find some as you explore various maps. At one point during the demo, a band of troops found a hidden enemy outpost that wasn’t marked on the mini map, revealing a hidden extra objective to chase.

Capturing this objective allowed for a new strategic position on the battlefield, bridging the macro and micro-level rewards by opening a convenient path to victory thanks to the new positioning.

In The Battle of the Bulge, I saw another cool new mechanic for the series. On levels with more varied topography, you can enter a viewing mode that highlights the low and high ground. It proved useful in taking an enemy camp in Belgium, giving the perfect planning overview before taking an unsuspecting enemy camp.

Sudden Strike 5 surprised me. While it doesn’t seem to skimp on mechanical depth, I get the impression that Kite Games is doing a lot to streamline the experience of playing the game. From new markers for different modes of stealth and detection therein, to the useful Smart Squad system, Kite Games has been very careful to make a modernized stealth game that gives you everything you need to succeed without dumbing down the process.