Sudden Strike (video game)

Sudden Strike is a computer game about World War II. The game was developed by Russian company Fireglow and published by CDV software of Germany. The games focus on tactics without traditional real-time strategy resource gathering and base development.

Sudden Strike had a commercial success, with global sales of roughly 800,000 units by 2002.

Gameplay

The main story features three campaigns (Soviets, Germans, and Allied forces).

Sudden Strike Forever

Sudden Strike Forever was an official add-on to Sudden Strike which shows more historically correct units and equipment. New terrains are also provided. The expansion also improved the game engine, balanced the damage of certain units, and added a map and scenario editor.

The add-on includes 4 scenarios for each of the campaigns for the Germans, the American, the British and the Soviets. Other units which are added into the add-on includes, but not limited to the Universal Carrier for the British. The supply system has also been tweaked with artillery crews automatically resupplying themselves with ammo crates nearby instead of relying on supply trucks to do the job. The supply trucks would still be needed to repair damages inflicted on these artillery units, however.

Sales

In Germany Sudden Strike became 1 place on Media Control's sales chart for September 2000. It also awarded by The Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The committee noted that Sudden Strike had become an "absolute hit".

Publisher CDV Software reported that Sudden Strike sold 292,000 units into stores and foreign publishers during 2000, and that sell-through was "running very positively".

The title became popular in France, where it was the first game published by Focus Home Interactive. It sold 60,000 units at full price and reached #1 on GfK's charts for the French market, and remained there for multiple weeks. Global sell-through of Sudden Strike reached roughly 600,000 units by the end of 2001, and around 800,000 units by the end of 2002. This made it one of CDV's best-selling titles at the time, alongside Cossacks: European Wars. According to Focus Home, the game's sales in France alone topped 80,000 units by May 2004, and ultimately totaled 250,000 units.

Critical reviews

John Lee rated the game by five stars and stated that "You VILL play! You VILL enchoy!"

Sudden Strike generally received positive reviews. Sudden Strike holds a 69 Metascore based on 16 critics and an 8.2 user score based on 15 ratings on Metacritic. Sudden Strike Forever holds a 70 Metascore from 5 critics and an 8.8 User Score based on 46 ratings.