Squad Assault: West Front was released on the PC in 2003 and was an average real-time strategy game that took place during the height of World War II. Developed by Freedom Games, this title garnered mild reviews and was quickly forgotten in the flood of other RTS and WWII games that have saturated the market. During the past two years, Freedom Games went back to the drawing board to design and develop a sequel to their 2003 release in Squad Assault: Second Wave. Freedom Games not only attempted to create a better RTS experience, but also came to the table with a few new publishers batting for them, with Merscom and Got Game Entertainment. Although customisation and reality were at the forefront when Freedom Games developed Second Wave, after spending some time with their newest title it's obvious that other aspects of the title, mainly graphics, gameplay and multiplayer, were left by the wayside.

As with its predecessor, Squad Assault: Second Wave occurs in Europe during World War II. All of the battles take place in France, meaning that you are able aid the Axis powers by taking control of the German forces, or fight for the Allies and control a combination of American, British, French and Canadian battalions. Although you may think that being restricted to only battles that occurred in France would limit the number of available engagements, this game features 57 unique battles, allowing you to fight from beaches through to occupied inland towns and cities.

When starting a single player game, the first option screen allows you to choose one of these battles. You may also choose one of 26 operations (two or three battles strung together), or one of six campaigns (four or more battles in a row). Along with the various battles, players also have a variety of other options to determine just how real the coming conflict will be. For example, you may choose the opposition's level of difficulty (easy, medium or hard), along with your units' individual judgment, your level of command control over your units, whether or not you can see enemy forces from the start of the match (or only when spotted by your forces) and finally if you'll receive a two minute warning before the game's end. Turning each of these options on or off affects the realism meter, increasing or decreasing it by 25% depending on your choice. Lastly you may also choose which side to fight for, the speed at which artillery, as well as air and naval strikes, occurs, along with the combat lethality (a.k.a. accuracy) of both sides' weaponry.

Once you've decided on these options, you continue to the second pre-game screen, which gives the mission briefing and shows the battle location. You then move on to the third and most interesting option screen, where you can select the units to bring with onto the battlefield. Each side (both yours and the computer) has a set number of units that have been assigned as part of the scenario. At this last option screen you may add to the number of units that accompany you into battle by spending allocated command points. Each of these spare units costs a varying amount of points to move them from your task force pool to your deployment pool and the units available differ depending on the type of skirmish you're heading into. Once you're finished with this final option screen, it's onwards to the battlefield.

Although I appreciate the amount of options that Freedom Games put into Second Wave, at first it can be very overwhelming. It's much like a double-edged sword, where as long as you know exactly the type of play you enjoy, you can tailor the options to fit that style. However, if you're just getting used to the game the amount of options may be too much and an incorrect tweak here or there may make the game a bit too easy or too challenging.

Once in the game you have an unlimited amount of time to deploy your units into your designated starter zone. You may also issue them a command with which to start the battle and take as much time as you need to view the map and get your bearings. Once a match starts, your main objective is to either destroy the enemy's units (by killing, capturing or incapacitating them) or control all waypoints on a map. Each map contains a certain number of waypoints that may be obtained simply by controlling the area around it. Each side starts with a certain number of waypoints allocated around their respective starting areas and other neutral points are set up around the map. Unfortunately, this is the only play style available and although the maps and enemy units may change, the objectives are always the same, which can lead to the game stagnating quite quickly.

The graphical user interface of the single player mode consists of a number of boxes displayed around the screen. On the bottom left you'll find the status of all units under your control, while on the bottom right a box detailing each soldier's status within that unit is displayed. On the bottom centre is all of the match information, like elapsed time and artillery controls, while the upper right portion holds the real time map, which details both friendly and (when applicable) enemy troop placements, along with the map's waypoints. Finally there is a text box mid-right on the screen, which displays the current happenings in the game. In total this takes up a large amount of screen that could be better used for actual gameplay and although all of these menu options may be turned off, they're all pretty much needed in order to play effectively.

One of Second Wave's most noticeable downfalls is its use of the camera. While playing, you're able to navigate around the battlefield by moving the camera with the WASD keys and also use the mouse wheel to raise and lower its height. Immediately you'll notice that you're not able raise the camera high enough to take in the whole battle from a top down aspect. Therefore, you're forced to view it from an angle that limits the amount of detail you can obtain from battles or units in the distance. Also, once you find a spot that best suits you, take care to not accidentally double click any of your units or soldiers, as doing so causes the camera to immediately relocate its focus directly behind the selected unit, requiring you to adjust your camera angle back to the preferred location manually.

Ordering units around the battlefield is done by clicking on the desired unit (or soldier) and selecting one of the options within the resulting menu, such as assault, defend, fire and so on. After issuing an order, be prepared to wait, because actions take a long time to complete. I understand that Freedom Games was attempting to have the most realistic WWII RTS on the market, but on the other hand I shouldn't have to wait for five or ten minutes before the action gets hot and heavy. Another aspect to mention is that your forces cannot fire their guns and rifles through tree lines, and understandably so. However, it seemed that the enemy was able fire upon me through these obstructions quite often, resulting in many casualties.

At the end every match you're brought back to the debriefing screen where you can view the overall statistics of the match you just completed. If playing through an operation or a campaign you can prepare units for the next encounter with the command points earned from the previous battle. If playing through a single battle however, you're dumped back out to the main screen where you may begin this process all over again.

Graphically, Second Wave is all over the map. The units and areas surrounding your soldiers look above average when the camera is focused in close; however, these can't really be appreciated due to the height necessary for you to actually play the game effectively. Also, the selection boxes and fire lines look very out of place with how the rest of the game is portrayed. Instead of the clean and crisp lines that would have matched with its overall look and feel, the developer chose to use what resembles a series of flash animation ovals. Finally, although the play area of each map is fairly large, you can immediately tell the border of a zone due to there usually being nothing but grassy fields surrounding the area. None of the interactive battle zones mesh into the world background very well and at times I noticed the area surrounding the playing field would just gray out for no apparent reason.

Second Wave does offer a multiplayer mode, which plays exactly the same as the single player mission. Each player chooses a side and they may play through any battle, operation or campaign they wish. What is odd is that Freedom Games chose to use only a straight TCP/IP connection, with no sort of an in-game service to find other players. With the number of games that offer their own matchmaking service, this is a real letdown for fans looking to play this game against other people, but don't know anyone else that picked it up.

By far the most interesting feature of this game is its level editor, which allows you to take any preexisting map and customise it however you see fit, determining the layout of each waypoint, starting points, the default task force and available units in the task force pool.

Squad Assault: Second Wave just doesn't cut the mustard when compared to the slew of other real time strategy games available on the PC. I admire the level of customisation available but it seems that this may have detracted from creating an overall enjoyable experience. By far the most frustrating feature is the game's hard to use camera and the TCP/IP only multiplayer is just disappointing. Unless you were a big fan of Squad Assault: West Front, I suggest staying away from this game as if it was an armed grenade.

Reviewed by Zach Lark for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).