Standard historical wargaming
It's time to take another trip into the world of historical wargaming, with this slice of WWII strategy fun, although it doesn't exactly bring a lot of innovation to the table, provides a reasonable experience for genre fans. This one takes the perspective of the Russian army as it was in 1944, just as it was taking the battle to the broken German forces as was attempting to push them back. In most ways, the game is very much a traditional wargame, which plays out in turn-based fashion across hex-based grids and which focuses on the operational scale of warfare. As is usual, players participate in a series of linked scenarios which do a good job of putting them into the thick of the action and which do require plenty of strategy and careful thought if they are to be completed successfully. There's a lot of detail which should please followers of this kind of thing, with all the authentic units that you would expect, while if the standard missions don't prove sufficient to hold your interest, there's also a scenario editor where you can tweak things to suit your own needs. Red Thunder is certainly not an experience for the casual gamer, partly due to its lack of visual flash, with the game playing out over a series of tactical maps and with units represented by simple icons, and partly due to the detail and the time required to get the most out of it. However, if you are a fan of things like Panzer General or Allied General, then you might find something to interest you here. It's not up to these standards, mainly due to a lack of polish and some irritating niggles with the interface and such-like, but if you've exhausted these other games, then this is worth a look.
