Rush For Berlin: the Officers

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Deep Silver and StormRegion announce a new way to experience World War II strategy gaming, in their upcoming PC DVD-ROM title; Rush For Berlin. In a desperate race against the clock to capture the German capital, players will have the edge on the battlefield with their Officers. Set for release 26th May 2006, Rush for Berlin will challenge strategy gamers to their limits. Similar to heroes found in RTS or RPG games, Rush for Berlin introduces the heroic officers with their special skill system. The officer unit is an important "add-on" to the player's army.

Learning from their previously released games, Stormregion now want to reward the player for using officers as "hero characters" on the frontlines instead of putting them at the edge of the map in order to keep them safe and not lose them and the whole mission at the same time. Rush for Berlin will motivate the player to send officer units into the action-packed battles. The officers will introduce special skills, influencing the units nearby, and will level up when fighting successfully. This, in turn, enables the units to learn new special skills. The WWII RTS game Rush for Berlin introduces a skill system for the officers, which is quite easy to use and understand while providing the gameplay with more depth.

The western Allies, the Russians, the French and the Germans are played differently in terms of tactics and gameplay. Each side also has 4 different officers with unique skills, all fitting into the style of the nation. Basically each officer has a standard weapon, e.g. a machine gun, and - most importantly - up to 3 skills. Even the strongest opponent will be crushed by the German tank ace's precision shot capability, while the Soviet commissar uses propaganda to demoralise his enemies, and the Allied supply officer uses supply planes to bring reinforcements.

Some more examples of officers' skills (excerpts only):

Russian Officers:
The commissar uses the "Double Vodka" option to raise the morale of his soldiers. His call for "Propaganda" will cause a massive amount of propaganda materials to be spread over a designated area, lowering the morale of enemy soldiers significantly. The partisan leader will detect hidden units, e.g. units hidden in a building or in the forest as well as camouflaged or wooden "fake" units.

German Officers:
The engineer uses the radio-controlled "Goliath". He sends an exploding miniature tank (the so called Zwergpanzer, a name meaning "dwarf tank", which really existed) to attack the target in sight. The Luftwaffe ground officer has the "Fliegerfaust" (literal translation: flying fist, an AA system) at his disposal and provides "Air Superiority": for a limited time, all hostile planes on the entire map will be shot down by Me 262 super jets (which really existed). The Volkssturm officer has "Last Reserves" and lowers the cost of Panzergrenadier units.

Western Allied Officers:
The SAS officer's "Sabotage" skill will slow down the hostile facilities' production. The communications officer orders a "Photo Recon" and for a limited time, the fog of war disappears on the entire battlefield. The supply officer calls for a "Supply Drop" from an airborne supply container next to him. But note that the plane can be shot down.

Last but not least, an example from the French campaign: The French Maquisard leader carries "High Explosives" kits. These kits can be blown up or defused on the bomb's interface. These explosives cause extra damage to buildings and vehicles.

Skills can be active or passive. Officers can die during a battle. In this case, another one of the same type can be deployed on the battlefield by parachute. Of course the player has to level him up again, which can be done more quickly the more he fights. Especially the combination of the different officers and their skills, plus their impact on other standard units nearby, adds a huge amount of tactical finesse to both the single player and multiplayer gameplay. Officers can also select their best action in automatic mode, which will be activated if the officer's vehicle is attacked or when he is shooting at the enemy. Each nation has been given an interesting combination of different skills.

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