In the world of action real-time strategy titles set within fictional  “What If” World War II scenarios, there is really only one series that pops to mind – hint: There’s a Yuri involved. With all of the World War II titles on the market it is surprising that there aren’t more that try to take advantage of the fascinating alternatives to an Allied victory, or to play around with the real, if fancifully exaggerated, weapons being worked on toward the war’s end. CDV is throwing in their hat via Digital Reality and challenging the WestWood of old with War Front: Turning Point, a new take on one of the greatest What Ifs.

In terms of outlandishness, War Front is a subtler take on the unknown than its competition. It’s no It Happened Here, but it’s not throwing around an army of deadly dolphins and erecting tesla coils either. In its 22 missions, the Allies and Germans split the load of liberating Europe, crushing the Nazi regime in a short German civil war, and combine to fight the Soviet Union as it plots to redraw Europe. Spanning numerous Michael Bay-style hyper-action cutscenes, the story unfolds through the eyes of a handful of heroes as they cross paths and delivery hammy lines.

When creating an alternate universe title, you can either go for slight and creepy or over-the-top and futuristic. There are shades of gray, of course, but one always slightly overshadows the other. War Front cherry picks what it wants to meddle with, trying to create that elusive healthy blend of gray that gathers the best of both approaches, but it’s not always successful with its choices.

The core story is certainly plausible, less so as it continues; but that is to be expected as it bends to the Sci Fi side of things. The sides all start off similar: each faction has a set amount of basic units that behave in a typical unit-counter unit system – bazooka infantry blow up tanks, machinegun infantry kill bazooka infantry, light tanks kill machinegun infantry, heavy tanks kill light tanks, artillery blows up repair truck, and so on – and it’s only when the futuristic equipment is brought out do the sides really differ. The Allies have a shield generator and an earthquake bomb that wipes out pesky defenses; Germans have jetpack infantry, an infantry unit that sports an exoskeleton, shockwave tanks, and a penchant for flame units; the Soviets have an exasperatingly effective tank that freezes units, propaganda towers; and so on. It’s more of a generic World War II title augmented with interesting units than anything else, which seems more like a waste of an opportunity than a quasi realistic turn of events.

All sides will have to face a handful of similar problems, including mediocre pathfinding, lackadaisical units, set within a design that attempts to contain a hero-based military structure with a dogpile combat system. There is little as frustrating in a real-time strategy game, especially in an action-oriented one such as this, than having an assault fail because some of the units are confused as to how to operate the one vehicle they’ve been trained to operate. As your underpowered force gets chewed up, their comrades are found going back and forth, stuck behind other units, or just going around trees that they normally roll over. At least they are responding to commands. I had to constantly baby sit my units because they would get blasted by artillery and do nothing to stop it. Each unit has a visible attack radius when selected, and more often than not the attacked unit would only had to have moved a little to fire back at the mobile artillery piece raining rockets down on it – Aaarrgghh! Shoot the damn thing!

War Front is also very much like Red Alert in that the tactics involve are really centered on hobbling together a diverse army and throwing it at the enemy – there is no room for subtlety here. The problem is that the hero units, sometimes critical to mission success, are so strong and obviously the center of attention that you want them to survive, but keeping them alive in the midst of units that explode after being hit twice is nearly impossible. The design is centered on fast and offensive – you can’t even garrison units in buildings – so plunking hero units into the mix makes them a bit impotent and unimportant due to the required micromanagement not being feasible.

For many of the problems, the game has many answers built into itself to keep them from becoming too much of a burden. The resources needed are slightly different for each side, but the main resource needed is abundant throughout the maps via depots and oilrigs. Infantry units can be trained to capture structures, and many long end-game sessions will require cat and mouse resource stealing to break stalemates. The weakening of the player’s army in the campaigns as a means to slowly introduce new units is common, but it makes it very difficult here when the enemy comes barreling down on you with more advanced weaponry. There is also the ability to hop into a turret and fire in a first-person view, but aside from it being used cleverly in a story element, it’s about as useful as the chase cam; that is, not very.

The game is addictive, though. The back and forth of massive tank and infantry battles, fought in a gorgeous engine with widescreen support, is both a sight to see and a frantic experience. Instead of trying to outmaneuver your enemy with intricate plans, you pummel them with an army, racing to make sure the follow-up groups will be enough to finally punch through their momentum and punish their base. This sort of approach is certainly exhilarating, though less refined and more blunt than some would prefer. Aside from the poorly written script, the voice-overs tend to be decent, and the music and sound effects good. The pounding of guns and flipping of tanks makes for quite an experience.

Multiplayer is also great fun. Instead of having to worry about the heroes surviving, you can throw them into the midst of chaos against PC or human opponents. The Soviets are selectable in multiplayer, and getting to harness their pesky tanks and molotov cocktail units is a nice change of pace. The AI can be a little slow to start, but once it gets its legs it goes all out. Those who opt to skip out of the story will find a nice surprise in skirmish and online play.

Overall: 7/10