Like a good field test? Figure that your combat – albeit strategically placed warfare – is just what you crave? Then this may be the game for you.

Sudden Strike – from the combined minds of Fireglow, CDV and Strategy First, with the publishing power of Infogrames – may have just the challenge for you. It is called Sudden Strike, and this game partners real-time strategy with impulsive, reflexive game play to deliver a program that jumps in your face, challenges players, and delivers solid action that will draw casual warfare players into the mix.

Sure, Sudden Strike is not the most historically accurate game to challenge the markets. But what is does do is deliver era-accurate firepower in nicely crafted graphics to give players a format that will have them both cursing at the luck of the draw and reveling in victories won.

As you start the game, you are given several options: you can go into single combat, take on the campaign odyssey or enter the multiplayer challenge. The latter is not recommended until you have a terrific command of the game.

Single-player mission one is simple: Capture two officers in the East sector. Yep, that’s all you have to do. Doing it proves the challenge. The game board splays out, buildings, forests and the ever-present fog of war. You select your units, and give them your marching orders.

As you being to move your units, suddenly the tree line is swarming with enemy units – foot soldiers and tanks. From a simple little task force – yes, you have plenty of artillery, soldiers and tanks – to an all-out battle fest, replete with missiles, tank strikes and advancing troops. It doesn’t take long to realize that this is a campaign that you may have second thoughts about being a part of.

This program is a real-time strategy conflict that is at once overwhelming and appealing. Sudden Strike lives up to its name. This is a program that dumps you into the middle of battle, surrounding it with nice audio, a feel of three-dimensional graphics and on-demand decision-making. You want action – here it is.

There is a lot packed into this program. The scenario may look like a small action, but before you know it, more units crowd into the map — there can be up to 1,000 units taking part in the battle.

See that bridge, blow it up! Or maybe you like leveling houses and fortifications — you can do that too. In fact, you can knock down a few trees if you have a mind to. The environmental graphics are wonderfully a part of the scenarios. If you mow down the trees, the less cover you will have. As for the bridges, you don't have to just destroy them. You can build pontoon bridges to transport your units across rivers.

This is just not about foot soldiers engaging the enemy. There is artillery, tanks, and planes – all the elements come into play and present a field-ready battle that is totally immersive.

Another nice aspect of this program is the variety of missions. There are 40 scenarios and three campaigns that take place in different weather conditions.

The controls are very easy to use. In fact, if you have had any experience with this type of program, or even a civ game, you will recognize the grouping and movement commands almost at once. That makes it very easy to dive in and engage the enemy, without having to wade through the manual (which is quite well done, nonetheless). Sure, you may have to decide which mouse button to click, but the player interface presents a wonderful array of elements that gives each unit its marching orders. Attack, defend – it is all a click away.

Rated for Everyone, this program contains animated blood and animated violence. This game supports multiplayer action through Internet, LAN or modem connections.

Sudden Strike is a terrific program that will welcome players into the realm of real-time strategic warfare, and give them a remedial course in what it takes to succeed in this genre.

Install: Easy.
The game only requires 108 megs at the minimum install, and 318 megs for the full. The drawback is that this program drops a host of icons onto your desktop. Hey, let us decide what we want and what we don’t

Gameplay: 8.5
Once into a scenario, the decisions have to be made quickly, because the action won’t wait for you to catch up.

Graphics: 8
Ok, the graphics are simulated three-dimensional, but the player movement is wonderful, and the ongoing battle is so spontaneous, with the blasting of buildings and environmental terrain, that you are immediately caught up in the action.

Sound: 7
Typical of this type of program. Yes the radio chatter sounds really cool, and the explosions and gunfire sound good, but there is little here that hasn’t been emulated in other games. It is solid though and adds to the feel of the game.

Difficulty: 8.5
The difficulty lies in the immediate response to action. This program doesn’t harbor itself in asking what level you wish to play at – it immerses the game player in the action, and challenges you immediately.

Concept: 7
The war genre is anything but new. This program does provide a fast-paced introduction to the battlefield with easy to navigate controls.

Multiplayer: 8
This program does ask that you walk through the single player scenarios before challenging others online – and with good reason. This is a chess match with an over-active timer. Stutter in the controls and you lose – fast.

Overall: 8
There are a host of other RTS war games on the market that pride themselves on historical accuracy. This game doesn’t have that. What it does have is the feel of battle. Little time to think, and not much of what you do is dependent on reflexive game play. You have to mentally battle here, make decisions quickly and suffer the consequences of bad decisions. The single player game is tough; the online game is tougher. If you wish to experience the RTS war genre, this is a good starting point.