Soldiers

This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (January 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Soldiers: Heroes of World War II
Developer(s)	Best Way
Publisher(s)	Codemasters
Series	Men of War
Engine	GEM
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	NA: June 29, 2004[1] EU: July 2, 2004
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Soldiers: Heroes of World War II (Russian: В тылу врага, or Behind Enemy Lines) is the first in a series of real-time tactics video games set in World War II, developed by or under the supervision of Ukrainian company Best Way.

While the most widely distributed edition by Codemasters bears the name Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, its original English language title is Outfront.

The player can take control of American, British, Soviet or German forces to play out battles that are set in World War II. The game is primarily a strategy game, but the player can take control of his forces and direct them with the keyboard and mouse for additional depth of control.

Game scenario writers include Alexander Zorich.

In the single player missions, players are generally allotted a very small number of soldiers, and losing just one soldier can be a huge loss. Thus, the game revolves around the player conserving soldiers and keeping them safe most of the time. The game simulates close combat military tactics, allowing the player to place soldiers behind cover and move them around all at once, yet also allowing the player to take control of the soldiers directly, enabling individual soldiers to accomplish much more advanced tasks, such as performing complex manoeuvres or sneaking through heavily fortified areas.

There are many types of vehicles, ranging from tanks to anti-aircraft vehicles to simple Jeeps. Any soldier can drive or man any position in a gun, which, while unrealistic, allows for many interesting gameplay implications.

Soldiers have inventories, which allow for the implementation of an ammunition system, as well as for soldiers to loot new or better weapons and grenades from dead enemies, as well as dead friendlies. Even vehicles have ammunition, which players can scavenge from disabled (but not destroyed) vehicles.

Another interesting side effect to using vehicles under direct control is that this allows the user to aim at specific points on enemy vehicles. A player can aim for an enemy tanks treads for example, which would prevent it from moving, but still allow it to fire. By doing this, a player can stop a tank from advancing, while creating a "dead zone" that soldiers cannot move in without getting attacked.

Aside from realistic locational damage on vehicles, the game offers a virtually completely destructible environment. This is especially taken advantage of when using a vehicle in direct control, in which a player can aim the turret and literally blow buildings apart.

Originally, the only way a player could play this game multiplayer was to play a cooperative game mode which took up to four players through any mission from the single player mode. The soldiers in each map were divided between the players, but otherwise this mode was exactly the same as single player. There was no server browser, and players were forced to directly connect by IP address to play.

In a more recent patch, players are able to play different multiplayer modes, including escort missions and king of the hill type scenarios. No in-game server browser was created, but a player could use GameSpy Arcade as a server browser.

On the 20th January 2025, the game received a quality of life update on Steam. This update enabled the use of the Steam Workshop to upload mods, replaced the now-defunct Gamespy servers with Steam Network multiplayer support, and other graphical updates.

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 77/100[2] Review scores Publication Score CGW [3] Game Informer 5/10[4] GameSpot 7.9/10[5] GameSpy [6] GameZone 7.9/10[7] IGN 8.5/10[8] PC Format 87%[9] PC Gamer (UK) 87%[10] PC Gamer (US) 83%[11] X-Play [12] Absolute Games 85%[13] The New York Times (mixed)[14] The Sydney Morning Herald [15]

The game received "favorable" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.^[2]

Outfront: Saboteurs (В тылу врага: Диверсанты) was released by 1C in 2005. Development was outsourced to studio Dark Fox, using Best Way's Heroes engine. Paradox Interactive acquired international rights from 1C in 2006 and renamed it Silent Heroes: Elite Troops of World War II, axing the original version's multiplayer in the process.

Outfront: Saboteurs 2 (В тылу врага: Диверсанты 2), developed by Dark Fox, followed in 2006. This product is unreleased outside of Eastern Europe.

Outfront: Saboteurs 3 (В тылу врага: Диверсанты 3), developed by Realore Studios, followed in 2008. This product is unreleased outside of Eastern Europe.

The first fully fledged sequel, Faces of War, appeared in 2006. Its intended international title was Outfront II, but that moniker was scrapped after a distribution deal was struck with Ubisoft. Rechristened Faces of War, the game was released on September 12, 2006.

The next installment in the series was a joint development between Best Way and German partners Digitalmindsoft. Russian publisher 1C marketed it as a two-part standalone expansion for Faces of War.

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

Wikidata has the property: NO LABEL (P1933) (see uses)

• No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

Template:Atari

0.00 (0 votes) Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobyGames. Read more

0.00 (0 votes) Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldiers: Heroes of World War II. Read more