WWII Online: Blitzkrieg

aka: WWIIO, World War II Online, World War II Online: Battleground Europe
Moby ID: 4297
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$0.00 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

WWII Online: Blitzkrieg is a massively multiplayer online game that features land, air, and sea action with accurate vehicles from World War II in full 3D. Players participate in a persistent world where success affects supply and territory, and where players must coordinate and unite to capture, hold ground, and defend against enemy attacks. Players can accumulate experience in any or all of the three branches of service on either side (and respective countries), and gain access to better equipment and more sophisticated features.

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Credits (Windows version)

94 People (16 developers, 78 thanks) · View all

Senior Producer
Assistant Community Manager
Chief Marketing Officer
Chief Technical Officer
Assistant Game Manager
Lead Artist
Support Director
Producer
Game Manager
Community Manager
Lead Client Programmer
Lead Forum Moderator
President & CEO
Intern Programmer
Lead Game Moderator
Our gratitude for talent, vision and dedication goes to all former RATS
  • AHWulf
  • Animal
  • Arradin
  • Bable
  • Badger
  • Bierbaer
  • Caligula
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 66% (based on 21 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 12 ratings with 6 reviews)

Dont Judge this Game from Old reviews

The Good
The game had a very rough start. Publishers forced a release that was not ready. The software company that developed this game reminds me of the early Microsoft team. They have a big vision. I have been with this since release, and CRS, Playnet has worked their tails off on this. The current version is at 1.50. The game in its current state is very much worth the 9.99 subscription. This is no Quake. It require a lot of thinking and strategy. Players must work together to accomplish a common goal. I play an average of 3 hours a day. If the game gets any better, I may end up getting a divorce, as my wife hates it.

The Bad
I only wish it had been at this point at release

The Bottom Line
Very enjoyable game, with lots of action. The players and the Forums make it a total experience. There are even players making movies of battles set to music. Other players are making downloadable maps of the theater. If you are into WW2 and like sims, this is for you.

Windows · by william allen (2) · 2001

A Massive Multiplayer Flop

The Good
I love the premise. They set up a 1/2 scaled Europe, and they give us WWII weapons and vehicles, and let us play it out all over again with no set missions - rewriting history online. Can the Nazis control America with better leadership? We may never find out with all these glaring bugs.

The Bad
Personally, I don't like the frame rates. On my top end system, flying a plane over an unpopulated town will take my frame rates into the single digits, and often stopping for long periods of time (5-120 seconds), after which I am usually dead. Thousands of other players express problems with crashing to the desktop, an inability to even start a game, and an unheard of load time - up to 10 minutes. And that's just for starters. The game manual is about as thick as a waffle house menu, the graphics are on the same level as some 1993 DOS titles even at the highest setting, not to mention the rifleman that fires backward and into the ground - a bug that hasn't been fixed 2 months into the release. All in all it has the feel that the game is still in alpha testing, and buying the game funded further development.

The Bottom Line
A WWII simulator that has many bugs, many flaws, many shortcomings, and a hard row to hoe to reach greatness. Fun to play when it works, hair pulling when it doesn't.

Windows · by Already (4) · 2001

They still have some ironing to do but...

The Good
There is no invisible wall when you reach the end of the mission map, because there is no end to the mission map. The entire world is one big mission. That mission is simple...defeat the enemy. I haven't tried it, but in theory, you could drive your tank from Barrow, AK to the Tierra Del Fuego, or from the frozen tundra of Siberia to the tip of Africa. Provided you had enough gas. The concept is nothing short of awe-inspiring. To engage in battle using WWII weapons and vehicles in a persistent world where facilities you control today may be gone tomorrow. Or where the facility to overtook today could make the difference next month. The battle starts in France/Belgium area, where it goes from there is up to the players. When this game is fully realized, it will be the most awesome battle simulation the world has ever seen. With historically accurate vehicle models and weapons, a persistent character who rises in rank as they complete missions or successfully defend areas, this game is going to set the mold for online games to come. The game works almost as well with a 56K modem as it does with broadband.

The Bad
There is plenty of bad to talk about at the moment. Frame rates are not so good mine move between 3 and 27 depending on how heavy a battle is going on (this has more to do with processor power and memory than it does connection speed). They haven't any Navy yet, and the Airforce is limited to three planes for the Allies and two for the Axis. They haven't yet implemented the supply lines, so sometimes is like a WWII Tank patch for Quake. And as of yet there is not a 'one-server' world. All this will come, and in the mean time, the play is free. No one is being charged the monthly fee from PlayNet until the game is 100% complete and bug free. Many of the initial bugs were fixed with the 1.21 patch. More bugs and new features will come with the 1.30 patch set to come out real soon.

The Bottom Line
This is a frustratingly addictive game. I have to fight myself not to play it every night. It's most fun when you have a group of people working together using a voice chat program like Roger Wilco.

Windows · by caine (2) · 2001

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Post-launch problems

The June 2001 launch had many woes, but for some the worst part was that 'online' part. The servers were either unreachable or unbearably laggy. The publisher extended the 30-day trial period (as included in the retail box) until the reliability issues were solved. The trial lasted until November 2001.

Behind the scenes, the games' primary ISP and facilities host had botched the transition from the beta-testing T1 to release 100Mb pipes. Massive initial interest in the game choked that lil' T1 stony cold dead.

After a showdown between WWIIOL's VP, John "Killer" MacQueen and the ISPs chief tech guy, it was divulged by a concerned employee of the ISP that the gaff wasn't entirely unintentional, not least because the ISP was in a position of not actually have 100Mb transit at the time.

Perhaps hoping the WWIIOL money would allow them to buy peering, the ISP followed up with a quick invoice for a year's connectivity and hosting in advance. As a show of good faith, they upgraded the 1.5Mb-connection-being-charged-at-100Mb rates to a 10Mb connection. When WWIIOL's developers declined to pay the 100Mb rate for this connection, the ISP promptly issued a legal filing against the game company and, without notice, turned off the connectivity.

Apparently "Killer" is no slacker. Within 8 hours he'd gotten agreements and connectivity from 3 major ISPs, rented facilities at a coloc on the far side from Dallas and conducted a covert-op truly befitting of an online wargame to quietly "recover" their hardware from the original ISP and redeploy it across town. The servers went down a little after 1pm and started coming back online around 6pm, with full connectivity and service somewhere between 7.30 and 8pm.

Unfortunately, the legal battle with the original ISP put the developers into Chapter 11 and forced radical staffing cuts that pretty much sealed the game's fate as a minor MMO few have ever heard of.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2002 (Issue #213) – Biggest Patch of the Year (for the bad launch)
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – Sim Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kasey Chang.

Macintosh added by Shoddyan.

Additional contributors: nullnullnull, JPaterson, mw, Kabushi, Oliver Smith, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger.

Game added June 13, 2001. Last modified January 20, 2024.