The developers of Sudden Strike 4 [Steam] have released a rather interesting patch, which includes a classic multiplayer game mode like found in Sudden Strike 2.

This new "Classic Mode" sees you battle over Zeppelins to get reinforcements from the edge of the map. It also has mutators available, like changing how long people have to hold them and if players lose after not holding one for a while.

Right now this new mode is only available online , but they will be bringing it to the single-player Skirmish mode too. It seems you're unable to add AI into an online Classic Mode game either, likely due to it not being supported by the AI in Skirmish mode.

They didn't stop there, they've also added in two more large maps that support both the original and new game mode. AI has also seen some improvements, the game now enables you to pick between easy, medium and hard settings in Skirmish and Multiplayer.

To be honest, while I really do like the single-player, I think all of this should have been in the initial release. Still, respect to them for not dumping the game after release, where many other developers likely would have.

However, they still lose some respect from me for promising cross-platform multiplayer, which wasn't actually a feature at release.

Thoughts on the Classic Mode

I tried out the new mode online with Samsai and it's just as lacklustre as the other mode. This new Classic Mode doesn't really seem all that well thought out and we very quickly lost interest in it. Not to mention the Zepplins themselves look quite terrible and out of place.

You have to control all Zepplins of the same colour, to be able to get the reinforcements. The problem is, you each only get reinforcements once from each colour group it seems. Essentially, once one player has the upper hand you may as well quit. It's the exact same problems as the Domination mode (the original multiplayer mode), as you just don't get the ability to gain enough units once a bunch are lost. It doesn't feel like a question of tactics, it feels more like you just rush all units to a Zepplin and who can act the fastest to gain the most units will win.

A shame, I really did like the single-player, but the multiplayer isn't good. The game is currently on sale on Steam with 33% off.

You can see the full update changelog here.