There are two new campaigns, which focus around a large tank battle of WWII, called Operation Citadel. It all takes place near Kursk and the fighting sides are the Russians and the Germans. You only get to play with the latter though. Some 'choice' is available also; the first mission lets you choose between a German north or south attack scenario. A tutorial is available too and is pretty well worked out. For the rest I can say that the average map size of the 15 missions is large indeed and the difficulty is pretty tight also, no matter on what setting you're playing. Some smaller extra's are present here in the form of random enemy troops and the fact that enemy forces which have retreated during a mission can show up later on in the scenario.

Tank battles sound interesting for sure if there are enough new units. Fourty new vehicles of war are awaiting your command in Mission Kursk. Though the most interesting new tidbit is the addition of realistic unit movements, fire rates and overall fire range. The developers have even slowed down the turret rotation of some big tanks. Is it that much of a difference compared to the more action-oriented Blitzkrieg? I don't find so really. It's at least not that refreshing that you forget the disadvantages of the old Blitzkrieg engine. The pathfinding is still quite frustrating for example. Send a couple of vehicles into a town and watch them manoeuvring like hell. The pace is remarkably slower too. Say about Russians what you want but they were masters in deploying minefields. You'll be removing them cautiously under smoke curtains more than often. In a real-time strategy game such features tend to become boring when overused and here it sometimes is.

It's the same old engine, so the same old graphics too. The vehicles and airplanes move realistically because they are still in full 3D. Infantry remain simple bitmaps. It's not exactly worthy of 2005. The sound part is better but it clearly doesn't have the same punch as in Blitzkrieg II. On a positive side, you don't need such a heavy PC as for Blitzkrieg II. You only need Blitzkrieg or the stand-alone expansions Rolling Thunder or Burning Horizon to be able to play Mission Kursk.

The singleplayer is the main focus... let me rephrase that, there is simply no multiplayer. If you think there is more than only the campaigns, you're in for a disappointment since I only noticed one extra single mission. This is literally just a mission-pack, and that's not really meant in a negative way but just be warned if you expected more. It's also strange to see a 'The Unofficial Addon' stamp on the box. What is that good for? Is it a kind of excuse that the whole looks more like a mod than anything else?

Conclusion: