Indie Spotlight: Firefight

Indie spotlight is a new series of blog posts where I play and review a game from an independent studio or developer. The very first in this series is Firefight by Sean O'Connor.

Firefight is a WWII real time strategy game where you command troops on the battlefield. This one strikes a nostalgia chord with me because it is clearly inspired by the Close Combat series. When I was a kid I had these two Windows demo discs. One had Close Combat, and the other had Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far. Each had just one level from each game and boy did I play the heck out of them. I have always found WWII fascinating, even as a child. So a game where you can command troops in a WWII setting was exciting for me.

With Firefight there is no set story or plot. There are three theatres of war (Western Front, Eastern Front, Pacific) with 9 maps in each. Each map has several missions loosely based on real historical battles. There is also a forth Theatre with modern cities and you can add custom maps. The missions basically put you in command of a regiment of the Axis or the Allies where you need to complete your battlefield objectives. There is a good roster of countries included. You have your standard Germans, Americans, Japanese, and Soviets. It also includes nations that rarely get video game spotlight such as the British, French, Polish, and Romanian armies.

Pre-game UI

The gameplay is very much in the style of close combat. You have a bird eye view of the battlefield and your troops. The fog of war hides enemy units until your soldiers detect them or they reveal themselves by firing on you. There are several types of units at your command: infantry, mortar team, anti-tank, field guns, light armored carriers, light and heavy tanks. You can command your troops to move, sneak, fire at will, lay smoke and other commands. An example of the game play is I was the Soviets during operation Barbarossa. The objective was to clear a tank factory of German forces. I was sneaking slowly up with my troops and tanks. Trying to get the element of surprise on the enemy. Then without warning BOOM!! My T-34 is up in smoke and my wounded tank crew is running for some type of cover. You are scrambling to find out what happened and you notice a indicator showing "unknown " enemy troops in the area. Now all you want is revenge for losing your battle tank. It is just a fun experience.

Graphically the game is very simple, but at the same time beautiful. The map is a 2D representation of a WWII battlefield. Farm land, hedgerows, little towns cover the screen in nice detail. Even with the 2D map there is still elevation which adds to the gameplay element. Having a tank placed on a hill over looking a field could provide excellent advantage. The units are represented by individual 2D sprites that are quite detailed. The game does a really great job with the vehicle sprites. If your a WWII buff you can easily identify a T-34 or StuG III tank by their sprite. Overall, the graphics are appropriate for the game style and do not need a ton of GPU power to operate. Which I feel is always a special thing to see an accessible fun title.

Gameplay Screenshots

There are some bonus features worth talking about as well. There are separate editors to make your own maps and armies. I gave the map editor a quick go. I think it will take time I do not have at the moment to fully comprehend it. I would love to make an Arnhem map where you fight for the bridge. So if the game has all these editors there must be mods right? Correct! Unfortunately, no Steam Workshop integration but there are Mods that can be found online and in the community Discord. Users have made a Cold War mod, Iraq War, even a Russian-Ukraine war mod. I haven't dug too deep into the mods purposely because I know I will get sucked in and I have too much on the go at the moment.

So if your looking for a more modern version of Close Combat at a decent price tag, definitely give Firefight a shot. With the mods there is hours and hours worth of fun to be had.

Well that is it for now. Hope you enjoyed this new blog entry. Going to keep my eye out for another indie title to try out and share with the world. As always thanks for stopping into my corner of the internet and stay safe out there gamers.

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Firefight is the intellectual property of Sean O'Connor games.

This article is subject to Fair Use (US Law) and Fair Dealing (Canadian Law) as it is informational in purpose and is a critique of the product. All rights and credits go directly to the owners. No copyright infringement is intended