The original game was closely followed by an expansion pack (SS: Forever) that introduced new units, a desert tile set and a game editor which was the same used in creating the game.

Now comes Sudden Strike 2 which, although retaining much of the original game engine, introduces further depth to the series with the introduction of a new faction (the Japanese) and various other enhancements to the original game.

First of all the things you won't see in the game is the ability to entrench your units - something that has often been asked for on the Sudden Strike forums. There is also an absence of battlefield environmental effects. There is no ability to lay smoke screens, and buildings & forests do not catch fire (although fully destructible). These quibbles aside there are a few surprises in this sequel.

• Armoured trains (Thomas the tank engine with attitude)
• Gunboats
• Fully working airfields
• Controllable landing craft
• Gunboats and Cruisers
• The ability to place infantry on the back of Tanks
• Weather effects

There are 40 missions with 5 campaigns and separate scenarios (10 less than the original game). The campaigns cover operations on the Russian Front, Western Europe and Asia. Each has specific tile sets, with the new jungle one being particularly well done. The game also ships with a fully featured multiplayer game.

The campaigns are well balanced with the ability to set the difficulty level based on your skill level. Although the game still boasts the ability to have up to 1,000 units per scenario, unlike the original they have not gone so much for mass tank units but more into smaller unit actions. This has made the game more manageable with less reliance now being placed on the pause button. Each of the campaign scenarios has an initial briefing that goes over your objectives and shows on the map the recommended direction for your attacks and possible enemy counter attacks.

The missions are quite varied and the new elements of water transport, naval support, together with utilising aerodromes has created some interesting possibilities. Missions can now take the form of taking an island utilising landing craft, securing the airfield, boarding your remaining troops on transport planes and doing a parachute drop on the next island. Because of this you have to husband your resources carefully and work out what you are willing to expend to achieve each objective. A new feature has been the addition of tunnels in some scenarios where you can move both troops and vehicles underground to bypass enemy positions. Although it works well, historically they are a questionable feature in the game.