Mele says Relic sought to provide players with “interesting new perspectives” on the Second World War, deciding to set the game within the Mediterranean theater to showcase other aspects of the conflict not depicted as often in games. The deserts of Libya and Egypt and tank battles of the North African campaign provided one part of this, the rolling hills and infantry-led fighting of Italy another.
The highlight in this sense is the North African levels’ narrative. Though players are tasked with controlling German forces under Erwin Rommel during combat, each battle is bookended by diary entries and cutscenes describing the horrors faced by Libyan Jews persecuted by their Axis occupiers in the Holocaust and treated with deadly indifference by the British forces that opposed them.
Mele believes that real-time strategy games from well-known series will maintain their audiences, but he sees the need for innovation within the genre as well. He mentions how “newer strategy games are remixing age-old mechanics with modern gaming influences,” and he explains that Relic's “job is to listen to our players to build the game they want and refine the experience with exciting new ideas until we get it right.