Australian Gamer Review :: World in Conflict

DON'T FEED THE ORACLE

World in Conflict

Reviewed on: PC
Available on: PC, Xbox 360

I suppose you could say I�m from the old school of telling little men on a screen to rush to their death in the name of their Lord and Master Starkemus Prime.

Players: 1 - 16 Players
Genre:
Release: 2007-09-20

Developer: Massive Entertainment
Distributor: Sierra Entertainment

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Artillery shells were falling all around. The explosions were ear piercing, and you could hear the screaming of jet engines overhead as they carpet bombed the Soviet forces across the river. Captain Brett Bear stood, his face resolute and the explosions reflecting brilliantly off his aviator lenses. For an unknown reason, he wore an incredible French officers hat that stood splendid on top of his head but contrasted oddly to the Australian Captains rank on his epilate. Stranger still were the custom green camouflage pyjama�s he wore. He chomped down hard on the end of his cigar, his eyes searching the rugged terrain in front of him.

"We�re gonna take that hill, pilgrims!" Captain Brett Bear announced in a strong American accent, looking down at his men taking cover in the trench below.

"Sir, the Soviets have three snipers, an artillery unit and a Spetsnaz unit up there!" Yug answered.

"Quiet corporal!" cried Captain Brett Bear, "Or I�ll force you to do it all by yourself, and we all remember what happened to AJ when he said we couldn�t walk any further."

"You gave him a motorised scooter and told him to have 3 weeks of R&R," Matt replied drolly. "If we run up that hill, they�ll shoot us. Not a very convincing argument Brett."

"Captain, to you!" Captain Brett Bear demanded, pointing his lethal spud gun at him.

Matt sighed.

Starks, running like a mad man, dived into the trench as artillery shells exploded behind him.

"Private Starks, reporting sir!" Starks� face was painted in camouflage, and as he stood to attention you could clearly see the cardboard armour he was wearing with �Master Chief� scrawled across his chest.

"Excellent Starks, where�s the rest of them?" Captain Brett Bear asked.

On cue, both Oracle and Jae casually stumbled into the trench; arms around shoulders, singing �We could be heroes� by David Bowie. "Soldiers, are you drunk?!" Captain Brett Bear exclaimed, alarmed at their current state.

"I�m not as think as you drunk!" Jae replied, before he concentrated on what he had said. "Whay whay, whay, I think I got that wrong."

"Shhhh! Don�t le� �im know whe�ve dwunk all �is whisss-key, �e�ll be mad." Oracle slurred, before hiccupping.

"Privates Oracle and Jae. I�m disappointed that you didn�t at least have the decency to let me join in with the festivities," Captain Brett Bear chastised as he coughed, and discretely took a swig out of a hip flask located in some mysterious area on his pyjama pants.

Overhead, a terrifying cry of a man could be heard. Through the sky, like some sort of crazed experiment, flew a bulky white object with what looked to be a very lanky young man straddling it on top. "Is it a bird?" Yug exclaimed "Is it a plane?" Matt asked. "No... It�s a tactical flying fridge..." Captain Brett Bear replied, his voice trailing off. A blinding explosion occurred, and everyone - Bar Captain Brett Bear - hit the ground, covering their ears and trying to escape the inevitable shockwave that was coming. And yet... It didn�t.

Yug looked up and sniffed. "Shouldn�t we be dead? And smelling like KFC?"

"You�d think that but I guess tactical flying fridges these days don�t have the explosion radius you�d think they would," Matt answered, dusting off his uniform. "I mean, everything around us is dead, except us and those Russians on the hill."

"You know what that means, don�t you?" Captain Brett Bear mused. Matt sighed and picked up his helmut. "We�re storming the hill? Even though we�re going to get mowed down by the machine guns, splattered by the artillery or shot by the snipers?"

"And even if all three of them happened, we�ll still win." Captain Brett Bear vigorously answered, lifting his chin in belligerence just as a ray of light shot down through the clouds to highlight the three days worth of stubble he�d been keenly growing for the last two months. "Let�s do this lads, CHAAAARGE!"

Captain Brett Bear watched as his loyal troops rushed up the hill, and made sure he was properly covered behind the sand bags they�d built. He pulled out a postcard, which had a picture of Anna on it. Inscribed on the back were the words �Merry Christmas everyone�. However, a red crayon ran through the writing, and instead the sentence �I luv u Brett Bear from Anna� were scrawled on their in Brett�s handwriting.

Captain Brett Bear sighed, kissed the photo, then crouched down behind cover a little bit more. It was hard being at the top. His soldiers just didn�t appreciate how difficult it was to make the big decisions.

Awww, look at the purdy sunset

That practically sums up the complexity of the single player story in World in Conflict - Slightly absurd and almost unbelievable. Nevertheless, it was highly entertaining - taking a trip back to the 80�s, flared jeans, Guns n� Roses and the Cold War where the possibility of Soviet Russia and Communist China could actually start World War III.

Essentially, 1989 sees the Soviet Union on the brink of bankruptcy, when the alternate history kicks in. Combining with Communist China, the Red Army marched through Europe before the Russian army invades Seattle in a sneak attack through cargo ships. With the aim of getting to a particular fort housing the Star Wars Defence System and starting a nuclear war, the Russians are held at bay by Colonel Sawyer, and Captain Parker before finally winning the �good fight�.

The story itself is extremely pro American, and at some points the military victories you�re asked to pull off are not just absurd, but in some cases not even Montgomery himself would have been able to win the battle. But outside of that, the cut scene�s itself do immerse you into the story, and it�s hard not to want to progress through the story and find out what happens next.

On a personal note, WiC is the first RTS I�ve taken seriously since Rise of Nations. After growing up on strategy games, and holding high regard for the Command and Conquer series, Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology (Which, whilst I�m on the topic, was highly underrated), Warcraft series and Panzer General, I�ve definitely got a taste for the genre and enjoy the challenges of crushhing the hapless AI. I suppose you could say I�m from the old school of telling little men on a screen to rush to their death in the name of their Lord and Master Starkemus Prime.

*Ahem*

This led me to be particularly impressed with the control system, camera mechanics and HUD as it made playing the game extremely easy to use, and intuitive. Between the WASD and mouse movement of the character, it took me very little time to navigate my way through the game and control my units. The default hot keys assist in allowing you to accomplish 90% of the units functionality without having to greatly adjust where your hands are. So effectively, your left hand will get RSI if you play the game too long, but you�ll have full access to your units at any one time with the greatest of ease.

This, is my BOOM stick!

The graphics themselves are impressive. They�re not Crysis impressive, but they�re pretty bloody good. I had to turn them down all the way to get it to run on my little laptop, but even so the game is quite playable. Although the men look more like clay when you zoom right in and its on such a low graphic setting.

One of the more interesting features of the game, which I�m not sure if it has been done before in a real time RTS, is you don�t have to build your troops. Instead, you have a counter for your �reinforcements� and at staged intervals you receive points towards air dropping new troops down onto the battlefield. Generally the game allows you to reinforce your troops for each unit you lose, meaning you only have to wait a minute or two before the points tick back over to give you the ability to drop in a new replacement to the tank or helicopter you lost. Of course, you�re not bound to buying the same units over and over, and in some cases you�re encouraged to disband and start again mid-mission as certain units are totally inappropriate to the situation you�re currently facing.

Add to this the ticking over of the �air support� counter as you kill more units, and you can happily call in tank busters, carpet bombing, napalm etc as a means of uprooting those vodka drinking Soviets.

This is Arnie Pye in the Sky, reporting for Channel 6 and WOAH am I way out from Springfield!

The units themselves fall into four different categories - Infantry, Support, Armour and Air. All four have their benefits and negatives, and it�s a matter of working out how to address your current mission with the restraints the operation has given you. Predictably many missions favour certain categories in terms of ease of completion. One mission, where you have to overtake a particular island held by Spestnaz forces, forces you to secure the island with infantry, amphibious tanks and light helicopters. I lamented the ease to which I would have finished the mission had I been given the opportunity to use a few tanks and heavy air.

In terms of the learning curve for the game, I completed it on Easy, but am quite happy to have done so as now that I�m replaying on Medium, there has been a significant change in the intelligence of the AI and I�m getting caught out more and more around my flanks as I progress. The time limits previously granted to you by Colonel Sawyer are shortened, and the enemies you face hold the area in a much more effective manner. Still, the enjoyment of the challenge remains and I�m getting the feeling that it�s one of those games you enjoy more as you get to a higher skill level.

The multiplayer experience was quite good. Pitting the Soviets v NATO / U.S. against each other, there is a maximum of 8v8 in the game. The four categories are split, and you�re required to go either Infantry, Support, Armour or Air. You�re restricted to certain unit types and the test is how well you co-ordinate with your team to overcome the enemy. Using a �territories� type of game, there are 5 area�s you�re asked to attack, with two territories favouring each side and a third sitting smack bang in the middle of it. Of course, this is where the frame rate is tested and I must say it�s bloody good fun trying to dislodge an enemy from one of the territories. Even more entertaining is dropping a tactical nuke on their heads as you retreat and see all their units go up in smoke! There are also an Assault and Tug-Of-War game types which are fairly self explanatory and prove as much fun as the Territories.

Why can't we all just ... get along?

I must say that the online component is a lot of fun. The games themselves have a speech program inbuilt and there�s been a few nights where I�ve had a beer to my right, my flak helmet to the left and an intent gaze on the screen, yelling �Charge the saw mill lads!� to complete strangers. It really is quite a lot of fun as you have to work together to somehow outflank your opponents, keep those damn choppers at bay, and somehow try to keep your infantry alive.

I�ve personally been looking forward to playing this game since I first tested it at Supernova. It�s enjoyable, addictive, has you wanting to go back and redo it on higher skill settings and also looks good. I�m not sure it brings a whole lot to the RTS world as I don�t have many of them to compare it to lately, but it does make for a lot of fun.

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Final Verdict

If you�re looking for a new RTS then this is definitely a good choice. Very well put together with fantastic cut scenes, a fairly bug-less gaming experience and an intuitive camera system that allows you to get dragged in fairly easily.

Pros
Graphics are top notch, although you definitely need a goo box to run it on anything but Very Low; unit balance is quite detailed and makes for entertaining strategic choices and opportunities; fantastic online component will see a lot of fun especially with friends.
Cons
The alternate timeline isn�t really believable. It serves its purpose and gives reason for the game, but they could have done better, not bot play which means you can�t enjoy multiplayer on your own, could have had a longer campaign with possible use of sea units also.