World In Conflict, A treat For All The RTS Game Lovers
June 29th 2008 10:29
It is the year 1989. But instead of the Cold War ending and the Soviet Union dismantling, it launches a surprise attack on the US, triggering WW III. Now, it is up to a few brave companies of soldiers to stop this attack and save their homeland. This is the setting given to World in Conflict, the latest Real Time Strategy (RTS) game developed by Massive Entertainment and currently available on the PC.
In the game, the player assumes the role of Lieutenant Parker, an American soldier who has to lead his men to victory alongside other battalions fighting for the same cause.
Unlike your typical RTS, where you have to first collect resources, build a base and then build an army, World in Conflict introduces some great new concepts of its own: Instead of collecting resources, you have two types of points at your disposal; tactical aid points and reinforcement points.
Reinforcement points are used to call in units on the battlefield. There are different types of units in the field such as infantry, tanks, repair vehicles, transport trucks, helicopters and much more. The action in the game starts as soon as the first units are air-dropped on the ground, and you have to be very careful in choosing wisely as to what units to call in since there is a limited amount of reinforcement points at your disposal.
Units can be called in for as long as you like, but this does not mean that units keep dropping in on the ground every second. Instead, once units have been dropped, there is approximately a twenty second delay before the next wave of units comes in on the battlefield.
Once the units are deployed on the battlefield, players are tasked with capturing command points. Command points are strategic positions on the map, and capturing these points is the primary objective in each mission. Command points change form from mission to mission with a town centre becoming a command point in one and a super market in another. They are captured simply by moving units into the designated markers. Once captured, you are then required to hold and defend these points for a certain amount of time before moving on. It is on the battlefield that tactical aid points come into play.
As the name implies, tactical aid means additional aid that players can utilise on the battlefield in order to complete their objectives. Using the tactical aid points, players can call in a number of different strikes such as napalm strikes, artillery strikes, air-to-air strikes, tank busters and many more, anywhere on the battlefield. Each strike consumes a different number of tactical points and can be called in for a maximum of three strikes at a time.
Besides primary objectives, there are secondary objectives in each mission. These could be anything from destroying additional enemy u nits, protecting friendly units and the likes. Completing these objectives give you access to free units that can be called in without using any reinforcement points, new units and also some new tactical strikes. Sometimes players only receive an additional medallion for completing these secondary objectives.
The concept of reinforcement points allows for some fast and furious action on the battlefield and effectively does away with the mundane tasks of base building and resource collecting. If you are the kind of player who does not like to wait a long time before the action starts then this game is perfect for you.
Moreover, each mission gives a player the control of a variety of units which holds interest in the action. For example, one mission only allows access to two types of choppers - apaches and scouts - and players are required to complete the entire mission using just these two types of choppers.
The graphics of the game are brilliant, consisting of fully destructible environments where forests burn when napalm is dropped on them or fall down when tanks or other vehicles roll over them. Character design, vehicular detail and everything else in general looks great in this game.
But one nitpick that I found was the size of the text in the game. Running the game on the 800 x 600 resolution, it is very hard to understand what is written on screen. You will have to put extra stress on your eyes if you need to read something such as how much reinforcement points a unit cost, what you have to do and so on.
The story in the game unfolds through great looking in-game cut scenes, graphic-novel style drawings and some awesome pre-rendered cut scenes. The best of which shows helicopters flying over New York City with Audioslave’s song Shadow on the Sun playing in the background.
Similarly, the audio in the game is also brilliant featuring Alec Baldwin voice as the narrator of the story who does an excellent job narrating the events with the right amount of emotions and subtlety.
The default control scheme is laid out as if World in Conflict was a first person shooter. You use the keys W,S,A and D to move forwards, backwards, left and right respectively and use the mouse to turn left and right. Since you can customise the controls to suit your needs, the default control scheme might not seem like a big deal but it goes to show how much Massive Entertainment wanted their game to be different from other RTS in the game.
With an engaging storyline, unique concepts and a great presentation style, World in Conflict certainly is worth checking out, particularly if you are RTS games fan. But even if you are not, you should check this game out since it breaks away from the norms of standard RTS games and does so with positive results and delivering a very unique experience.
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