World in Conflict was released September of 2007, devoloped by Massive Entertainment and published by Sierra. It was released initially for Windows on the PC, but will also be released on XBox 360 and PS3 under the title World in Conflict: Soviet Assault in 2008. Soviet Assault will feature a soviet campaign, as well as new maps, and new stories, and will be released as an expansion for the Windows version as well. While it is officially an RTS, but there is no resources or buildings to manage, so it is really more along the line of an RTT.
Story: World in Conflict is set in 1989, just before the fall of the Soviet Union. Instead of collapse, however, the CCCP instead makes a military push into Europe, in hopes of sparking the nation back into power. The opening of the game features a surprise Soviet invasion into the Northwest US city of Seattle. During the opening film of the campaign, it speaks of the invasion in both a humanistic and tactical stand point. Both my and The Tick, my fellow reviewer, experienced a huge emotional response to this opening. It struck home to us as Americans and, for me, as a Northwesterner. This response was even to the point where I was genuinely concerned with keeping my troops alive. Another thing that amazed me in World in Conflict is that, despite being an RTS/RTT, there is some amazing character development by NPCs. I can’t explain anymore without giving anything else away.
The moral of the story is that World in Conflict went way beyond the call of duty for the story of an RTS/RTT. Because of this, I finished the campaign extremely quickly, despite its length. The story changed the way I played the game completely. I’m definitely giving World in Conflict a 10/10 for story.
Visual Appeal: While the visuals are impressive, they are quite intensive. As a result, even on my relatively new laptop (about as old as the game), I’ve had to turn the graphics down considerably. Never the less, unless your zoomed in all the way, they still look great. Additionally, the menus are rather simple and easy to understand as well. The main screen is a work of art. Despite featuring the World in Conflict title directly in the middle of the screen, you hardly notice thanks to the balanced image.
For visual appeal, they get a 7/10. There are some mistakes, but you don’t notice them.
Interface: The human-unit interface of World in Conflict is actually very impressive. Most of the in game menus feature large pictures clearly defining each unit, with text that pops up in case you have more time to look into their specific abilities (what they are good against, etc.) It does lack a few of the classic commands like “Attack to here”, but that something that you can live without in most games, where your lucky if you have 6 squads/units. The rest of the menus are visually balanced, and equally easy to navigate without getting messy. It does get a little annoying when the Shift-select to select multiple units doesn’t work quite properly, or when double-clicking will select all of a type, while triple clicking (which is an accidental possibility in the heat of battle) will select one unit and move the camera to it.
For interface, World in Conflict scores a 8/10. Seriously, if your designing a game out there, with menus and interfaces, simplicity makes things a lot easier.
Gameplay: The gameplay of World in Conflict is by far one of the most intense I have ever played. I found myself so on the edge of my seat, I would start getting a headache from the tension in my neck. Despite being simple, it is extremely fast paced, with a lot of things to keep a hold of. Like I said before, “attack to here” doesn’t become much of a problem. With 4 or 5 squads/units against many other people/computers, the divide and conquer tactic rarely works. If you do end up having to divide, it does get a little on the nerves, and hot-keying certainly helps, but I get the idea that Massive Entertainment was pushing for a more human run battle with less computer guided attack to movements.
There are no resources to gather, or upgrades, or even any buildings to build at all. You have just one resource: command points. These are divided into to pools (three, if you want to get technical), one of points available, another of points that will become available, and a third of points of units you currently have in battle (not displayed). While these will always add to a constant number, when you lose units on the field, their points will go into your points to come pool. These points will then drain into your available points much like a bucket with a hole in it (faster when there are more, slower when not as much). Each unit costs a certain amount of points, yada yada. In reality, the system is much simpler then I just made it sound and is really easy to get the hang of.
For gameplay, World in Conflict earns a 9/10.
Difficulty: World in Conflict sports a relatively gentle learning curve. This isn’t to say the final levels are not hard, oh no, despite your slow training throughout all the levels, the final levels are extremely brutal. It does make it much more accessible to players that have not yet played RTS/RTT games much. This does mean an experienced player will find the first level or two quite boring. Don’t worry, it picks up
Certainly, on the other hand, multiplayer, even with bots, is a brutal training ground as well. That was my trial by fire, but it ends up being a ton of fun, and extremely intense as well. For being accessible, yet difficult, I’ll give World in Conflict an 8/10.
Replay Value: The campaign has a relatively low replay value. Once you know whats coming, tactically, the whole issue is much simpler. There are medals for secondary objectives that you might need to go back and grab if you missed them though. What gives World in Conflict its real replay value is the multiplayer. Even just against a bunch of bots with The Tick and the Super-Expert-Gamer-Pro-Guru Extraordinare, the games were a ton of fun, and we accidentally wasted 5 or 6 hours on a beautiful day playing instead of (rightfully) being outside enjoying the weather. Woops! No complaints though, it was a ton of fun nevertheless.
I haven’t personally tried the online multiplayer with tons of other people, but if the Guru speaks truth, it is much more intense then anything I have yet experienced in the game. Woah. For this replay value, I give World in Conflict a 7/10. Awesome, but if only the campaign had a bit more replay value.
Overall: I deeply enjoyed my experience with World in Conflict, and will probably continue playing it with my friends for quite some time to come. Overall, World in Conflict scored an 8.167/10. That gives it the scraping edge above Freespace 2 as the highest scoring game yet. I do suggest you pick this game up.
Screenshots:
Loading Screen
Taking the Hill
Upclose and Personal
Moving Out
Graphics on Medium
“Colorblind” Mode
Anyway, thats all I have for today.
Jumble, End Post.