World In Conflict
World In Conflict is the amazing new RTS from Massive Entertainment, and it is insane. You may have played a few Real Time Strategy games in your day and you might even think there’s nothing new that can be done with the genre, apart from the obvious such as updating the graphics or changing the setting of the game. You’d be wrong. Imagine that the Berlin Wall never fell back in 1989, and that a threatened USSR mounted an offensive on western Europe and the USA. The events that may have unfolded as a result of the wall never falling and the cold war turning to a hot war are explored in World In Conflict.
I got to play a pre alpha build at GO3, which is the first time it’s being shown in Australia, and I was blown away. The idea for the game was to combine the gaming genres of strategy and action and Massive has succeeded.
The back story is written by Larry Bond, who is a Tom Clancy collaborator, so the single player campaign(s) will be an interesting experience. The single player missions are also designed to teach the player to learn different strategies and tools to prepare them for multiplayer combat. You will be able to play different factions, USA or USSR, plus a third faction that hasn’t been announced yet.
The graphics engine is unique for an RTS, because you have full 360° viewing capability. It’s like a FPS, you can look anywhere instead of being limited to a particular viewpoint. You are able to zoom down to a single units view, which lets you hear them up close, too. There is quite a lot of detail on the macro level! Suddenly Command & Conquer 3 or Supreme Commander’s renderer’s appear rather dated. You won’t believe this until you see it for yourself.
World In Conflict also features an official online ranking system - as you play online, your rank increases, which means you get benefits (like bragging rights!). World In Conflict is set to have local cooperation with most game server hosts such as Internode and Gamearena, and will have servers for World In Conflict at game launch.
There is so much I could ramble about, however this is something you’ll just have to check out on your own. For now, watch someone waste a perfectly good nuclear tactical aid on a single tank. Enjoy.