Ellis Island, winter of 1989.

Several squads of US infantry stationed there are doing their best to occupy their time, trying to keep the ongoing war in Europe out of their minds. Several of their friends got shipped overseas and while some of the soldiers still in the US hate being away from the action most thank their lucky fortune. In the distance several helicopters can be heard, so one of the soldiers goes back to his post to see what is going on. “Commie choppers inbound!” he screams just as out of nowhere a Russian Spetsnaz throws a knife at him. Within seconds all hell breaks loose, but it only lasts a few minutes before an uneasy silence falls on the island once again. The nameless soldier who saw the helicopters approaching manages to turn his head towards Liberty Island before taking his final breath. Just as his eyes begin to lose focus he sees the Soviet flag waving proudly from the top of the Statue of Liberty…

War on US soil

If World War III was to come to pass, the late eighties were one of the most likely times this could have happened. With the cold war still in full swing a wrong word was all it took to get the wheels of war turning once again. World in Conflict makes that scenario a reality, with Russia (Soviet Union back than) being forced to invade Europe due to the internal struggles of the country. Learning from the past they also subsequently open up a second front, right in the middle of the United States of America. This hard knock on the door of Seattle is also where the game starts. Taking the role of a faceless and voiceless lieutenant Parker, you get to experience modern warfare right in the middle of a city with over half a million of inhabitants. To top it off your officer in command is a total tool willing to turn tail at the first sight of danger, leaving behind countless civilians to fight for their lives against the full force of the red armada.

After this rather spectacular introduction is over players finally get control of the game. Being a strategy veteran myself I was quite surprised when for the first second or two I just couldn’t get my bearings. With missiles flying all over the place, dozens of helicopters dropping soldiers in the square in front of me and my cowardly captain yelling orders at me it took me a few moments to absorb all of it. After the initial shock was over things got better though. Having played both Ground Control games before I knew exactly how the game mechanics worked, so I went ahead with the liberation of Seattle (or as it later turns out evacuation).

Why did I just waste an entire paragraph describing my personal experience with the game when any number of you will probably have a completely different experience? Because WiC is not a regular strategy game. For one thing it is an extremely fast paced game, rivaling most first person shooters with the amount of adrenaline it starts pumping. If you think for a second where most of the downtime happens in strategy games, you’ll come to the conclusions that base and unit building are the main culprits. Massive agree with you here, so they have simply cut this feature out of WiC. Gone are the days when you had to build up an army and then rush your opponent. Instead you gain new units via reinforcements. Obviously the amount of units you can call into battle is very limited, but the “cost” of every unit you lose is slowly refunded, so you can usually survive a lost tank or two.

Ah, who am I kidding – you can survive the loss of your entire combat force, but you’ll still be able to complete most of the single player missions. Sure, the enemy will probably take this opportunity to dig in or send his forces into your territory, but most of the time this only proves to be a minor setback. In certain missions I actually found myself using this as a tactic, sending in units just to figure out what the enemy forces were composed of. As a result my next attack wave wasn’t a generic combination of units anymore, but a purpose built killing machine, aimed at wiping out the specific defenses of my target.

You can garner from the above fact that the game follows the traditional rock-paper-scissors mechanic. Tanks are lethal machines that just trample over most other units, but they are incredibly weak against helicopters or anti-tank infantry that is hiding in buildings. Airborne units on the other hand can’t be touched by most, but a well aimed rocket from regular infantry or just a second or two under the reticule of an AA gun is all it takes to send them spiraling to the ground. You’ll have to think ahead and build balanced groups of units as a result, because having only one type of unit usually doesn’t end well. Coupled with the way reinforcements are handled you’ll lose (and kill) more units than you might be used to in strategy games, but that doesn’t mean that wasting your forces is the only way to win. Following the latest trends units earn XP for every kill/repair they do, making them more effective at their job. You’ll obviously want to conserve your veterans, as they can be quite effective against greater numbers of less experienced foes.Returning to the overarching story of the game, you won’t stay in Seattle long. The missions will take you all across the globe, from the snowy central USA over the warm European Mediterranean to the freezing tundra of northwest Russia.

Thankfully enough your incompetent captain will soon get outranked by a more experienced colonel and you’ll find yourself protecting bridges to save civilians, demolishing entire neighborhoods to force enemy infantry to retreat and orchestrating huge ambushes with the help of AI allies. To make things easier you’ll have access to tactical aids most of the time. Ranging from small artillery strikes to the crème-de-la-crème tactical nukes, these aids can turn the tide of battle in a heartbeat. To keep them from dominating the game they have a cost associated with them, and the only way to earn points which can be then used to call on them is to kill enemies and secure objectives. Yet another mechanic on the long list that rewards action playing, making turtle players pay dearly for staying in one place for two long. Most of the tactical aids require around 10 seconds before they actually appear on the battlefield, so using artillery on moving enemies will usually result in wasted ammo, but thinking ahead it is still possible to drive the enemy forces right into a hotspot.

You will die on your own

In line with all the drastic changes the game made to the way strategy games are played, the multiplayer is a great deal different from what you would expect. The most apparent difference is the way players can join ongoing games without a problem. With no bases to build it takes literally 10 seconds for a new player to be in the game with a full force, ready to help his allies. But as major a change as this might be, it’s not the most gameplay affecting one. When playing online players have to choose their specialization, focusing on one specific area of operations over the rest. Split up in very self explaining and logical positions, players can choose between working mainly with infantry, tanks, airborne vehicles or support units. Each on its own is powerful enough to withstand a direct confrontation with another equally skilled commander, but it is only when working in tandem that the roles really tap their full potential.

A skillfully coordinated assault in the multiplayer modes will, as a result, have a division of tanks plowing through the enemy lines with infantry covering the flanks. Helicopters will be used for hit and run incursions behind the enemy lines and support players will ensure that the rest are fully operational, sending a few barrages of rockets from the rear occasionally. That is not to say that players are limited only to units from their particular role. An infantry commander can call in tanks as well, but the reinforcement’s price will be considerably higher, leaving fewer resources for other units. If you are an online player you can probably see how the game is perfectly suited for clans and tournaments. Massive took care of that as well – the online component of WiC is one of the most refined ones in a long time. You’ll find everything in there, from quick matches to tools for some serious online tournaments.

Tying it all together

Although the tutorial level doesn’t really impress with its graphics, World in Conflict is without doubt the prettiest strategy game out there right now. When zoomed out you’ll be able to see dozens of tanks rolling across plains, barrages of missiles flying on the horizon (about a mile or two away) and silhouettes of soldiers in the windows of buildings. But while all of this is impressive, it doesn’t really showcase the full potential of the engine. Zooming in however does. Suddenly those rudimentary shapes of the soldiers turn out to be very detailed, with grenades hanging from their belts and their weapons easily recognizable. And the vehicles look just as good with individual bolts seen on the surface of tanks. And all the while that barrage or rockets can still be seen in the distance.

Funny as this might sound, the units aren’t the main attraction of the game – the terrain is. From the urban areas of New York and Seattle to idyllic villages in the middle of winter, the engine depicts them all with amazing detail. And as with the rest, you can see for miles when zoomed out, but can also count the individual daisies in the front lawn of a house when zoomed in. And then artillery fire not only destroys the said lawn, but turns the house into rubble and creates some nice craters for your infantry to hide in. That’s right ladies and gents, WiC features fully deformable terrain. While this undoubtedly looks good, its tactical implications are even more important. A ravine ideal for tanks can be turned into a hole-ridden wasteland where infantry just thrives.

All of these technical wonders come with a hefty price though – the game can be a system hog a times. Even with an 8800GTX (or HD2900XT) the framerates will sometimes plummet into the low twenties. Turning off some DX10 effects such as cloud shadows or particle soft edges helps, but when even SLI rigs can’t handle it all you just know a patch or two are on the way. That said, the game still looks very pretty at medium settings, so even owners of older rigs can enjoy it. Another reason a patch will be welcome in the future is the relative instability of the game. While some of the crashes can probably attribute to the video drivers (both AMD and nVidia aren’t safe from them) the multiplayer ones will require some fixing from Massive.

To wrap things up on the technical side of things, the sound is pretty good overall. The combat music is rather generic, but it fits the game well. There are some popular songs sprinkled around the game as well, playing during certain cinematics and they really help set the mood – the only thing missing during these parts is the smell of napalm and a lit cigar in your mouth (although the later can be fixed). Voiceovers are good as well, from the yells of your superiors during missions to still-pictures cinematics between the missions. These videos help develop the various protagonists of the game and show a completely different side of war.

Conclusion

Playing WiC it is sometimes hard to tell that the game was developer primarily as a multiplayer game. Sure enough the online modes and mechanics are amongst the best, and you’ll probably experience some of the best moments of gaming here. It is the singleplayer that really shines though. The very action paced campaign will give you almost no time to breathe, and even the few moments of respite you’ll get will probably be spent being angry, sad and happy with the on-screen characters. And it will be during these moments that you’ll realize that WiC is more than just a strategy game. After all, when was the last time you wanted to smack somebody up when playing Warcraft?