World in Conflict Review

9.2

Format PC

Developer Massive

Publisher Vivendi

Genre Sim / Strategy

8 Comments

One of the great things about working here is that I get to witness cutting-edge computer rendered graphics on a regular basis. But barely ten minutes into World In Conflict and I'm harping on about its graphics so much that members of the team have slowly begun to edge away from me on their wheelie chairs.

But sure enough, any passers-by who are foolish enough to look at my screen are sucked in like a spider caught in a draining bath. And it's not hard to see why. This game is bloody gorgeous. Just take a look at those screenshots. And then imagine it moving at 50 frames per second.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere for the last six months, you'll know that WIC is set in 1989 at the peak of the Cold War. The Soviets, on the brink of internal collapse, have invaded France (one can only presume for the wine and cheese).

They then spread forth into other parts of Europe before eventually landing
on US soil and bringing the fight to America. Well, that's the basic timeline, anyway - in actual fact, the missions start off with the invasion of America, hang around for long enough to give you a good feel for what's going on and then flit back four months in time to Europe before returning for the last set of levels. A bit like one of those flashbacks in Lost. Only without the polar bears, tropical island and plane crash of course.

You enter the scene as Parker, a relatively green Lieutenant fresh out of the academy, alongside a cast of well-acted and convincing counterparts, including the hard-nosed, no-nonsense Colonel Sawyer, the increasingly annoying loose cannon Captain Bannon and other notable characters. The stories of the soldiers involved and their relationships with loved ones is told through a series of hand-drawn screens between missions.

These well-written snippets add some much needed humanity to the conflict and some of them are, at least for my emotional self, quite moving. They also serve to endear the characters to you - in contrast to most RTS titles where you probably couldn't name a single participant. By about halfway through, I found myself really feeling for the personalities involved.

Aspects of each character also play a role on the battlefield, but without wanting to ruin anything, you'll have to play to see what I mean. Loading screens also spell out what's happening mission-wise and are excellently narrated by the gruff-sounding Alec Baldwin. (Who's obviously found some spare time away from shouting at his 12-year-old daughter - check YouTube if you don't know what I'm on about.)

So on to the missions themselves. One problem often encountered in the RTS genre is that the missions can, after a while, really start to feel quite similar. But developers Massive Entertainment have really outdone themselves here with the content and variety, as the campaign never feels dull or repetitive. Levels are generally huge, sprawling affairs in which objectives commonly involve taking and then holding an area (similar to the Carentan mission in Company Of Heroes), but also include defending bridges, taking out helicopter bases, searching buildings for personnel
and blowing up power stations.

Completing a main objective opens up another one, meaning gameplay is fast-paced and on occasion, hectic to the extreme. At any one time you can be waiting for reinforcements to drop, ordering the next batch, fighting raging battles in different sections of the map and calling in tactical aid, all while trying to complete the objectives of the level. Phew! But it was here, under fire on all sides by the enemy, that the first niggle began to rear its ugly head.

In their wisdom, Massive decided to remove the ability to issue orders while the game is paused. They reckon it's because it affects the flow of the game. In most missions, that's true and you'll happily make it through the level uninterrupted. But on one level that I was finding particularly tough, I just had so much going on that I yearned to be able to pause and dish out a batch of commands to my different groups.

For that certain brand of RTS player who likes to sit back and take things slowly, having so much to do and so little time to do it in can get quite fiddly. However, as my skills in the game advanced, things did become much easier. You've just got to learn how to multi-task efficiently.

Each mission begins with a certain number of reinforcement points with which you can call in more units, the immersion levels maintained by having a transport aircraft fly low to drop them off by parachute. Exactly which units are available to you varies in each mission, with some focussing on infantry roles and others on tanks, while an all-helicopter level is also present.

Once your units have been reduced to tiny little pieces, their equivalent points slowly trickle back to the sum available to you, meaning that you'll never find yourself completely out of units.

Also present on many maps are allied forces, fighting hard to achieve their own objectives and reinforcing the feeling of being part of a much bigger campaign. There are also some particularly noteworthy mission settings which I don't want to ruin for you (although the mission after you first witness the nuke deserves at least a mention), and the game features a lot of fighting in suburban areas.

Fighting through streets and between people's houses is an exciting change from the normal gaming battlefields, and thankfully no-one seems particularly bothered about collateral damage. Although the insurance companies might have a thing or two to say later...

Tactical influences from the Ground Control series are apparent, with infantry gaining bonuses when garrisoned inside buildings or moving through forested areas, and each unit having its own special abilities. Tanks are most vulnerable to attacks on their flanks and rear, and each unit also has its own particular vulnerabilities.

Steaming in with all your troops may work on occasion but pick your fights well with the correct units in the right positions and everything will suddenly get a whole lot easier. Even the well-timed deployment of a unit's special abilities can, at times, be enough to swing a battle in your favour.

Of course, one of WIC's highlights is the ability to call in back-up in the form of Tactical Aid. Gained by capturing territory and sending enemies to a happier place,
this is another encouragement to keep you pressing forwards.

Besides the much-touted nuke, there's an impressive selection of carnage and destruction on offer, ready for you to order and take away, like some sort of military Argos. Radar sweeps, napalm strikes, laser-guided precision bombs, air-to-air strikes, carpet bombing and heavy artillery are just some of the helpful bonuses on offer.

The list is impressive, with each having its own strengths and weaknesses as well
as different areas of effect, but it's the accompanying visual effects that I've been boring my work colleagues to tears with for the past two weeks.

I mean, who would have guessed that explosions could be so beautiful? Those blinding flashes of fire, smoke and debris, in which buildings, infantry and units alike are decimated and blown to pieces are so often an afterthought in other titles. But here, they're real showstoppers.

Call in a tank-buster attack, wait for the tiny little counter to run down to zero and turn your eyes skyward. In hurtles a plane, swooping low to the ground and strafing it with its guns. Tanks explode in beautiful fashion, flames licking into the sky and turrets spiralling away, while debris and smoke fill the area and the ground deforms into a crater.

After calling in a laser-guided precision bomb on one particular building, I remember jumping about in my seat like a child who's just eaten the entire pick 'n' mix section because the resultant clouds of smoke looked so bloody realistic. I believe

I even muttered something to myself about it looking so soft, like it was candy floss.
Only grey. And with bits of building in it. That's what this game reduced me to.
Daisy cutters drift slowly down before causing a huge circular explosion. Jets deliver fuel-air bombs as a spray of fuel in the air, before igniting it for a spectacular, aerial explosion. Heavy artillery salvos arc gracefully over the battlefield before crashing down to earth with a ground-shaking explosion. Shockwaves spread out from explosions too, knocking over trees and power lines and even affecting nearby helicopters.

And then of course there's the nuke. No matter how many times you've read about it, your reaction upon seeing it for the first time will still be the same: awe. Jaw on the floor awe. The first time I witnessed the blinding flash of light followed by the mushroom cloud rolling skywards was one of my most memorable moments of RTS gaming. But despite being a highlight, the explosions are certainly not the only thing that's impressive in terms of eye candy.

Perhaps surprisingly, the game runs well on a minimum spec rig and still looks quite good. But turn the settings up on a high-end machine, zoom right in and the rewards are massive. Units are excellently modelled and wrapped in such gloriously hi-res textures that the detail on them is enough to make a military figure collector weep with joy. Individual buildings feature perfect detailing, from American donut shop signs to tiny little balconies on the quaint French seaside buildings.

There are tons of minute little details like muzzle flashes, trees swaying in the breeze from helicopters and tracer rounds. And that's not even mentioning the water effects. In fact, at times it looked so good and there was so much going on in the background that I just saved my progress and took a leisurely scroll around the level just to watch the carnage unfold in peace.

It's all helped out by the excellent camera too, which, despite an initial period of getting used to, allows you to easily switch between a standard, almost top-down view for ordering units about, to a great view of the entire battlefield that extends off into the horizon. So you can just sit back, put your feet up and admire the sunset.

Of course, I haven't even mentioned the multiplayer yet and this is really WIC's trump card. Its novel approach means that players can drop in and out at any time, choosing to take one of four different roles on offer with the whole thing feeling far more similar to a round of Battlefield than any other RTS.

The guys at Massive have done a wonderful job of making games easy to get into thanks to the Massgate system and also of balancing the different roles, with each unit being vulnerable to certain attacks. While most newcomers will scrabble to play the air-support role, experienced infantry players really show how things are done, using cover to their advantage and proving that there's a way to combat every attack.

Unlike most online RTS titles, the reliance on teamwork here is huge. Playing with a disorganised team or setting out on your own will demonstrate this, as you'll quickly be decimated by a better-organised foe.

Options such as the ability to tag areas of the map with support requests (twinned with excellent VoIP support) allow organised teams to efficiently co-ordinate attacks and provide back-up to fellow team members, conferring a huge tactical advantage. I guess the moral here is to practise in the single-player mode to familiarise yourself with the different units before teaming up with a bunch of efficient players to go online. (Not a rabble of disorganised games journalists who are only pooling all their tactical aid points together in order to see the fabled nuke.)

Back when we first heard about Massive's plans for the multiplayer, we were intrigued, but weren't really sure if it would actually work in-game. But the online side of World In Conflict is a real triumph, melding unique gameplay with some excellent balancing and hopefully attracting a whole new crowd of players to the online RTS scene. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that WIC's revolutionary approach to multiplayer is worth the asking price alone.

But luckily, that's not all. Not happy with the finest and most inventive RTS multiplayer experience around, Massive have also added 14 levels of cinematic, action-packed mayhem, complete with a slightly silly premise made believable through some well-drawn characters and intimate cut-scenes, and wrapped the whole lot in the lushest and most drool-worthy RTS engine we've ever seen.

It's a stunning achievement and one that puts it firmly at the head of RTS titles for the year. Can the forthcoming COH: Opposing Fronts topple it? That remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure. World In Conflict isn't going down without a fight. It's got nukes. And isn't afraid to use them.

Suzy Wallace