World in Conflict

It has to be said, a lot of interesting things happened in the year 1989. For a start, it just so happens to be the year I was born, early in February. The Exxon Valdez ran aground of the coast of Alaska in March, resulting in a devastating oil spill. In June, there were demonstrations by students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing against the Chinese government. In video gaming, the Sega Genesis console was released in August. Further, the various revolutions in the Eastern Bloc sparked the fall of the Berlin Wall in November and began the reunification of Germany, as well as marking the start of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. However, could it have happened any differently? This is the idea Swedish developer Massive Entertainment decided to toy with in World in Conflict, imagining a scenario where the USSR takes it upon themselves to launch an all-out international war instead of slowly crumbling apart. The game is brilliant fun, at times both moving and dramatic, which also gives a fresh approach to RTS gaming. Whilst it may lack some of the typical features which have become so ingrained into much of the genre, it makes up for it with a smorgasbord of excellent action and tactical warfare.

World in Conflict's backstory comes from a relatively simple starting premise. In the late 1980s, the Soviet Politburo, aware that its power was starting to dwindle and the USSR was beginning to fragment, decided to start pressuring the West to send aid to bolster its floundering economy. However, as diplomatic negotiations continued to drag on, the command was given to open total war in order to preserve the Soviet Socialist Republics and continue the Communist Revolution across the rest of the world. In mid-1989, The Soviet Army breaks through the Iron Curtain and invades Western Europe without warning, seizing much of West Germany and parts of France and Italy. The forces of NATO come forward in order to start mounting a defence of the continent. Slightly later in the year, the Russians also launch a sneak attack on the mainland United States, invading and capturing the city of Seattle and much of the surrounding Washington State. It is into this conflict that you are plunged immediately, in both the single player campaign and multiplayer game modes.

The single player campaign feels like it has been pulled from the pages of famed 80's war film 'Red Dawn' (which Massive stated was an inspiration), as well as drawing source material from modern first person shooters such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Battlefield 2. You 'play' as 1st Lieutenant Parker, a junior US Army commander who will eventually see action in both the United States and, through the aid of flashbacks, Europe. The campaign begins with the Russian invasion of Seattle, which is a suitably dramatic opening and gets you into the action at once. Parker remains conspicuously silent during the in-game cutscene conversations with other characters, but is voiced by very nicely by Alec Baldwin during between-game exposition. There is also a host of characters who play alongside you during missions, including the tough-talking, no nonsense Colonel Sawyer, as well as the somewhat unstable Captain Bannon. Within this Complete Edition, the Soviet Assault expansion interweaves six new Soviet-based missions between the original US storyline, including their own plot and integral characters. However, since there are far fewer Soviet missions, you will always feel like they are a diversion away from the main story surrounding the Americans. The cutscenes for both though are excellent, always making you feel like you are watching a scene from an epic feature film.

The missions place you in command of a certain area of the allied forces, normally divided around the same boundaries as multiplayer; Infantry, Armour, Support and Air. Each has a selection of units which can be recruited, specialising in different areas. Therefore, there will always be AI controlled allies fighting alongside you somewhere else on the map. These pitched battles always feel both dramatic and intuitive, even though you normally view them from a typical RTS viewpoint. From a figure of recruitment points, there is a relatively limited amount of troops you can call in at any given time and whenever a unit is killed, its recruitment points slowly re-accumulate, so you can once again call in new troops. They take place in a wide variety of locales, from the areas in the US to France and Norway. Each of the individual missions feels nicely self-contained, as well as making sense as part of the larger story. They are all brilliant in conveying the sense that your actions are just part of a much larger conflict, which is constantly being waged around you. Gameplay itself mainly consists of occupying and fortifying control points, whilst attacking enemy strongholds or defending yourself for a specific period of time. There are Primary and Secondary objectives for each mission, completing all of which earns you the most medals. This basic strategy plays out in the multiplayer modes as well, which are always dramatic and entertaining, even when your team loses.

One of the coolest features of gameplay is the ability to call in tactical aids. These can be simple things, such as airdropping a tank or commandos into an area, but there are also more offensive aids, such as Heavy Artillery Barrage, which will launch shells into the selected area, Napalm strike, which burns the trees and personnel, and many others besides. The larger weapons, such as the Daisy Cutter and, most importantly, the tactical nuclear device, can totally alter the momentum of any battle if enough forces are caught in the blast. The graphical effects of explosions and almost everything else are just spectacular to behold. Truth be told there isn't much music, but what's there is great. There are a couple of licensed 80's tracks thrown into some of the cinematics and cutscenes. The majority of soundtrack feels actually quite 24-esque, with certain classical string themes sounding suitably high-tensioned, and also appropriately stirring. The main thrust of the sound design comes from the host of brilliant sound effects and character voices. Every voice is perfectly delivered, the sound effects incredible and realistic, creating a visceral atmosphere. I love listening to the background noises on the main menu, which is presented as though jumping between US television news channels, all talking about the various aspects of the invasion, and offering conflicting information over the extent of the damage.

It is worth bearing in mind that the Complete Edition of World in Conflict must come with one important caveat. If you already own the original World in Conflict, getting the Soviet Assault on its own is almost totally worthless. You can already download all of the multiplayer maps for free, and the campaign itself is a measly six missions spread between the original campaign. For people who haven't experienced World in Conflict yet, this is definitely an added bonus and gives you a better overall flavour of both sides of the war, but it always takes a secondary role when compared to the American story. To conclude, World in Conflict isn't a revolutionary Real-Time Strategy, but its substantially unique feel and action orientation makes it different enough to matter. Top that off with it being superb fun to simply play, and World in Conflict shapes up as certainly one of the greatest modern RTS games.