Back in 2005 did Eugen Systems release a game called Act of War: Direct Action it was a RTS in the old school style with base building tanks and full motion videos and bad accents.

The only things I distinctly can remember about Act of War is that it took itself very seriously that strategic base building were an important part of the meta game (due to the buildings massive amount of heath, you could block your enemys movement by building headquarters.) And a system where capturing your enemies wounded soldiers would net you a small money bonus.

Now ten years later after having released the excellent R.U.S.E. and the Wargame series have Eugen again released an old school RTS with base building tanks and bad accents. Unfortunately no FMVs this time.

So what’s new in Act of Aggression? Not much:

The game wouldn’t feel out of place had it been released a few years after the first, although the competition from brilliant RTS like Company of Heroes and World in Conflict would have left Act of Aggression in the dust.

The game has three factions: Chimera the military arm of the UN. The US Army. And the Cartel a band of PMCs.

There are three resources: money, aluminum and rare earth metals. The later to gates your progress up the techtree. There are several units for each faction from present day APS to railgun tanks. The units do not have different modes but most they can be upgraded for extra attack power.

There are no general powers in Act of Aggression at most can you requisition airstrikes and superweapon strikes.

The campaign follows the story of the Chimera or the Cartel as they battle in yet unpublished Tom Clansy ™ novellas. The campaign is standard RTS fare and for better and worse are there a distinct lack of Starcraft 2 like gimmicky missions.

Were the game shines are in skirmishes you start by finding resources occupy banks houses to create strong points and kill (or be killed by) the enemy. I did run into some crash to desktop bugs as is par for the course for a newly released game these days but twice were the Ai bugged which is very disappointing.

Online battles usually has two outcomes, you are rushed by an early attack and you lose or you rush an early attack and win.

So should you get Act of Aggression with its rather steep asking price? It depends have you played Act of War? If not buy the gold edition on GOG for a fifth of the price of Act of Aggression and if you want more of the same buy Act of Aggression.

I'd say if you are into old school c&c style RTS's this is a must buy. It's a deliberate throwback to those types of games, that just don't exist anymore really. And if you are into that sort of stuff what else is there really? Grey Goo, Nightside? Puhlese!

Your only real recourse is to go back to way earlier games in the genre and frankly Act of War was not so hot of a game, this one is much better produced, and C&C:Generals these days looks kinda fugly and lacks many of the more modern day quality of life elements that have been introduced over the years. At best I'd recommend C&C2, RA2, RA3 , C&C3 but again I've already played those games several times over.

Personally it's super nice to have a fresh coat of paint on something you really like. :)

@tennmuerti: it's not a bad game but its kinda lacking in depth even compared to decade old games. if you want a new C&C style RTS by all means go for Act of Aggression.

For me did the RTS genre peak with the first Company of Heroes. But as C&C style games go will I rank C&C:Generals Zero Hour higher than the newer but ones, mostly for the quality mods out there.

I think it's a shame this game got more attention than alot of the Wargame series. Wargame did something truly different, macro level RTS with a billion realistic units and huge battlefields.

Act of Agression is just another C&C game, that's cool since there aren't many of those but it's not exactly hard to mimic something made years ago and I think the devs are more skilled than that.

@mikemcn: Dude it's getting like 0 attention at all from the mainstream press, nor is anyone really talking about it much, there are a few crazies like me but that's not saying much. MGS5 pretty much completely eclipsed everything. Wargame got way more reviews/coverage from major outlets.

@mikemcn: The Wargames has gotten some attention but mostly from dedicated strategy sites, Eugen got most mainstream exposure with R.U.S.E. probably for releasing on consoles.

@tennmuerti: If only it had been released a month ago, Metal Gear has dominated the gaming news and forums like it is a decree from Mao under the Cultural Revolution. Hopefully will Three Moves Ahead do an episode about it as it could use more exposure.

I suppose I came late to the part on the wargame series, so that's most likely coloring my perspective.