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War on Terror
War on Terror brings modern
precision-strike warfare to real-time gaming. At the dawn of the new
century, peace is a forgotten relic of the past. Secret terrorist groups
have united into a single deadly force and launched lethal assaults in
major metropolitan areas around the globe. Their agenda is unknown,
their attacks are precise and deadly.
In December 2006, a multinational strike
force called WOFOR (WorldForces) was created to stop this threat. Its
first mission, Operation Kimberly, was a failure and China pulled out
to follow its own policy against terrorism. Now, it's up to players to
destroy the terrorist threat and set the course for decades of peace through 30 missions in real locations around the world, players battle
vicious enemies. Real settings. Real weapons. Real anti-terrorist
warfare. But in the age of modern war, reality is not always what it
seems.
FEATURES
• Real world settings, well known places (Mexico, UK, etc.), believable
story line
• 3 different factions for varied gameplay (World Forces, the Order,
Chinese)
• Variety of Units: Control over 60 different and specialized units:
infantry, vehicles, armored combat vehicles, artillery, helicopters and
air support
• Variety of Skills: Each unit may have up to 3 passive skills and 3
active skills among a total of 70 different ones
• Rich Single Player Experience: The campaign mode spans 3 campaigns and
23 missions ranging from assault missions to defensive and counterattack
missions
• Army Management: Before each mission, you can organize your army and
choose the units you’ll go to war with (based on mission points)
• Deep Multiplayer Gaming Experience: 20 multiplayer maps are open to
battle for up to 8 players. 6 different modes: Conquer, Capture the
Flag, Steal the Flag, Convoy, King of the Hill, Survive; and skirmish
modes: Conquer and Deathmatch; Random multiplayer map generator; Game
features GameSpy support
• Map and Mission Editor: Design your own single and multiplayer maps
• Cutting Edge 3D Technology
With these powerful
words, make sure you have a powerful computer system in order to fully
appreciate the graphics behind this addictive and entertaining title
because as you progress, the game becomes more and more intensive. At first it handles well but once the
action gets full swing you’ll feel the strain. With good reason though,
zooming in on the units is pretty cool as they are all modeled well
with the armoured units looking damn nifty I say! It uses the latest in
graphics features, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself turning a
few off to get a better run at the game!
On the tutorial mission
based on Alcatraz, you get
to fire up a British Challenger 2; complete with Scottish accent. With
water realism set to on, prepare to enjoy another piece of graphical eye
candy. For those with aging game machines I would advise you turn that
off too as in the end it’s for aesthetics only, and considering your
time will be most spent on land it doesn’t really matter. Explosions,
gunfire, smoke, your all purpose fire – all of it looks great and
illustrates the general chaos just begging to consume the current
situation.
Sound, what can I say? Nothing as I can only type this review …so what
can I type? It’s good; the effects to each vehicle and gun are as they
should be. It’s better to play the game with EAX on (if possible) as the
atmospheric feel can be an experience to behold. Copters buzzing about,
tanks rolling across whatever desert you’re thrown into in the name of
war and the screams of troops. Sadly there’s no blood gurgling to be
heard, giving a less than convincing death yodel from fallen enemies.
Another mild amusement is the varied languages and accents, playing as
the World forces incorporate British, American, French and probably
others to make up your squads and units voices.
Okay so how does this terrorising bad boy play I hear you shriek? For
those looking for some Command & Conquer style action, you will be
disappointed here as there are no bases or resources to handle in the
usual gathering sense. Instead you are awarded mission points (MP) for
completing Primary, Secondary and any Hidden mission objects that come
your way. This is easily explained within the tutorial, where you’ll
soon learn that additional troops are 'bought' and then dropped into
battle at drop points. You can only bring in more men at these points,
so you have to look after them or the enemy can easily cut off
additional support. All hail the medic! They are truly a savior; they
can quickly heal your men after a fire fight and have you ready and able
again. They also revive fallen troops, so when a man is down he isn’t
necessary dead and gone just yet, but make sure you hurry otherwise his
wounds will finish him off!
Most units have passive and special actions under their command. A
passive power for instance could be mine detection, now while they will
detect mines it doesn’t mean they will automatically disable them! Units
also have stances such as the expected 'aggressive' one where your units
will engage enemies hard. 'Defensive' will be returning fire only; they
even come with sneak so they will try their hardest to go unnoticed.
Each mission in a campaign allows you to carry over units from the
previous, so when you’re quite the way along your surviving veteran
units will be all the more valuable, resourceful and deadly.
As I had the campaign set too easy (What? I ain't a girl!) I can’t speak
extensively on the AI, but from what I have experienced it’s good! The
computer knows how to yank up pressure, now the campaigns will of course
be heavily influenced by scripting but the 'brains' of the enemy is
great for a challenge. For strategy games, AI is everything as if the
enemy is nothing but a lame duck then you can’t boast the next day how
much you 0wned them! In the gaming World 0wnage is everything! Also
available for those instant action types out there is the map generator,
so you can a long replay life cycle with this one. For those map making
overlords out there too, a map editor is included.
Now for a bad point, well I’d say more of a
not-so-good point is more accurate. The User Interface is perhaps the
least inspiring, plus it’s too big and eats up the screen even at higher
resolutions. Also be careful when rotating and tilting the view as if
you move too quickly you could find yourself discovering a new angle
previously uncharted!
With that said, War on Terror may feature a
few bugs here and there but it's a powerful game that will draw you into
this amazing world of great graphics, gameplay and pure adrenaline
pumping fun. Check it out! |
