I've never been one for real-time strategy games on a console — I'm far too wedded to my keyboard and mouse. I'm sure that my occasional flirts with RTS demos and rentals on my 360 have been looked upon with disapproval by my faithful PC, monitor, keyboard and mouse, but the marriage has never been threatened in the least. Then Sierra took me into a little curtained-off cubicle in a hotel in San Francisco and let me play a little World in Conflict: Soviet Assault...
Some of you may be familiar with the 2007 PC title, World in Conflict, developed by Massive Entertainment. Set in 1989, this game allows players to explore an alternate history in which the Soviet Union, anxious to avert the impending socio-economic collapse, turns to a policy of war and expansionism. For the single-player campaign, the player takes on the role of a Lieutenant in the US Army, commanding one of many Army companies defending against the Soviet threat.
From the moment of release, players of the original title demanded the ability to play from the perspective of the Soviets. Soviet Assault is the console port (don't run screaming just yet) of the original World in Conflict, with additional single-player campaign content, covering the events of the original game from the perspective of a Soviet commander. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions will include both the original game and the new content. A downloadable expansion pack is planned for the PC version, which will include the new Soviet campaign.
Although billed as a real-time strategy game, World in Conflict features elements of the real-time tactical genre. Base building and resource gathering are eschewed in favor of a reinforcement purchase system, leaving the player free to concentrate on the matter at hand: effective command and control of their company.
As a console gamer (rather than an actual military officer), the tools by which this command and control can be exercised are rather limited: two thumbsticks, two triggers, and an assortment of push-buttons. The game does an excellent job of mapping troop controls onto the console controllers. You directly control a free-floating camera, manipulated in first-person shooter style: one thumbstick to move forward, back, left and right, the other to aim. The left and right triggers zoom the camera in and out, giving either a birds-eye overview of the battlefield or an up-close-and-personal look at the carnage. Finally, your interactions with the world are mediated via a circular selection reticule located in the centre of the screen: point and click, console-style.
The three key actions — select units, order movement and order attack — are all bound to the A button. Ordering a group of units to attack works thus: use the thumbstick to look at the units in question, hit A, then look at the unfortunate target and hit A again. Movement works in exactly the same way: just point at a patch of road, instead of an enemy tank. Simple, fast, and rather effective. The developers demonstrating made sure to point out that the game difficulty hasn't been reduced at all for the console port — in their testing, they found the control scheme to be powerful enough that a difficulty reduction simply wasn't necessary.
For more flexibility, the size of the selection reticule can be expanded or contracted, and a shortcut exists for selecting all units of the same type on the battlefield. The D-pad is used to assign units to groups ('companies'), allowing those same units to be selected later with a press of the same D-pad direction. To avoid confusion, a small display in the lower-right of the screen indicates which companies currently have units assigned to them. Finally, reinforcements (the alternative to in-base troop production) can be directed to join a particular company upon arrival.
Two other gamepad keys (X and B for the 360 version) are used to give orders: these activate a unit's special abilities. Each unit has two abilities beyond their standard attack; one offensive, and one defensive. An infantry unit, for example, may have access to a grenade launcher and defensive sprint ability. These abilities allow for more flexible tactics, but do require time to recharge after use, so a little strategy in their deployment is called for.
Personally, I found the controls to be very easy to learn use — it only took me a moment or two to group my tanks and set them moving, to swing down and watch them rumble into position and begin firing, then to zoom out and direct another group to a different target. When the tanks had finished their work, tapping twice on the D-pad brought my camera and selection focus back to them, leaving me ready to order them elsewhere.
Part of the reason this control scheme works so well is the scale of the game: rather than commanding an entire army, World in Conflict puts you in control of a single company comprising no more than a few dozen units. Four groups are sufficient to divide a force of this size into operational companies, and the battlefields are small enough that two-stick navigation works just fine. The lack of resource gathering and base building also helps: there are fewer areas of the map demanding your attention at any given time.
I mentioned reinforcements earlier: as the game progresses, points accumulate which can be spent on reinforcements. A tap of a bumper button brings up a radial UI: point at the type of units you need, and they'll be on their way. A tactical aid system functions in a very similar manner on the other bumper, but provides aid from specialists or other branches of the military rather than units under your control. We were shown two examples: a defensive smokescreen, obscuring troop movement within an area, and a rather impressive air strike, which decimated a company of enemy tanks.
The developers also talked a little about the multiplayer support in Soviet Assault: 5 vs. 5 online play will be supported for both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. The game is balanced such that no one player in a team is able to dominate: each player is required to select a role, such as infantry or armor. Each role has its own strengths and weaknesses: armor, for example, excels at ground control, but is vulnerable to air assault. Players are required to co-operate as a group in order to succeed.
Finally, they mentioned one interesting addition to the basic gameplay above: voice control. Tactical aids and reinforcements can be summoned by verbal command alone, and I'm sure this will be of use in hectic multiplayer battles. Just don't get too excited and drop a nuke on your friendly neighbor...
I'm not quite sure if war can ever be described as pretty, but World in Conflict is a visually impressive game. I was able to get nice and close to the action and enjoy the spectacle (which was perhaps not healthy for the rest of my neglected troops). I greatly enjoyed the hands-on time I spent with this title — it seems my marriage to my keyboard and mouse might not be quite as stable as I once thought.
As I'm currently living off a student budget, my recent purchases tend to be from the various budget ranges of older titles: I'm more likely to be found playing Quake II or the original Unreal Tournament than Thief III or FarCry. I'll probably make an exception for Doom 3, though. (For the record, I did try Doom 3, and wasn't very impressed. Thief III has made it to the budget range here in the UK, and one day I'll play it. Perhaps after I've updated this profile properly...)
I enjoy online games, but I prefer the persistent world offered by the MMORPGs to the competitive environment of the CounterStrike servers. I've a feeling too many years of leisurely RPG playing have ruined my shooter reflexes; needless to say, I tend to end up on the tail end of the scoreboards in online FPS games. That said, I enjoy the competitiveness of multiplayer gaming, but prefer the face-to-face encounters of LAN gaming to the anonymity of the public servers.
