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How one would Imagine the theme of Clancy's Red Storm Rising were it made into an RTS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 25
Date: September 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First of all, as I am reviewing the Collector's Edition of the game I would like to illustrate how the extra goodies weigh in comparison to what we usually expect from a limited or collector edition of a game.

Unlike most so-called collector's editions which contain merely a second disk with throwaway content that most of the time isn't worth watching, or a few extra maps or units, this collector's edition is among the very few such as Bioshock which include substantial additions to your purchase.

This is a two-part box, with a clothe-style coating and the name of the game written in Russian on the Soviet-flag section, and written in English on the American flag bottom. Inside is a History Channel DVD covering the Berlin Wall, a DVD including making of featurettes and trailers, a disk including a buddy key for a 14 day MP trial you can give to a friend, and a small chunk of what remains of the Berlin Wall, complete with certificate of authenticity written in German.

In all - worth the $10.00 extra you will spend, though the box won't fit on your shelf the same as your normal games.

Gameplay, especially multi-play, is addictive. The single player campaign has a solid story, though it feels a bit short. Like Clancy's Red Storm Rising, the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse takes a gambit to save itself from dissolution in a power grab for resources. First invading Europe, and then sneak-attacking the United States, the Soviets kick off World War III in record time - and it couldn't be more beautiful. Visuals in the game are excellent, as screenshots of mushroom clouds and daisy cutters can attest. If you have the rig to handle it, you can view real-time reflections in the water, shadows from clouds being rendered, and great use of lighting all around. The sound follows the same quality - and close-in visuals and sounds remind me of Company of Heroes, which is a good thing, though this game isn't quite as detailed close-up. Which brings me to my next point - this isn't a close up game. You have free reign of the map with your camera, so you can view anything which your team can see from anywhere, and give orders based on what you see on the ground.

Multiplayer matches are the heart of this game, 8 vs 8, and can run from 5 to 15 minutes, are fast-paced, and when the match ends the next match isn't long in coming. This keeps you occupied for hours as there is always one more strategy I want to try to see if I can turn a battle differently, or counteract the enemy in a different way. When my team took heavy losses from a mainly Air team who swooped across the map, I enjoyed building kill-groups of AA units the next game and stashing them across the map, negating the other team's free reign of the map and watching their helicopters crashing everywhere.

In closing, absent Starcraft 2 being release this year, I believe this is the RTS game of the year and definitely worth the purchase. I could go on for a lot longer about the game, but then that would delay your purchase while reading my review. Go get it!

Great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: September 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing for about 4 hours at this point and so far it's great. This game very much reminds me of Ground Control II (not surprising since Massive did that game as well), except the graphics, gameplay, and cinematic feel is much more polished and up to date. I haven't experienced any problems with installation/running on Vista and performance is fine on my machine (quad core/Nvidia 8800 GTX). The collectors edition surprised me with the inclusion of a piece of the Berlin wall. I don't know if its really from the wall or not - but its cool anyway.

The Good:
The gameplay is frenetic and fun to watch. Battles are full of fancy pants explosion graphics and tend to turn the surrounding environment to ruins. Calling in jet aircraft to perform a variety of tasks is fun and cool to watch. Radio chatter, weather effects (the weather seems to get more brooding as a battle progresses), and stuff happening way off in the distance really helps to suspend disbelief. Resource acquisition takes the form of getting points to spend on fresh units by gaining ground, completing objectives, and eliminating enemy troops (again, similar to GCII). Lastly, fighting a war with the rooskies in Seattle (where I live) is just plain cool.

The Bad:
As is typical with most RTS games, the AI has annoyed me a few times. For example: armored units are the least sensitive to damage in the front - is it that hard for and tank driver to turn his unit toward incoming fire without orders (or at least toward his current target)? A wee bit more autonomy in my units would be nice.

Overall, if you liked GCII, you'll absolutely love this game.

Excellent game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: September 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the rare games that I have played all the way through and then restarted to play again! The graphics are excellent, even on my somewhat dated 2 year old system (helps that I have two 7800 graphics cards running SLI). The action is continuous, the cut-scenes are fun to watch. Even the narrative by Alec Baldwin is good. I played the entire game without noticing any major bugs and no crashes. Not bad for a brand new game. The lack of resource gathering is a major plus for this type of game. No distractions, you go straight to the action. I highly recommend this game.

Excellent RTS!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The story gives you an alternate event to the end of the Cold War...the beginning of World War 3.

If you loved Command & Conquer Generals, then this is the game to get. The aesthetics of the game is excellent. It brings a whole new perspective to real-time strategy gaming - it is quite revolutionary.

Above all, get it. However, you need a decent rig to power this awesome game.

Another great RTS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is great, and it thought it was very cool when played. The single player story line is great, but those older computers can't rely on playing this game, although i'm playing it on low with a laptop. The extra stuff is more than worth it, but the thing is the cd key isn't needed until you get online. So even on the trial version, you could probably play the single player anytime, it's just multiplayer that's limited.

The explosions in this game are great, and what's even funner is calling in air support, if its burning enemy infantry out of the trees (Yes, you can do that), or if its blowing up some heavy armer with some artillery. However this game does not exactly have building required, it's just deploying troops, but that's what makes this game so intense. Not only that, but a lot of the missions you have time limits, so it makes something even more out of it. There's still strategy involved, people.

You have an all around selection of units, including infantry, tanks, helicopters, artillery, and even amphibious vehicles. What's even cooler is each unit has strengths and weaknesses, like for example, the heavy copter is made for ground only while the medium copter is made for taking on other air enemy units. When they say everything is destructible in the reviews, they mean it. You can even take down bridges to block the enemy from coming over.

Pros: Good gameplay, great graphics, cool explosions, and satisfyable campaign

cons: requirements are fairly steep, but reasonable. However, you can't control jets! (aww, that's okay, it's still awesome). Most cinematics aren't cinematics, rather it's just shifting pictures talking to each other. However when they do have true cinematics they look great.

All in all, it seemed great and almost realistic at times, a

Fleeting Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game is phenomenal with its ambience, details, action, and creativity. The only problem is that the single-player campaign is too short. Indeed, I thought the end of the game was only the midpoint, and was disappointed to see the credits roll.

The one major difference between this and other real-time strategy games is that you do not gather resources. Rather, you get "reinforcement points" with which you can essentially purchase replacement units of your choice (though selection is dependent upon the mission) when you lose units. The counter doesn't tick up unless one of your units gets destroyed, so massive, unstoppable forces are hard to come by.

Another huge part of the game is taking and controlling "strongpoints" which become fortified if you hold them long enough. Since you never actually build anything in the game, these fortifications are created automatically while your tanks hold their ground. Once one figures out how to do this effectively, the game becomes fairly straightforward, though there are always new and different challenges.

In many regards, the game is more like I imagine a combat commander's role to be: set up a good plan, then let the units carry it out. More or less, you do not have to micromanage how your tanks move; you simply position them to the best possible advantage and usually have to focus your attention elsewhere. The AI tends to be pretty good at picking out targets, although you have to be Johnny-on-the-spot with any special commands such as special attacks, smoke screens, or calling in artillery strikes. Indeed, about half of the game is spent organizing artillery and air strikes to support the tanks you are really trying to command.

One interesting feature of the game is the complete 3d environment allowed by the camera. Unlike other RTS games that might allow you to pivot the camera angle or zoom in, the camera is free-floating, much like a first-person game, and you can put the camera right down by your infantrymen (and hear them chatting) if you want to, but there is no particular advantage but for aesthetic appeal or taking nice screenshots. I felt one limitation was not being able to zoom out quite far enough to see the big picture when needed.

In short, this game is everything that the slightly disappointing Command & Conquer: Generals should have been. The game play is attention-demanding; there's hardly a chance to sip your computer-side beverage with all the frantic two-handed action. But the gameplay is rewarding with its obstacles and triumphs.

Points for concept, minus for execution

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying that this game is quite original and very entertaining. For those of you who are sick and tired of gathering resources and keep getting beat by kids who time themselves to pinpoint accuracy... then this game is for you.

The collectors edition is, IMHO, worth the extra money as well. The box itself is wonderfully creative, and the DVD on the Berlin Wall is nice as well. Personally? I got it for the piece of the Berlin Wall. Just something about getting a game AND owning a piece of history appealed to me. It's not a big piece, but it's still a reminder of the history of our world, and how to possibly avoid it happening again.

As for gameplay, it was refreshing and new. The pace was good enough to not let you get bored, but hard enough so that you didn't think it was a push over. The difficulty curve on the levels however varied quite a bit. So some you will breeze through, others you will see no way possible to actually fulfill the secondary objectives because either 1) they're too hard or 2) the primary are hard enough!

Problem was, I got this game at the same time as Company of Heroes, and saw the similarities between the 2 as more than striking. The little movie and army movement loading scenes, the moving forward to capture objective points, the continual stream of supplies/respawn points... etc. Everything WiC has tried to "revolutionize," CoH did before them, and did better.

As some reviews on the normal game pointed out, the game, after the novelty wears off, boils down to just running around to circles. You just have to do it more frantically than the other team. The whole "building" strategy is thrown out the window once you play multiplayer, because they never hold up long to artillery barrages, air strikes, etc.

So everybody wants to be just 2 things, armor and air, since they can move fast, do damage, and move on. Infantry and Support are left in the dust, with support sometimes being helpful by protecting the armor until more air support can make it over there.

Not to mention the whole "team" aspect of the multiplayer modes online. If you have someone on your team who is incompetant at using air, or whatever they've chosen, your whole team suffers. Not only will you then suddenly seemed outmanned, but your enemy gets more Tactical points to drop nukes on you so you can't do anything anyway. It really is a bit discouraging and multiplayer matches tend to be horribly lopsided. Now I did not get into clan battles, where it may be more even, but for those of us not dedicated to pour that amount of time into it, you get jerked around.

Conclusion: That all being said, this game IS different and is worth a try. The story isn't so hot (it really tries hard to make you empathize with the main characters... unsuccessfully) and the timeline gets cut up for some reason, but it still works. The gameplay is nice if it doesn't crash (but what doesn't now-a-days?), and it's a good thing to not need to collect resources. Just don't be surprised if suddenly running from circle to circle gets tedious and this game loses it's replay value.

RTS game for people that don't always like RTS games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

World in Conflict is the ultimate game for people that don't call themselves "real-time strategy" (RTS) fans, but would like to dip their toe in and experience the game. Unlike most RTS games, you aren't tasked with building a base or gathering resources--instead, you given "command points" from the outset, and your sole focus in the game is to out-think and out-maneuver your Russian foes in glorious combat.

The game also comes with a surprisingly poignant story, as well as some very slick multiplayer options. Aside from camera issues and over-reliance on tanks in the single-player, (though they do have campaigns that specifically make you use all four of the different types of units) this is a great RTS game to dive head first into.

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