The 80’s brought big hair, glam rock, and Ronny Ray Gun while waging war against Communism through Hollywood heroes such as Rambo, Rocky, high school kids, and Chuck Norris. When it ended, an era of mutually assured destruction would come to a close as the Soviet Union passed quietly into the night, flooding souvenir shops in Moscow with busts of Stalin and nuclear subs. But what if instead, on the verge of collapse, the Soviet Union turned to its vast arsenal of military might to solve its problems in a final bid for world supremacy?
The story takes place in the last half of 1989 with what should have been the first steps to the end of the Cold War. Instead, a desperate Soviet Union presents the West with a request for aid…and if none is given, will invade and take what they need. Believing this to be merely a bluff, diplomats attempt to defuse the situation. Unfortunately, instead of an outpouring of East Germans into the West with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviets make good on their promise and invade. As the Soviet Union presses into Europe, another attack is launched by surprise at the United States itself. As the action begins, the player takes on the faceless role of Lieutenant Parker, under the command of Colonel Sawyer, as he meets the full might of the Red Army when they arrive at Seattle.
Inspired by films such as Red Dawn, the team at Massive Entertainment are no strangers to strategy and have put together an excellent story behind their latest exercise in tactical warfare. Told during and in between each mission through a series of in-game cuts, painted stills, and tactical screenshots with Alec Baldwin providing narration, World in Conflict’s eighties inspired what-if scenario takes you into the stories behind the men fighting alongside Parker with polished voice acting. It would have been interesting to view parts of the story from the Soviet point of view, but that’s perhaps something best left to the expansion or sequel that is suggested by the ending.
Massive’s eye for detail also brings the world to life whether you are zoomed out over the battlefield or are right down at street level counting the lights covering a Christmas tree set up on the snow covered lawn of a neighborhood turned frontline fortress. You might even be able to overhear chatter from your units if your view happens to be that close. A few selected tracks from the eighties round out the sparse music in the game, but the scenes that they are featured in feel as if they were lifted from a movie. Explosions thunder through smoke, napalm burns through forests sending inky black smoke into the air, and physics lend a tank’s death the kind of exaggerated shrapnel that Rambo eats for breakfast. Even the landscape itself, with its rolling hills, abandoned highways, and white picket fences can be scarred by the firepower that is unleashed against it. But all of this can come with a heavy price at the highest settings, especially if your rig falls short of what is recommended on the box.
A tutorial gets you up and running with the customizable controls and the interface which is loaded with plenty of information without feeling as if it is in your face all the time. Casual strategy gamers will be leading their forces to victory in no time along and a selectable difficulty for the main campaign can tweak the level of challenge. Points are used instead of gathered resources and there’s no base building, only a landing zone where your forces are flown in and dropped off as you spend your reinforcement points to ‘purchase’ your units. You only have so many of these points to use, but points are returned to this pool whenever a unit dies or if additional points are awarded after reaching a key moment in the battle.
Control points are key locations that must be taken by your units on the map and can be fortified while remaining within them. By taking these over, you will earn tactical aid points that allow you to call in special attacks such as precision artillery strikes to saturate an enemy strongpoint or a devastating carpet bombing run to clear the highway of hostiles. Your units also come with a variety of special abilities to help ease the burden of command. Special attacks such as a TOW missile that can turn enemy armor to paper, emergency repairs for heavily damaged vehicles, or a smoke screen to hide your units from view are only a few of these abilities. Knowing when to use them can spell the difference between victory and defeat on the frontlines, especially later on in the game.
There are three major factions within World in Conflict but each one share the same units in different clothing. While this might appear to make each side feel like a generic knockoff of one other, it makes it easier to learn how to focus more on how best to utilize the units available as opposed to concentrating on building a tank rush or a superweapon. Some players may miss the kind of diversity that other strategy titles give their factions, but in WiC’s case, it does work while remaining fun and balanced.
As the game progresses, you’ll be called upon to defend control points, take back territory, or engage in a little covert action by sneaking paratroopers through the woods. The battles are creative in the objectives that you follow and the fast paced action can turn many of these into incredible fights, although players more used to a methodical approach in base building and resource management might have to get used to the blitzkrieg of steel and thunder that they now have to work with. The only thing marring the experience is the singleminded enemy AI which heads to whatever objective it has to meet, often ignoring other units that it might encounter on its way to a control point making it somewhat predictable. But what WiC’s Soviet Union might lack in smarts it makes up for in numbers, especially towards the end when it can feel as if the entire Red Army is being thrown at you in the final battles.
Multiplayer is handled through Massive Entertainment’s “Massgate” network for which you’ll need to create an account to play through. Fortunately, it’s a painless procedure and once logged in, you’ll be able to play in matches of up to sixteen players as you fight for NATO, the United States, or the workers of the Soviet Union. Here, no one player is in command of everything as you had been in single player and you can join a game in progress, even previewing the map to see how each side currently stands before picking the side you want to play as. The option to set up your own server is also available, giving you the ability to set up your own private games against other players or skirmish with the AI if you just want to get in a battle or two on your own.
After starting, you’ll need to choose which of four roles you want to play whether it is to focus on Armor and provide your allies with a fist of steel, or become the angel of death with air power. Any number of players can choose from any of these roles and if too many players are on the Armor bandwagon, the game will suggest other roles that you might want to play and you can always switch your role in the middle of battle in case your side is in desperate need of something else. In addition to this, the tactical aid menu also has a variety of additional attacks that you can use, including an atomic surprise for your enemies. WiC’s multiplayer is also heavily dependent on teamwork and the games can literally last for only a few minutes or so depending on who is better coordinated. You can still do your own thing, but to better your chances, it’s a good idea to listen for help requests or call in for some support yourself.
Experiencing World War III without having to glow in the dark while defending the West against the Soviet Union’s last, desperate, gamble to survive is an exciting thrill ride from one end of the world to the next. With a strong story backing the explosive action onscreen and with the ability to deliver nuclear mushrooms to your friends in multiplayer, armchair generals have plenty to look forward to when they take the world to Defcon One.
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