Superb detail and great gameplay
Now the idea here is to work in concert with other players and their forces and pretty soon after landing on the map our tanks came under attack from US helicopters. We were taking a pummelling and had lost a light tank already when another player swooped in with his attack choppers, obliterating the US choppers in a matter of seconds. We then sent our mauled but surviving tanks off across the hills to give support to an infantry unit pinned down by US tanks.
Click for larger imageJust as we were about to go steaming in, a US player ordered an air-strike and took out the bridge we were about to cross. We were able to fight off the US tanks, which retreated out of range of our guns and relieving the troops but we now had to find another way around… That was okay though as another player had decided to hover over us and provide air cover whilst we picked our way around the devastated landscape until we came within range of the US tanks again… then someone dropped a tactical nuclear warhead… wiping us out and leaving a massive mushroom cloud as our tombstone…
Click for larger imageAfter a session on World In Combat we were left feeling as though we’d just gone 15 rounds on Quake 3… It’s probably the most fraught and nerve wracking RTS we’ve seen so far with rapid gameplay and loads of nail biting ‘will we make it’ moments. Playing with a bunch of other gamers all intent on working co-operatively, we had an awesome time of it as the battle surged to and fro, with the Reds finally clinching victory but there were a fair few ‘sweaty palm’ moments along the way.
Click for larger imageWe tried playing as all four types of commander, Infantry, Armor, Support Forces and Aerial and my sweeping ‘Apocalypse Now’ style gunship attacks proved particularly devastating. I have to say, there’s a huge amount of satisfaction to be had by luring enemy choppers past a couple of infantry squads and seeing them take one down…. Just as rolling over the crest of a hill and demolishing a tank platoon that’s blanket shelling an objective.
Click for larger imageGraphically, even though World In Conflict has still got nearly nine months of development left to go, it looks superb. You’ve got full spinny, rotaty 3D on offer with highly detailed models to boot. In fact, the scaling is something to behold as you can zoom right in to each individual soldier if you fancy, and see what they’re shooting at. The detail in the troopers, the tanks and choppers and the surrounding scenery is very, very impressive and, so far, unsurpassed in an RTS.
Just how Massive Entertainment have managed to get such scaling detail into the game is incredible as everything is not only highly detailed (you can zoom in on your choppers and see the control panels through the windows) but also dynamic. For example, if you pause in mid-battle to look at the pretty trees you might well find said pretty tree being blown to matchsticks before your eyes.
Click for larger imageBut the graphical detail doesn’t just stop with looking nice, it plays a major role in the game too. Say a forest is obscuring your path to an objective, you can send in the artillery to mow it down… and not only do you now have a new route for the AI to pathfind through, you have also opened up a new line of sight too. Any troops hiding out on the other side can now see you and either open up or advance across the new razed ground.
Click for larger imageSo what we’ve got here is a glimpse at the ‘next-gen’ for RTS games, where success relies on teamplay at a multi-squad level. From the playtest we had, you still get the same adrenaline rush from World In Conflict that you’d get from Battlefield 2 but with none of the spawn hogging.. and you don’t need lightening quick reflexes or a dead-shot aim with the mouse either… Oh, and it means we can blow the crap out of France too! Hooray for war!
