
I picked this game up a while ago and have just got round to playing it. I played the demo, back when it was just World in Conflict and it appealed to me but I heard rumours that you would get to play as the Soviets in the expansion so I waited until the expansion before buying the pack.
And I’m glad I did. The first thing that caught me after I played the first mission was that the game alternates between playing the Soviets and the Americans. This holds less appeal to me, as I wanted to paint the world red!
However, once I got over initial disappointment, I settled into the game and started having fun.
The revolves around an alternate history where the USSR invades Europe and then later, America (very Red Dawn!). The first mission starts with you sneaking across the Berlin wall and using Spetsnaz to plant explsovies for the future invasion and it eases you into the role of commander. Thinks rapidly become hectic later on though and you start to see how the flow of war works.
Many of the missions will have secondary targets that spring up throughout a mission. These secondary targets really do have affect on the outcome of the battle. In one mission I was asked to repair some AA batteries. Without fixing them, I was constantly harrassed by Hinds throughtout the mission, forcing me to spend my precious resources on mobile AA batteries to tackle the air threat. However if you repair the sites, you have get given the good news that the Soviets have stopped sending air attack at you, which makes it easier to complete the mission! Like real warfare, you sometimes have to ignore a secondary objective to complete the main objective.
Resouce gain is limited – you don’t have to worry about harvesting or anything ala Command and Conquer. You get given reinforcement points throughout the mission – however, keep an eye on them, as they are limited! You spend these on units you want and these are air dropped into the location. Be warned, it can take upto 20 seconds for them to arrive and then you have to reach your frontline from the drop site! You also earn support points. These as far as I know, respawn over time. These give you access to off map support options such as artillery stirkes and bunker busters. Most of the support options have 3 levels, each costing more points. This allows you to have a small artillery bombarment or a huge one! Some nice touches are when you get to use JUST the support options to help a comrade out.
Unit wise, the game is nicely balanced. Infantry can be torn apart in the open by tanks but in cover, they are fantastic. Vehicles are balanced as well. In fact, it took me a while to get used to the game balance and once I got the hang of it, I went to a previous level and completed it slightly better. Vehicles need repairs from repair tanks but I believe infatry gradually recover health if left to there own devices.
Graphics wise, the game is top notch, espcially when zoomed in (which is useless when fighting but nice to see your troops in action!) – Screenshots below (thumbnails open to 1440 x 900).
The game has cinematics as well which really add to the storyline.
Conclusion, well overall it’s a very polished game. However the annoying part for previous owners just buying the Soviet expansion, is that they’ll have to replay the entire campaign to play the Russian levels. Unless it’s different in the original (which I doubt – to much extra coding!). I’ve seen no DRM or DRM issues. It should be also noted that the game developers seem to have done there homework as the models are very detailed and to my eye, very correct in the unifroms they wear and the like.
It’s a very similiar game to the old Ground Control but that’s no bad think as the game was fanstic as well.
it’s well worth playing if your into strategy games.