Sierra Spring Event - World in Combat: Soviet Assault
posted:
4/18/2008 2:27:00 AM
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World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
Randy and I were big fans of World in Conflict when it game out last year. With its cool alternate history story and the game's new take on the real time strategy genre World in Conflict stood out in a field crowded with fantasy and sci-fi gather and kill games. While the game looks like a traditional RTS it actually plays more like a first person shooter. You only get a few units to control at anyone time and their life expectancy is shorter than that of a no-name ensign on Star Trek. It's this gameplay difference that makes me think that World in Conflict: Soviet Assault is going to do well on the consoles when it's released later this year.
The game will be a full port of the original PC game that has you defending the US against a Soviet invasion in an alternate history 1989 but this time around you'll get the chance to play the Commies as they try to impose the will of Soviet Russia on the American capitalists. This is something that the fans wanted and Massive was all too happy to add the new missions to the game. PC gamers won't be left out in the cold though and will be able to download these missions for a fee later on this year or they can purchase a new boxed copy of the game that will include the new missions.
The user interface for the single player campaign has been simplified a little bit, one example of this is that Massive has removed the mini-map to decrease on screen clutter. You can still bring up a large mega map to show the entire battlefield but the mini-map has been re-placed with a ribbon compass that shows you where your next objective is. The game doesn't have the most complex mission system so this change works pretty well.
All the user interface fixes in the world don't mount to a hill of beans if you can't control the game and Massive seems to have done a good job of coming up with a workable control scheme. The important thing to remember about World in Conflict is that it's an action game and there isn't any resource gathering in the game which means you won't be flipping around the screen to monitor your resources or a base. The left thumbstick controls the camera and you can change the elevation of the camera by clicking down on the thumbstick. Strafing around the map is done with the right stick and you can change the size of the select box by pressing down on the right thumbstick. This works out pretty well given that you work with only a few units at a time.
Grouping is done by pressing and holding down on one of the four directions. Once you have a group assigned you can double tap the d-pad to immediately center on the group you were using. The rest of the work (selecting and ordering units The A button will handle selecting unit(s) and ordering them around the screen and you can hold the the A button down and choose which direction the units are facing which is critical when setting up defensive positions.
In World in Conflict you are given a certain number of points to spend on units and then those units are airlifted into the game. When those units die you get your points back to build more units. The resource menu is brought up by holding down the the right bumper and now instead of having a set of boxes to select units you have a nice small radial menu. Tactical aids (which are a set of area effect weapons and abilities that are earned by completing objectives and taking out enemies) are brought up by holding down the left bumper menu and are also arranged in a radial menu. As an alternative Massive has added in voice commands to allow you to use your voice to either order new units or select a tactical aid. This wasn't working in the demo but to issue a voice command you just tap the respective bumper and it will show you the voice command screen.
While the single player campaign is nice the real heart of the game (at least to me) is the multiplayer action. The class based multiplayer is the one thing that I loved about the original game and it's certainly a focus of the console ports. I was a little bummed out that the games will be limited to 5 vs. 5 games (the PC version did 8 vs 8) but that's not too much of a drop off all things considered. The console version does get a new war room feature (pictured below) that will allow players to see an overview of all the battles going on and to see which side is gaining momentum.
I was fairly impressed with the demo we saw and if Massive can deliver on what we saw at the Spring event I think it's going to open the game up to whole new audience. There are a few potential pot holes with the controls and some of the cheesy dialog on the single player campaign but I think people are going to dig the game if they give it a chance.
What works
- There's not a better RTS to port to the console
- New Soviet campaign looks cool
- Controls seem like they should work and voice command is fairly innovative
- PC owners not getting left out in the cold
What Doesn't
- Smaller multiplayer than the PC version
- "Eat Up Martha" - how well will the voice command work under pressure
- Will have to compete with a host of other console RTS games that are coming out this year
The game will be a full port of the original PC game that has you defending the US against a Soviet invasion in an alternate history 1989 but this time around you'll get the chance to play the Commies as they try to impose the will of Soviet Russia on the American capitalists. This is something that the fans wanted and Massive was all too happy to add the new missions to the game. PC gamers won't be left out in the cold though and will be able to download these missions for a fee later on this year or they can purchase a new boxed copy of the game that will include the new missions.
The user interface for the single player campaign has been simplified a little bit, one example of this is that Massive has removed the mini-map to decrease on screen clutter. You can still bring up a large mega map to show the entire battlefield but the mini-map has been re-placed with a ribbon compass that shows you where your next objective is. The game doesn't have the most complex mission system so this change works pretty well.
All the user interface fixes in the world don't mount to a hill of beans if you can't control the game and Massive seems to have done a good job of coming up with a workable control scheme. The important thing to remember about World in Conflict is that it's an action game and there isn't any resource gathering in the game which means you won't be flipping around the screen to monitor your resources or a base. The left thumbstick controls the camera and you can change the elevation of the camera by clicking down on the thumbstick. Strafing around the map is done with the right stick and you can change the size of the select box by pressing down on the right thumbstick. This works out pretty well given that you work with only a few units at a time.
Grouping is done by pressing and holding down on one of the four directions. Once you have a group assigned you can double tap the d-pad to immediately center on the group you were using. The rest of the work (selecting and ordering units The A button will handle selecting unit(s) and ordering them around the screen and you can hold the the A button down and choose which direction the units are facing which is critical when setting up defensive positions.
In World in Conflict you are given a certain number of points to spend on units and then those units are airlifted into the game. When those units die you get your points back to build more units. The resource menu is brought up by holding down the the right bumper and now instead of having a set of boxes to select units you have a nice small radial menu. Tactical aids (which are a set of area effect weapons and abilities that are earned by completing objectives and taking out enemies) are brought up by holding down the left bumper menu and are also arranged in a radial menu. As an alternative Massive has added in voice commands to allow you to use your voice to either order new units or select a tactical aid. This wasn't working in the demo but to issue a voice command you just tap the respective bumper and it will show you the voice command screen.
While the single player campaign is nice the real heart of the game (at least to me) is the multiplayer action. The class based multiplayer is the one thing that I loved about the original game and it's certainly a focus of the console ports. I was a little bummed out that the games will be limited to 5 vs. 5 games (the PC version did 8 vs 8) but that's not too much of a drop off all things considered. The console version does get a new war room feature (pictured below) that will allow players to see an overview of all the battles going on and to see which side is gaining momentum.
I was fairly impressed with the demo we saw and if Massive can deliver on what we saw at the Spring event I think it's going to open the game up to whole new audience. There are a few potential pot holes with the controls and some of the cheesy dialog on the single player campaign but I think people are going to dig the game if they give it a chance.
What works
- There's not a better RTS to port to the console
- New Soviet campaign looks cool
- Controls seem like they should work and voice command is fairly innovative
- PC owners not getting left out in the cold
What Doesn't
- Smaller multiplayer than the PC version
- "Eat Up Martha" - how well will the voice command work under pressure
- Will have to compete with a host of other console RTS games that are coming out this year
