Previewed: April 6, 2005
Previewed by: Mat Houghton

Publisher
Cenega Publishing

Developer
Mithis Entertainment

Release Date: May, 2005
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Players: TBD
ESRB: Pending

Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Turn based strategy games have been rather scarce of late. For the most part all you see are global tactical simulations, like Hearts of Iron, or Superpower 2, where it’s you against the computer in a complicated and very pretty version of Risk.

Creature Conflict: The Clan Wars is going to change the way we think about turn based strategy. In this game, instead of handling resource management, infrastructure, technology, military build up, and all the little incidentals that make these games into little more than a bunch of graphs and text blocks, with the occasional battle to liven things up. Creature Conflict has you leading around a single to a small group of characters in a 3D environment. Think of it like Worms meets Warcraft III.

Creature Conflict features:

  • 4 warring clans
  • 4 animals per clan
  • 1 leader (Boss) per clan
  • 48 single player missions
  • Online, LAN and hot seat multiplayer (up to 4 players)
  • Turn based + real time action
  • 16 unique planets
  • A fabulous, complex story
  • Huge arsenal of weapons (60+) and abilities (20+)
  • Multiplayer modes including: Wipeout, Totem Tag, Pillage and Hill Mastery
  • Terrain generator to ensure long-lasting fun
  • 3D sound engine for an overwhelming experience
  • Real-life physical model
This type of game play is accomplished through a stylish blend between third person, first person, and aerial views. The player has the freedom to switch between these views as they will, but the main uses are third person for movement, first person for shooting, and aerial views for overall tactical and scouting decisions.

The only real problem with the controls (WADS cluster and mouse look) is that they are a little clunky. Your characters don’t respond very quickly to movement commands and it is sometimes hard to gauge distance for jumps because of the nature of the playing field.

The playing field is also something unique to this game. Instead of just having a flat map for troop movements and territorial sections to fight over, here you have an actual globe. Not only that, but there are trees, hills, rivers, and buildings sprinkled all across the globe so you have a very in depth environment (down to different gravity settings) to play around in. In fact Creature Conflict ceases to look like a turn based strategy at all and starts to more resemble RTS games, or even some action titles.

Speaking of looks, if Sly Cooper has taught us anything, it’s that cel shaded animals look cool, and the developers took that lesson to heart in Creature Conflict. All the creatures are apes, wolves, pigs, and various other wildlife all out to prove their dominance over the other clans.

The environments within which they vie for such supremacy are also beautifully rendered, and what they may lack in texture detail (which isn’t much even on the low setting), is more than made up for with delicious special effects and massive scale.

As good as this game looks, I’d love to say that it sounds even better, but I’d be lying. It’s not that this game sounds bad, but more that there just isn’t much there. This may have more to do with the fact that the version I played was not a release copy, or just that I mis-installed something.

All in all Creature Conflict: the Clan Wars looks to be a fun little title, with excellent graphics that oozes with style and humor.

While we wait for more details on this awesome new title, check out our collection of great screenshots in our Preview Gallery.