Reviewed: April 28, 2004
Reviewed by: Miguel Cervantes
Publisher
Strategy First
Developer
Legend Studios
Released: March 30, 2004
Genre: RTS
Players: 14
ESRB: Teen
7
6
5
7
6.5
System Requirements
Recommended System
In the world of PC gaming, there’s no denying the lasting power and impact that World War II has had on titles of all genres. From the-first person intensity of Call of Duty to the cinematic real time adventuring of Desert Rats, there’s been a constant flow of AAA hits that use World War II as the backdrop.
Last month I had the privilege of reviewing an advance copy of Desert Rats, the much lauded real time strategy title from Monte Cristo and Digital Jesters, and this time around we’re going to continue in a similar vein as we take a look at War Times, the latest WW II inspired real time strategy game from Legend Studios and Strategy First.
Whereas Desert Rat’s focus was more of a Casablanca-like adventure, War Times puts intensive focus on real conflicts that occurred throughout the war, from the evacuation of British Troops at Dunkirk to the invasion of Crete by Axis paratroopers.
War Times features:
- 3D graphics give the player full freedom of movement with several kinds of cameras and zoom levels.
- Four nations to choose from: Germany, USA, USSR and Great Britain, each of them with exclusive units, buildings and tech-trees.
- More than 80 different units and 70 structures to build.
- 32 mission campaign replaying real acts of the Second World War, accompanied by spectacular full motion videos.
- Powerful multiplayer game: Cooperative gameplay and the possibility to share allied units of different nations on more than 35 multiplayer maps.
- Military units of every nation are unique: each military unit has its own properties and special abilities.
- Battle on the ground, sea and air.
- Spectacular soundtrack and incredible sound effects.
- A powerful map editor allows you to create new and exciting missions easily and quickly.
War Times’ interface is a direct descendant of the original Command and Conquer. Instead of placing command options at the bottom of the screen (ala Warcraft) everything you need to interact with the game is set at the right of the screen; an interesting throw back to more simplistic times to say the least, but also a bold stance to help differentiate War Times from the mass of real time strategy games crowding the market.
Interaction is a very simple process, and pretty easy to get used to. Simply point and click with the left and right mouse button to move your troops, assign guard detail, create buildings and gather resources. Yes, that’s right, in War Times you’ll not only have the task of completing assigned objectives but you’ll also have to raise the troops and resources necessary to carrying them out. Unlike Desert Rats, whose focus was on pure strategy and maneuvering sans resource gathering, War Times will expect you crank out those workers in order to collect valuable resources like oil, electricity and supplies.
You’ll need these vital components in order to create more advanced units like jeeps, tanks, airplanes and reconnaissance vehicles. Yea, it’s still the same wood, food and gold that you’ve been gathering since the first RTS crawled out of its crib, but in the guise of crucial war supplies that make much more sense given the context. I found gathering resources to be a bit slow and cumbersome. Its certainly true that an army marches on its stomach, and in War Times the same could be said of resources – infantry, armor, mortars, machine gunners – these all take a big toll on your resource supply and I often felt shortchanged somehow.
Despite this, the pace of the game was pretty energetic. In my first outing at Dunkirk I barely had a few moments to gather intelligence and start construction before the first waves of German advance troops began to harass my withdrawal. Fortunately many crucial buildings are already built for you (but not in every level) – oil derricks for example and troop barracks were already on hand so I could start marshalling my infantry and direct my workers towards gathering. On the whole I enjoyed the action – just keep in mind that War Times’ emphasis is more toward recreating historical battles rather than getting the player into the feel of an individual storyline.
The visuals in War Times are good, if not overwhelming. The in-game graphics are not too striking – both infantry and mechanized units suffer from a terminal case of low polygon count and the terrain seems rather plain and bare at times – but both the overall presentation style and in impressive in-game cinematics more than help balance things out, giving War Times a tough, gritty feel that goes well with the World War II theme. Players with sub 2GHz machines should appreciate this approach while those of us with higher end models can always play Desert Rats.
In the opening rounds War Times makes excellent use of the opportunity to wow the player with sound – the music accompanying the introductory cinematics is awesome and quite on par with Hollywood scale productions, while the mission briefing music helps to create a sense of foreboding and impending conflict – just the right touch needed to get players in the mood circa 1939-1945. Unfortunately the in-game levels are almost devoid of music.
The sound effects (gunfire, artillery, mortars, voices, vehicles) are mostly flat and somewhat uninspired (the major exception being the explosions) and annoying nationalistic jingles accompany each click upon your headquarters. War Times delivers in the beginning but drops the ball on sound as the experience unfolds.
Like its other real time strategy brethren War Times benefits from a multiplayer component that offers frantic and frenzied fun online or via a LAN. Multiplayer levels are okay; I found the biggest benefit accruing from multiplayer was its no-hassle, quick and fun levels where players could mass troops and attack, although some of my colleagues noted that resource gathering seemed to be a bit of a chore. In this day and age of broadband connections however it’s becoming very conspicuous to ignore the multiplayer component of a game and Legend gets kudos for giving players the option to take the war online.
Given a choice between the two top contenders in the World War II genre, I would have to choose Desert Rats over War Times. War Times is a fun, playable and respectable effort at capturing the feel of World War II combat, but its magnificent cutscenes and (initially) superb soundtrack end up promising an experience that the blocky graphics, uninspired landscapes and poor sound effects can’t make good on. Fans of WWII real time strategy games will ultimately enjoy the experience War Times offers, but casual RTS players should probably try before they buy.