By Jason Van Horn
There have been a ton of games released before based on World War II. So many
so, in fact, that I'm pretty sure most gamers understand more about the war and
the happenings than many other people who haven't been privy to them. So what
does it take for a new game to come along and make a dent in the already crowded
World War II RTS market? Well, it doesn't hurt having SquareEnix involved, but
the solid gameplay helps out too.
I'm not a big RTS gamer, as I often feel overwhelmed when it comes to all the
resources and micromanagement that is needed in order to be a successful player.
Along came Order of War then, which I had my doubts about considering the genre
it's a part of, but my worries were soon diminished after playing the game for a
while. Much like with any game, there is a learning curve when it comes to Order
of War, but one that's not as steep to climb as in other RTS games. By going
through the tutorial, you'll get a good idea as to how everything controls and
how battles actually play out and the winner decided in this high-tech version
of paper, rock, scissors.
The single-player is played out over a handful of scenarios and will take
somewhere in the 10-15 hour mark to complete given your abilities. Besides
playing as the Americans in the war, you can also choose to partake in a German
campaign, which is a nice twist on the traditional format. You rarely play a
World War II game from the perspective of the bad guys, so it was intriguing to
play those campaign missions knowing what I do about the war. I also found the
German campaigns more challenging when compared to the American forces campaign
set on normal difficulty.
Scenarios begin by showing some stock footage and pictures, plus a handful of
cutaways in order to show something like the inner workings of a tank you'll be
using this mission. After the timeline setting mood pieces are shown, it's off
to the scenario map, where your commander will give you an overview as to what
you need to do. The overviews are very helpful and easily designate the upcoming
gameplay and how your forces should be utilized in order to succeed. For
instance, if you need to come at a particular town from two separate directions,
the game will show in detail arrows showing who is pushing in from what
direction.
A scenario, however, is never completed by beating the first task alone, which
is one of the reasons why the game proves challenging and frustrating at times.
If I knew ahead of time whether a current task was my final or yet just the
first in a series, I'd behave differently. If I knew my last task was only to
secure an area, I wouldn't think twice about grabbing all my units and sending
them all at a single point of interest in a blitzkrieg attack. If it's not the
end of a scenario, however, you'll find your blitzkrieg attack ultimately fails
in the long run, as now you won't have enough troops to defend your position. Of
course, if you lose, you have to start the whole scenario over again. Most of
the scenarios ran around the 30-45 minute mark that I recall, so you can see how
infuriating it'd be to get to minute 39, lose, and then have to do it all again.
Sure, you'll learn from your lesson, but part of the lesson learned is never
expect anything to end.
As mentioned, the game is played as a sort of sophisticated version of the
paper, rock, scissor game, where certain units are better equipped for certain
enemy units, while still being susceptible to weaknesses of their own; it is in
this mechanic where a bulk of the strategy comes into play. Should you approach
a mortar placement with troops and tanks selected, or let the guys get it under
control before sending in the rolling death squad. The terrain also plays a
pretty important part when considering strategies, as troops are somewhat more
covered when advancing through trees, plus you can also order soldiers to take
position in trenches and buildings, which is a good way of providing them with
better defenses. Player controlled units can also be upgraded by using points
earned while in-game to buy offensive and defensive abilities, such as improving
the rate of fire of a unit, adding extra armor to a tank, or increasing the
range of fire.
The early stages are fairly simple, but more so because of the handholding that
takes place more than anything else. Personally speaking, I know it's probably
not smart to highlight every troop and have them all charge at one enemy without
dividing their forces, but when the mechanic works you stick with the date you
brought to the prom. I know my troops are dropping like flies, but when all my
upper commander leader does is give me a quick scolding and then sends me more
troops, of course I'm going to keep sending them straight at an enemy; there
isn't enough of a penalty early-on for making boneheaded decisions. I'm glad in
one way, because like I said, I'm not a pro, so it feels good to be helped along
the way. At the same time, once I got good, it was a nuisance to be treated in
such a way by the computer.
Another problem is that at times I felt like my troops weren't actually doing
what I asked of them. When I want my infantry to advance, I want them to do so
intelligently and effectively, yet there were many times when they were crawling
on the ground or not bothering to shoot at all. Also, too many times I'd select
my tanks and issue them an attack order, but rarely did they want to complete
said task. I could never figure out why they wouldn't bother shooting. If they
were too far away, why didn't they advance inwards like when I told them to head
to that spot in the first place?
For those who want a more human opponent, the game features a somewhat basic,
though still nice multiplayer component. Order of War comes with six different
maps, each offering two and four player versions. The maps cover a wide variety
of scenery, each offering their own unique problems, and making it so one
strategy won't necessarily be the proper strategy on every other map. The game
sadly only comes with one gameplay mode, which has the winner being decided by
whoever can own all the control points first. Since the gameplay isn't as
advanced as other RTS games out there, matches tended to be over at a fairly
good time, so nothing ends too quick or drags on for too long.
Graphically speaking, Order of War is a beauty…if you have the high-end computer
it needs to run everything at its smoothest. My rig isn't shabby, but even I was
unable to run the game at its full potential. The graphics available to me were
perfectly adequate, but the objects in the game lacked a certain level of
refinement. Reflections on a pool of water, for instance, was nothing more than
blocky squares of green made to look like the reflection of the nearby trees
(very ugly). The graphics never hampered gameplay for me, so that's a positive.
If you have the specs to fully run the game, however, it's a crisp and clear
game with lots of effects and very smooth texture mapping.
One graphical weak point no matter how good the computer, however, comes by way
of the cinematic camera system – a fun mechanic that is ultimately meaningless
and actually drags the player out of the immersion of the game. By clicking on
the cinematic camera, the camera zooms in to show the war currently being raged
on your scenario map, detailing all the troops fighting, running, etc. While it
does bring the battles somewhat to life, you can't control any aspect of the
game until you click it off and go back to the default camera. Another problem
with the cinematic camera is that it feels as an afterthought, since so many
bugs are seen while in this camera mode. The camera will zoom in on troops who
are standing around and doing nothing. You'll see troops wiggling on their
bellies for no real reason. The biggest offender, however, is that the camera
mode suffers from terrible clipping, as it's all too common to see troops run
through each other or even have a tank drive up and simply park and start
existing on top of a troop member who was just standing there.
The game also isn't amazing when it comes to the sound work of the game. The
sound effects of war and all the rolling tanks, falling trees, zipping planes,
and thunderous bombs sound excellent, but the background music is too pedestrian
and lacks that epic score that all World War II games should come with (think
the soundtrack of Saving Private Ryan as an idea as to what type of soundtrack
should've been in this game). Another problem is that the deliveries of the
vocal actors are often too hammy and clichéd. Also, what's up with German
leaders who sound like regular Americans?
Order of War is a solid game, but one that's neither too extraordinary nor poor
to lean one-way or another on the good game/bad game scale. I had fun and felt
accomplished at times when I managed to pull off a nice maneuver that ultimately
helped me win the scenario, but yet those moments didn't last too long, because
soon after I was smacked in the face with a gameplay decision or graphical
stutters that pulled me out of the immersion I so desperately wanted in this
game. Die-hard RTS fans might not find the fix they're looking for in Order of
War, but for those looking for a more introductory game to the genre, Order of
War is a good choice to test the waters with.
3.5 out of 5
Link: http://www.orderofwar.com/
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