Theatre of War Preview

Theatre of War looks to be a promising real-time strategy game that is so detailed it will leave few wanting more. Though it may be a bit daunting to a casual gamer like myself, I believe that it will be a must have for those RTS fans that always crave for a bit more. 

TOW is, in itself, a RTS set in your typical WWII setting involving armies from Germany, France, Russia, Poland, and Allies (UK, US) There are five historical campaigns comprising of about 40 missions based on real historical facts. These are played over 30 different maps covering a variety of seasons, weather conditions and environments. These maps are quite expansive and has plenty of objects that can be blown away or reduced to rubble like fences, trees, buildings and the like. This makes for some very interesting and realistic gameplay. 

TOW also provides an in-depth RPG style of play as well. For example, infantry has different attributes like morale, accuracy, and scouting to name a few. Some units have different skills that can be used effectively like commanding a tank for example. Some are better than others so this will have a direct effect on how well some units effectively carry out an order. As units gain experience with out getting killed in action, they do get better with experience. So in short though your basic infantryman may not be the most effective tank commander on the onset, if he stays alive and does well in the tank he can get better. The more effective units you have in vehicles the better the results. So why would you have someone carry out an order that they may not be the best suited for the task you ask? As your units fight and take on a considerable amount of damage they could be killed or even injured while in a vehicle though it may not be destroyed. TOW has a damage modeling that I haven’t seen in many games. It is calculated on where the men are positioned in a vehicle and depending on where it is hit could injure or kill the men inside though the tank may still be functional. In addition vehicles can lose key components like tank tracks or damaged turrets that could make them ineffective. This goes to show that the developers tried to make this as realistic as they could and at a first look, it looks good. 

Visually the game looks pretty darn good but that also depends on the angle of which you like to play. From a traditional top down sort of view or zoomed out, it does not look all that great, but choosing units from their given icon is much easier because you can see more of the battlefield. I also would like to note that you can also see a unit’s cone of fire displayed by some red lines so you can see where they are firing or at least their field of view. Now if you zoom in and get right in on the area at hand you can see a much more detailed look of the game with what seems to me the prettiest way to play. Soldiers and vehicles are beautifully rendered right down to uniforms and weapons. And when a vehicle is damaged you can usually see how. In the preview version moving the camera for different angles feels a bit clumsy. Usual standard commands found in other games are not quite the norm here; hopefully this will be addressed in the final release. 

There are tons of unit types and though there are some historical depictions on how the battlefield may start, there is plenty of freedom to command the battle as you see fit. You can reinforce fire teams, capture enemy weapons and vehicles, or call in a devastating artillery attack or air strike and leave the battlefield a cratered mess. The enemy AI does react quite well to engagements on the battlefield and as the battle dictates they will usually make changes to accommodate the given conditions. Sometimes this is a good thing. Other times their morale might be a bit low so they will flee from the attack. So don’t be surprised if one man against a tank or two turns tail especially if he’s alone with no support. Needless to say there is a bit of micro managing, but to some this will be appealing, others may find it to be daunting until the game is better learned.

Well I can say that most fans of this genre will find a solid game in TOW.  There are plenty of dynamic variables that will be sure to keep fans happy. There will be multiplayer capability so those who master the core game can take their talent online against other desktop generals.