War Times

War Times is the latest RTS to put you in control of troops during WWII. War Times differs from the current crop of RTS games by offering up a few new gameplay features (like weather changes and resource management) that haven’t otherwise come to be in other WWII sims.  However, these features are still present in other offerings in the genre, and in the end, War Times ends up being just another run-of-the-mill RTS.

In War Times, you have the ability to control one of four nations thrust into the largest global conflict in history: the US, Britain, Russia and Germany.  Each of these nations has their own strengths and weaknesses as well as unique units.  For example, the US has the best air units, while Britain has the strongest defense and combat units, Germany has the largest heavy artillery and Russia has extremely powerful Soviet tanks and can stand on their own in pretty much any battle.

The gameplay in War Times is pretty standard fare for a WWII sim.  You build your units up and go about destroying enemy units to complete your goals.  Adding something new to the war sim formula is the necessity to gather ore and oil in order to build units.  Similar to gathering wood and gold in the WarCraft series, you must send out your worker units to gather ore and oil so that you can build more buildings and troops as well as develop new technologies and weapons.  Another key change from other WWII sims is weather changes.  The weather is constantly changing in the game, which can slow down units and turn the tides of a given battle.

However, the game does fall prey to a few nasty problems.  Primarily, the game suffers from some very slow pacing.  Units take an unnecessarily long time to build, resources take too long to develop, troops move slowly; overall, the game is terribly slow and loses way too much steam from the get go.  The enemy AI is also pretty bad and not terribly smart or self-adjusting.

The graphics pretty good, but don’t really compare to most RTS games out there.  The unit models are very simplistic and not made up of many polygons, the camera is fairly limited and the environments are plain.  The game does have some pretty nice explosion effects, however.

The sound is typical of what you’d find in a WWII sim.  Voice acting is pretty limited to commands, and the sound effects are your standard explosions and stock gunfire.  The music is war marches, very usual for a WWII game.

War Times has some pretty interesting concepts going for it.  However, the execution leaves much to be desired as the game succumbs to pacing issues and poor AI. 

Gameplay: 6.0
War Times’ easy interface makes it easy for fans of the genre to pick up and play, given that it’s very similar to most titles in the genre.  Also, the game does make an effort to introduce a few interesting concepts into the world of WWII sims.  However, the gameplay is terribly slow paced, the AI is not smart or self-adjusting, and overall the game is too similar to every other RTS to make it stand out.

Graphics: 6.5
The graphics, while not bad, aren’t up to par with most RTS games on the market.  The environments are plain, the unit models are blocky and poorly animated, and the camera is limited in range.  On the plus side, the game does have some pretty good explosion effects.

Sound: 6.5
The sound is pretty standard fare for a WWII sim.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 6.5
War Times does introduce some new concepts to the WWII sim formula like changing weather and resource management, but overall the game is too average.

Multiplayer: 6.5

The multiplayer elements include co-op play and skirmish modes, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Overall: 6.3

Although the some of the features show promise, War Times ends up being just another run-of-the-mill RTS.