Act of War: Direct Action

Innovation in the real-time strategy genre has been marginally small in the past few years. While a few titles have tread new ground in presentation and graphics, the majority have merely been clones of some of the more popular franchises. Act of War: Direct Action doesn’t innovate this genre much, but the way it is presented will have gamers on the edge of their seats until they see the concluding credits roll. What makes this game like this? Read on to find out.

Unlike most real-time strategy games, when players load up the story mode of this game they will not be playing as all three fractions but will play only with the US Army and Task Force Talon. The storyline is very riveting and seems like it might be taken place out of a Tom Clancy novel. Players will be trying to stop a group of terrorists that are trying to cause upheaval around the world. If players fail in their mission the world will be a different and horrific place to live. Failure is not an option.

Act of War: Direct Action does something that I have not seen any real-time strategy do successfully before, and that is weave real live action cutscenes throughout the game. What is even better is that in this game it is very seemly integrated and makes the game feel more realistic and fun to play. The footage is placed throughout the game to make it feel like gamers are in an interactive movie. This will make the players strive to finish each mission to find out what else lies before them. Another thing that makes it more realistic is during a mission there will be a little box that will popup and inside is “real time” news footage of what is currently happening. It is little things like this that make the game flow together nicely.

That's not a good sign...

The only thing that kills the cutscenes is that the acting is very bad, almost laughable at times. The expressions on the actor’s faces and the fake accents will kill the mood, but I really have to applaud the attempt. Even though it might get on the goofy side, it is still really integrated into the game well, and keeps the players pushing to see what will happen next.

After players finish the exhilarating story mode, they will have the option to play in skirmishes or multiplayer. In these modes players have the option to play as all three of the game’s factions: US Army, Task Force Talon, or the Consortium. Like every RTS game before it, each faction has its definite strengths and weaknesses, but that is what makes the game great because they each have their checks and balances so no one faction is the powerhouse.

The US Army defines all of the units under the Pentagon’s control including the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. They can handle anything at any given time. The biggest weakness that it has is that it will take longer to get the heavy-hitting units because you will have to do some base upgrading first. Task Force Talon is an elite military faction that is comprised of the very best from all of the branches of the U.S. Military. They are very fast at what they do, but the problem with this faction is that everything they need is very expensive. The Consortium has control in many of the terrorist organizations around the world. They can create low-level units quickly, but in order to create their huge forces they will have to rely on using captured POWs.

Nice plane.

A staple of every RTS game is resource management and this title has a unique way of doing it. For the traditionalist out there you will be able to build an oil derrick and harvest crude oil in exchange for some serious money. There is also another interesting way to generate money and that is while you are in combat you can capture the enemies and get a bounty for them. This is a great addition because when you are in battle is when you tend to spend the most money to recoup for the loss of soldiers, so now there is a way to get some money back.

Another thing that makes Act of War: Direct Action stand out is the background for all of the fighting. Unlike many real-time strategy games, this game will take players all over the world fighting missions. Players will visit London and Washington, D.C., and to top it off,the world is teaming with life. In one of the introductory missions, players will have to go to Buckingham Palace in order to protect some important people, but they will have to go through a huge protest that has multitudes of people. While the people will not prevent you from getting to your location it does provide players with a more realistic approach.

The graphics for this game are nothing short of wonderful. Everything is highly detailed and just oozing from its pores with pure eye candy. The thing that really stands out is how detailed all of the environments are. Buildings blow up with smoke bellowing out of them and with rubble littering the ground nearby. When things explode it is a glorious sight that you will want to behold more and more because it looks that good. What will really get you is that the developers made the environments teeming with life so it really feels like you are battling it out in a local neighborhood.

The graphics engine is great.

The sound for this game is a mixed bag. First the sound effects are really well done from the explosions that you will hear to all of the automatic weapons firing at your enemies. Everything sounds realistic and gives players the sense that they are truly in the middle of a war. What is a killer is the voice acting for the cutscenens and some of the units. In many RTS games you will want to click on the unit multiple times just to hear all of the things it will say. The lines that the units have are decent, but they are not as good as it could have been. The cutscenes accents are really lame and just laughable.

Act of War: Direct Action is rated T for Teen for blood, violence, and language.

The system requirements are:
AMD/Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
256 MB of RAM
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
2X DVD-ROM
DirectX 9.0
64 MB of VRAM
6 GB of Hard Drive Space
Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay: 8.5
The game plays like most RTS gamers on the market, so if you have played one in the past that you will understand all of the mechanics in no time.

Graphics: 9.1
The graphics for Act of War: Direct Action are great! This game is dripping with eye candy that will melt in your eyes not in your hand.

Sound: 8.3
On the whole the audio for this game is fairly good. The sound effects are really good for this game. The explosions are really realistic and the music fits the whole urban warfare theme as well. What kills the mood here is the bad voiceovers and the fake accents are laughable.

Difficulty: Medium
Depending on your skill level will define how hard this game will be for you.

Concept: 8.6
I really like the idea that capturing enemy units generates cash for you. Not only do you get to lower their forces but you get money for doing it that goes towards your army. Great idea!

Multiplayer: 8.5
There are no really huge innovative things in multiplayer, just the multiplayer normal stuff.

Overall: 8.6
Act of War: Direct Action is a really good real-time strategy game. While it doesn’t really innovate the genre any, the story for this game really pushes the players to continue playing so they can see what happens in the end. The real-time cutscenes are a terrific addition, even though the acting was on the lame side. If you are in the mood for a good RTS game, then you should pick Act of War: Direct Action up.