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War World - Tactical Command Review
Derek dela Fuente
31/08/2005
From a team who gave us Banjo Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing comes a surprisingly fun and frantic mech shooter...
Here is an interesting title from a very interesting development team based down under in Australia. Usually with PC games you need some kind of take or extra special PR or marketing push to catch the eye if the game is not a brand or by a well known publisher and if the game is released as a âtry and buyâ product on the Internet then you start to either become very suspicious or expectations are so low that you canât really be bothered even checking it out.
This caught our attention purely off the back of a press release expounding the virtues of the team creating the game, Third Wave Games, having a collection of personnel we are told that have worked on titles such as Banjo Kazooie, Starfox Adventures, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong while under the employment of Rare, so a title such as this seems to be a rare excursion (forgive the pun). Now a PC shooter that bears certain similarities to a Mech Warriors titles crossed with SEGAâs Virtua On series, where in effect you take control of your very own Mech robot and are told they can be adapted to play in a number of ways does sound both intriguing and also conversely bog standard, but if it can both innovate whilst also offering some neat and novel ideas then they could well be on to a winner.
Another consideration is that the game can only be purchased online at a very competitive price equal to around £13 , give or take a few pence. The fact that gamers can download it online and get all the info and assets by downloading means that the development team can keep costs down but then again we hear some saying, if the game is good then a publisher would gladly bear these costs so is the game in any way slightly inferior to a title boxed, marketed and given the Full Monty by a publisher?
You must give credit where credit is due and although only released in the last few weeks it is already gaining some really nice comments from the online gaming scene and a small core of War World fanatics are appearing. The fact you can play before you pay, albeit a limited experience, possibly shows the team has great faith in their product!
Like we mentioned, already the game is building up a good following in the community/forums circles which is always an excellent gauge and constant online patches and upgrades will also ensure that gamers should not experience too many technical problems and the War World experience will continue on a long way after the purchasing of the gameâ¦
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The story to the game was a bit overpowering but if you like the scene well and truly set then go read it online, otherwise keep these thoughts in your head. You are a Mech, an extremely fast reacting one, with tons of attached equipment which can be switched around and you are facing a collection of similar robots and you have to clear the levels, use your ammo sparingly and watch at the same time your health and shield levels (comes into the equation later on), whilst sneaking around a vast and troublesome landscape.
Success in a level gains you more rewards than just the extra items you collected whilst there for some extra âdoshâ at the start at the next level will allow you to buy some extra special items to attach to your mech!
Now this might sound familiar but then again FPSs are about the look, the kind of well constructed AI, the elaborate work that has been put into the physics of the game and the kind of hidden surprises and challenges you will undertake and War World offers its own slight take on the theme.
The controls were not only slick and intuitive in a first-person-shooter style but also fast and responsive and after booting and suiting up your Mech (after a few pre learning levels), with your favoured weaponry it was off for the first of many thrill seeking hours of heart pounding, arm pit sweating, gameplay.
So what are the tactics involved? First familiarizing yourself with the controls and understanding how the onscreen icons effect you whilst taking into account each shot taken, both using and being hit you become weaker but conversely you will find loads of pick ups and goodies littered around all the levels and the more you nab by moving over them the better and stronger you will be for the ensuing tussles. War World serves up bucket loads of weapons and fire power which is equally matched by the enemy âsneakinessâ and the construction of each level, which appear to get bigger, are adeptly created.
Tactically what you canât do is just run amok shooting at everything that moves. The enemies you will find gravitate towards you, so thinking a few paces ahead, if you can in the heat of some frantic action, is advisable! Getting cover and then ducking from that safe haven to take pot shots is a good method but you will soon find that the slow methodical way doesnât keep you in one piece for long. Good skill, fast reactions and keeping on the move is an ideal tactic but this requires lots of hand to mouse and keyboard and precise eye coordination with your lasers and guns but thankfully the targeting is both slick and very very precise.
Although the action never really abates you do start to become accustomed to the fast pace of the game but around every corner lurks another Mech waiting to shatter the comfort zone you may have built up with a few hot shots and at no time do you really feel safe and on top of the action â“ which in effect is the whole challenge of the game - keeping one step ahead!
Past one problem and another one presents itself! Enemy Mechs have their own set of moves and foibles and sussing them out is part of the gameplan! Easy on the ammo and trying to avoid as much hot searing gun shot is more easily said than done for there are so many pick ups and utilizing your killer pumping ammo finger you constantly wonder, should I go for that tasty health box first or try and nail that Mech. Decision, decisionsâ¦
War World offers up familiar action in well tried out settings and although the levels change constantly, a level with a more organic look as opposed to one with loads of towering constructions, the challenge to finish the level does start to become more compulsive the further you progress which is a good stamp on any game.
It is however the online multiplayer modes that are likely to slowly raise the profile and popularity of War World. The frenetic nature of the game matches the likes of Unreal Tournament, while the heavy customization aspects suits online play perfectly. Truly you can have a blast when taking this online, something that rarely happens amidst the seriousness of modern games.
