Alternative histories always provide good value and this innovative new real-time strategy features a "what if" scenario involving the outbreak of a conventional war at the end of the Cold War and a Soviet invasion of the U.S. Although the game goes to some effort to make this seem as plausible as possible it’s also worth noting that the developers admit the plot is heavily influenced by 1984 Patrick Swayze non-classic Red Dawn. The game itself is similar to the popular Ground Control series, which the same team also worked on, although it features no base building or resource management, instead concentrating solely on combat and tactics. As such you can choose your weapons and equipment before a mission as well as whether you will play the role of infantry, air power, support or ground armour. Each of these four roles comes with their own specialized units, as well as tactical aids such as airstrikes, paratroopers and even tactical nuclear weapons.
Graphically the game is hugely impressive; with superb lighting effects and dozens of units on screen at once. The most important visual feature though is the completely destructible 3D battlefields which are slowly demolished by shells and explosions over the course of a level. Skyscrapers and whole forests can be annihilated in a short order, emphasising the game’s grim sense of apocalyptic doom. The fully featured multiplayer can be played online by up to 16 people and allows you to take control of Soviet, American and NATO forces in head-to-head or team based battles. There’s already a number of innovative new real-time strategy games scheduled for 2007 but this is certainly looking like one of the best. HARRISON DENT
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Very entertaining Real time strategy as you fight WW3 in the mid 1980s.
If you saw the film Red Dawn, this is the kind of thing you see here, Russians invading the US mainland and you control a variety of troops to try to hold back the red hoard. You play the part of a lieutenant undertaking a number of missions, very similar to Company Of Heroes but with more modern weapons. Mainly you control ground troops, but there is one chapter where you command helicopters fighting above New York and the Statue of Liberty.
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Great game, but the sound does it for me! This game is fantasic, the campaign opens out with a superb start and excellent tutorial.
I never played it online but i loved setting up skirmishes against the computer, With 4 unique different styles of ply to choose from at the start of a match each time is different. but the most impressive thing of all, its the sound. it is truly epic, i feel like i am in a war, turn up the volume, turn on the sub woofer and keep your head down, one day one of thoses shells may land on your house!more info
Fast paced mouse clicking exercise with juvenile story line... War gamers should beware. This is not a realistic game on modern warfare. It is a fast paced mouse clicking exercise both in single and multi player. There is the usual scissor, stone, and paper RTS type interaction of different units but the pace is so fast even this is often irrelevant. The graphics and sound effects are without doubt very good but in my opinion hard to enjoy when your rushing all over the screen with your mouse pointer. The campaign game is probably the biggest disappointment.... more info
More RTS action than management . This is probably the first RTS game I've enjoyed in a long while, simply because I'm not managing my economic system whilst fighting a battle at the same time. Strategically it may be a bit shallow but cutting out the resource management has made this game more engaging and less frustrating. It's a must-try, only problem is that the campaign seemed a little short, but I still have multi-player to play. I'm playing with Vista, it works.
