Act of War: Direct Action (PC)

The PC can be a funny medium to play video games; unlike the home console you can’t nestle yourself into the comfort of an over sized beanbag parked directly in front of your home theatre unit. Time spent in an office chair in front of a 17” monitor hardly constitutes ‘leisure’ time by comparison and so PC titles however advanced they are graphically just don’t quite have the same appeal.

Testament to the above it’s easy to see that console gaming takes pride of place in my collection as every title gets a thorough working over while PC titles lay scattered only half completed; some no longer occupying hard drive space. Naturally some PC titles get the once over at the very least; games like Half Life 2 and Doom 3 speak for themselves but what I’m really getting at here is that it takes a special PC game to maintain my interest for any given time frame. Thankfully no such problem was to be found with Act of War: Direct Action for two specific reasons; 1) RTS games just don’t work on consoles and 2) as far as RTS games go they simply don’t get much, if any better than Act of War.

As an avid fan of RTS games I’ve developed something of a selective taste for the genre; there’s a fine line between an RTS game that over simplifies or over complicates micromanagement of your units. Developer Eugen Systems have successfully incorporated a wealth of features all of which are easily accessible through the games slick command interface or even more simply through the right click of the mouse. Commanding B2 Stealth Bombers to rain hell fire upon an enemy compound is simply a matter of clicking the Stealth Bomber icon, setting the target zone and then sitting back as your units fly in from off screen and cross the map undetected before delivering their payload on an unsuspecting foe. Naturally there are measures in place to prevent players from simply spamming the enemy with nuclear or airborne attacks and this is where the majority of the tactics come into play.

Whether defending your base or going on an offensive there are a number of unit specific movements and abilities that prove invaluable throughout the course of the game. Infantry units while standing in the open are weak and easily disposed of, not so when crawling. Infantry have the ability to crawl across the battlefield making them harder to see, harder to hit and giving them the vital edge in taking down other soldiers even before they are aware of your position. In particular this ability becomes invaluable when entering enemy occupied structures where tanks or other units would easily be ambushed. Infantry are able to storm enemy occupied buildings taking the enemy out from the inside and then occupying key vantage points for defense; just make sure an enemy tank doesn’t come by and wipe the entire building out with your squad still inside.

Occupying buildings becomes both a tactical advantage as well as financially beneficial proposition as occupying banks provides your base with much needed funds for the creation and training of more units. Furthering your own resources is the ability to capture enemy units. Infantry units can be trained in non-lethal combat ensuring that when a gun fight has ended, units that have not been killed but otherwise unable to continue battle can be captured and sent to a prison facility attached to a barracks. Each soldier captured alive provides an increase in resources, while interrogating enemy units can reveal enemy positions and units across the battlefield. The ability to capture units can also enable players to tap into enemy resources taking $250 in funds from their own stockpile. Enemy units un-captured can flee and be re-patriotised for a resource reward equal to that of their capture, this also applies to your own men who if incapacitated on the battlefield but not dead can be flown by helicopter to hospital where they will be healed and again take part on the battlefield; though during times of incapacitation they will be unable to move and unable to respond to commands, left too long and they will die or be captured by the enemy.

Your infantry’s special commands make them a worthy asset to have on the battlefield despite their limited offensive and defensive attributes when left in a non-tactically advantageous position. It’s the special abilities of certain units that make for the bulk of the games tactics as no one unit is not without its strength, neither is it without its weakness.

Sending a squad of heavily armoured tanks into an area may make you feel invincible against infantry and smaller tanks packing less firepower, but sending them into an area where anti-tank rocket launcher carrying infantry occupy building rooftops is akin to sending lambs to the slaughterhouse. It’s this counter balance of units that forces players to scout ahead and carry a variety of units that carry a differing set of strengths and weaknesses into battle. This same rule applies to airborne units; sending half a dozen bombers into enemy territory is useless if your opponent has fortified the base with anti-aircraft turrets; however every structure needs a power supply and so sending your ground units on a skirmish to destroy any power facilities can cripple an enemies defenses and leave them vulnerable to a multitude of land and air attacks.

It’s also worth noting which units have more than one weapon in their arsenal as some units have the ability to change weaponry as required. A mechanical unit may have the ability to swap between an anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapon, effectively making them invaluable when coupled with a squad of units specialising in only one form of offensive ability.

AoW is set sometime in the near future, allowing Eugen Systems to develop a number of units that are beyond current technology (or at least beyond what the major powers would let you believe is currently available anyway). These range from a number of stealth tanks with multiple firing modes to infantry possessing heavily armoured mech like suits. Eugen Systems have been careful to not venture too far into science fiction with its armoury as all units and structures never stray too far from what could possibly be or at least one would imagine could be achieved sometime in the near future. This theme also runs through to the story that holds the campaign together and hits on a few notes that will no doubt produce a few cringes from the general public and possibly utter disgust from those currently gripped by the ‘anti-America’ sentiments that have been doing the rounds since the first wave of allied troops entered Iraq.

AoW tries to convey a story that like the game itself is what might be considered something foreseeable in the near future, not surprisingly the running theme throughout the game is centralised on that of a battle by major companies and governments to control oil reserves which are quickly running scarce; as well as an attack on a Texas oil facility amongst other acts of terrorism.. Sounds a little too familiar to what many believe to be currently happening in the Middle East. The gaming manual also includes mock newspaper articles depicting the problems currently facing the oil companies and how its’ affecting the American population. It doesn’t start out too bad and becomes obvious that a lot of effort has gone into the cut scenes that feature real actors against CG backdrops; the story evolves and provides a few unforeseen twists as not all the characters are what they seem. The cut scenes really do look like they’ve been ripped straight from a film based on a Tom Clancy novel (ironically Act of War is set to be published as a novel also). Unfortunately the story just doesn’t hold up as the promise it once had is quickly washed away in a sea of Hollywood like American bravado dribble. From such strong beginnings to some sort of B-grade political thriller it all seems to go pear shaped; the reasoning of the terrorists actions seem to take a back seat ride as it becomes a story of terrorists attacking simply because ‘they can’ while the American forces fight off the attacks with, naturally, even bigger more badass weaponry. This is shortly followed by an attempted take over of the White House and the grand finale which is seemingly little more than some adult adaptation of the school yard fight, “my nukes bigger than yours so nerrrr.” The story may have been somewhat clichéd to begin with, but the last portion of game just entirely loses the plot amongst some cheesy dialogue and American bravado that could almost be considered some form of subliminal propaganda.

Not to worry, just tune out for the last half of the title and oogle the graphics then. Its common knowledge that a games console simply can’t compete with the ever advancing technology of the PC and that’s pretty obvious from one look at the in game screens of AoW. The attention to detail present in AoW is nothing short of extraordinary, in particular firefights that occur directly in city centers. Standing guard out front of the Buckingham Palace as protestors’ wave banners and signs through the air before everything descends into chaos as terrorists amongst the crowd begin to pick off oil executives one by one. Watching it all unfold on screen leaves you with a sense of awe while the attention to detail is breathtaking; all characters, vehicles and structures cast real time shadows as do all other objects such a post boxes, park benches and street signs. AoW is certainly the best looking RTS game on the market and certainly makes games like Dawn of War look incredibly outdated. Naturally this can be demanding on your hardware, though for everything happening on screen it runs remarkably well on a mid-lower budget PC such as this one even at higher resolutions with the detail on at least medium to high; just don’t expect it to be plain sailing when the screen gets very action heavy.

Act of War: Direct Action has been dubbed the “Command & Conquer Killer” and having previously played the latest incarnations of the series as well as Blizzard’s best it’s certainly hard to argue with that statement. Act of War certainly is a step up from all previous RTS titles and sets the standard for all RTS games to follow in 2005. Aside from the Hollywood like ‘America saves the world and then some’ storyline it’s hard to fault. Being picky you could possibly say that it can be hard to see your units when they are in stealth mode, finding you have one stray left out in the middle of nowhere but this never seemed anymore apparent than in other games heavily reliant on micro-management. So ignore the latter portion of AoW’s storyline and you’ll find an RTS game that certainly sets the standard for all others to follow and with any luck; and such is the nature of RTS titles, we’ll see an expansion pack within the next few months.

Graphics: 4.5/5
Sound: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5

System Req: P4 or AMD 1.5ghz, 256mb ram, 6gb hard disk space, 64mb video, dx9.0c sound.

Tested on: AMD 2700+, 1gig ram, 128mb 9600XT, Dolby Surround (non Digital though in game Dolby Digital is supported)

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