Soldiers of Anarchy Preview

How many real-time strategy games can there be? Is it really a good idea to make yet another game where players start out with a couple of peon units, build a base, and then churn out an army to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible? Developer Silver Style Entertainment didn't seem to think so when it began developing Soldiers of Anarchy, its upcoming 3D tactical real-time strategy game. Soldiers of Anarchy won't take place in open fields full of minerals or gold mines--it will take place in a postapocalyptic future, where the most important resource is what you can scavenge from your fallen enemies. Publisher Simon & Schuster was gracious enough to visit GameSpot's offices to give us an up-close look at the game.

The setting of Soldiers of Anarchy draws more than a little inspiration from the classic role-playing game Fallout. At the beginning of the game, players emerge from a bomb shelter 10 years after a nuclear holocaust destroys civilization, leaving what's left of humanity to form small, ragtag tribes that care nothing about paper money or fancy clothes. The most important forms of currency are weapons, ammunition, and, if you're lucky enough to find them, vehicles--you'll be able to barter all these in exchange for different equipment, as well as for the services of new teammates. Like in Fallout, you'll be able to recruit skilled commandos throughout the course of the single-player campaign, either by convincing them to join your cause or by bribing them with a case of ammo.

You'll be able to use an arsenal of conventional 21st century weapons and vehicles (and maybe a few futuristic, experimental gadgets) in a tactical game that is being described as "a cross between Dungeon Siege and Commandos 2." Soldiers of Anarchy will have the fast-paced, free-form real-time action of Microsoft's hack-and-slash game, but it will also have the highly specialized and skilled characters of the Commandos games. Many of Soldiers of Anarchy's missions will take place in large, outdoor 3D environments that will change as you interact with them. For example, jeeps and tanks will leave tracks on the ground, and you'll be able to use trees as cover or send them crashing down on the heads of your opponents. In missions in which some degree of stealth is required, your characters will be able to crouch or lie prone. They'll move more slowly in those positions, but they'll be much less likely to get hit and will also have steadier, more accurate aim. In some cases, they'll even be able to disguise themselves, but in all cases, they'll need to be careful around enemy units in the field. Soldiers of Anarchy will clearly indicate whether your troops have been spotted with markings over enemy soldiers' heads. If an enemy's marker is green or yellow, he probably hasn't seen you, but if it's red, you'll probably have a fight on your hands. Fortunately, selected groups of units will all move as slowly as their slowest members, so you won't have to worry about babysitting the one soldier who keeps running ahead of everyone else and setting off all the alarms.

You will be best served by keeping an eye on the status of each of your soldiers. All your characters will have physical attributes, like strength, speed, and health, and they'll have a paper-doll inventory system that will let them carry certain amounts of gear. Different soldiers will have different skills--you can expect to see close-combat small arms experts, snipers, medics, heavy-weapons specialists, and mechanics, among others. Using your squadmates' abilities wisely will let you develop their skills and advance experience levels, or "ranks," from a lowly private all the way to general.

Real Anarchists Drive Tanks

But a single soldier, regardless of how decorated he is, probably won't be able to withstand the onslaught of a powerful vehicle--most soldiers will be squashed flat by a tank. Soldiers of Anarchy's 3D engine and physics models will account for all the tactics you might expect from a game of this nature. If you have a soldier perched on top of a hill, he'll gain a height-advantage bonus and will fire much more accurately and tend to inflict more damage upon his enemies, while an encroaching enemy trying to climb the hill won't fire as accurately but may receive some cover from the sloping terrain. Vehicles not only provide cover for your units, but they also let them move faster and access powerful artillery. Soldiers of Anarchy will have about 29 different vehicles--including jeeps, tanks, and attack choppers--that you can recover at various points in the game. Truly skilled players will actually be able to damage an enemy vehicle just enough to render it useless, but not enough to make it irreparable--one of the best ways to get a new set of wheels will be to smash up the enemy's, finish off any enemy troops, and then pick up the wreck and bring it back to the garage for repairs.

The best soldiers are the ones who come to battle prepared, which is why Soldiers of Anarchy will have a garage mode that will let you repair and upgrade all your vehicles. You'll actually be able to mount different weapons on different vehicles--for instance, you might add a heavy machine gun to the back of a fast-moving jeep. All of Soldiers of Anarchy's vehicles will have open slots that you can swap different weapons in or out of, and this will make careful salvaging of enemy wrecks much more rewarding for skilled players. Fortunately, the game's branching single-player campaign, which will consist of 23 different missions, will give you plenty of opportunity to hijack enemy vehicles of all kinds. Unfortunately, your units will see plenty of action in the field and have plenty of opportunities to be severely injured, so you'll need to bring them by Soldiers of Anarchy's medical lab to get them patched up.

In addition to the single-player game, Soldiers of Anarchy will also ship with full a multiplayer component that will let up to eight different players challenge each other simultaneously on the same map. Since Soldiers of Anarchy is a tactical game that involves managing your troops, you won't spend any time building up a base or gathering resources. Instead, many multiplayer games will boil down to sneaking around the maps with your troops, trying to flush out your enemies and either gunning them down or crushing them with vehicles. Larger multiplayer games with more players on a bigger map will often involve even more interesting tactical considerations. For instance, Soldiers of Anarchy will have full day-night cycles, and during the day, all soldiers will have full visibility and will be more accurate, but when night falls, they'll have a harder time hitting their targets but a much easier time sneaking around. Similarly, though vehicles can be powerful allies on the field, they won't be able to climb mountains or penetrate cramped areas, like the outskirts of a ruined city surrounded by burnt-out buildings. You'll be able to hop in and out of your vehicles whenever you please, but if you're careless, so will your opponents.

The game is also going to come with a 3D map editor that will let you build maps in several different types of environments that can be as big as 1.5 miles by 1.5 miles in area. The editor will let you add objects like trees, buildings, and vehicles to your maps with a simple drag-and-drop interface. You'll also be able to vary the height in your maps by dragging the map cursor up to create hills and mountains and down to create valleys and depressions, and the editor will automatically skin your terrain with the appropriate textures. You can choose to make your map a grassland, a snow-covered level, or a desert, among other things. If you wish, you can carefully drag and drop every last little unit, tree, and detail onto the map, or you can drop in various prebuilt features, like ready-made mountains.

Soldiers of Anarchy looks like it's shaping up to be a refreshing change of pace from most conventional real-time strategy games. It's scheduled for release this September.