Of all the modern warfare real time strategy games I've played, this is the best one because it's so realistic.
User Rating: 9.6 | Act of War: Direct Action PC
I've played many games on the PC, and almost all have been real time strategy. So I know what i'm talking about (I know, you've heard that a lot). I've played: ground control 2, Empires Dawn of modern world, lord of the rings battle for middle earth, Rome total war, medieval total war and its expansion Viking invasion, etc. (don't worry I wasn't going to tell you my entire collection, I wouldn't want to bore you ). All these games are great in their own way but they lose their appeal after a while either because they were replaced by a new similar RTS game or because you get sick of playing the same thing over and over. As a big RTS player I look for a type of RTS to fit every type of warfare I like, for example: Rome total war. This game is the best when it comes to empire building and huge armies from the old days with swords and archers. But what about a game based on modern warfare? Command and conquer Generals came out a few years ago and was great, but unrealistic and left you wanting something more. That's where Act of War Direct Action comes in and unseats Generals as the new king of modern warfare RTS. This game can only be described as insanely realistic combined with real military unit's available today (with some units more future based). For example you will build plenty of Abrams tanks if you choose the US faction, along with apache and Blackhawk helicopters, as well as paladin artillery (which was a powerful tank in the command and conquer generals game, can you say what the hell is that about?). There is a total of 3 factions: United States army (marines, best air craft, artillery, tanks, need i say any more), Task Force Talon (a covert military that is American but unlike the US army these guys are more mobile and have many unique units a lot of which are future based), and the bad guys the Consortium (a collection of different terrorists that rely more on stealth expensive units or cheaper units to over whelm your enemy). All 3 sides are evenly balanced and play differently, so after learning to master one faction and then you try another, it wont work the same. Each side has different methods to gain victory, for example the US can win by a strong small army, but the consortiums has weak cheap units so you'll need more, or build powerful stealth tanks that fire slow but are great for hit a run attacks. Task Force Talons units are more multi. purpose and can adapt (the opposite of the US units), but are not as strong as the US but are equally deadly in every multiple tasks they can perform. So as you can imagine gameplay is very balanced and the replay value is high. But besides great graphics and realistic units, what gameplay elements separate this game from any one else? Here is whats different: Only two resources: oil, but that stuff will run out because there are only a few oil wells on any battlefield so the game has one more interesting resource: prisoners. You can capture enemy infantry that are nearly dead or the non combat personnel left behind after its vehicle is destroyed, and after capturing them they are stored in a building (you must build first) and every 6 seconds or so each prisoner you have will earn you $50 and this resource never runs out as long as that building carrying them isn't destroyed(and each prisoner building can hold up to 10 prisoners, not bad!). But the catch is the only units that can capture anyone is infantry. I love this because it means infantry are finally valued again. I'm a huge infantry player in any RTS, but I always struggled because the games were not designed for army's having anything but tanks. Well now if you want to succeed you need infantry along with your main army otherwise you can't capture the enemy and continue making money. This can lead to games going for a long time, and it makes you think twice about sending your men off to die, because the enemy can capture them and profit from it, it also encourages you to rescue those wounded infantry or tank/helicopter crews to prevent them from being captured. This is my favorite RTS ever! and i recommend you buy it. Keep in mind i only play skirmish in my RTS games, which is not the single player campaign(which usually don't interest me). so for a review on the single player campaign and the story line, check out some of the other reviews. I'm sure you will find another trust worthy source about that stuff. WOW! That's a lot of information above, but its not everything about the game so if your still not sure read the gamespot review or other community reviews that may have included information I did not. Thanks for reading---B. Hampton
