Faces of War Single-Player Hands-On - Combat, Destructible Environments, and Controls

Faces of War is the upcoming World War II real-time strategy game from Ubisoft and Best Way, but it doesn't seem to fit into the conventional definition of a real-time strategy game. In fact, the easiest way to describe Faces of War is to say that it feels a lot like a World War II sandbox come to life. You'll command your soldiers as they battle on foot or in vehicles as they roll across a fully destructible battlefield. We got our hands on the latest work-in-progress version of the game to see how it's shaping up, and from our vantage point, Ubisoft has something very interesting here.

As a World War II strategy game set in Europe, Faces of War will feature three single-player campaigns, letting you fight as the Germans, the Western Allies, and the Soviet Union. This is more of a real-time tactical game than it is a real-time strategy game, since there don't appear to be any resources to gather, bases to build, or tanks to build. Instead, you'll be given command of an elite squad of troopers, along with a mission to accomplish, and you can then tear apart the battlefield in pursuit of that goal.

We were able to play the tutorial and the opening level of the Allied campaign, which featured a commando raid onto German-held soil to blow up a radar installation. This required landing on the beach, sneaking through the woods to scout the target, and attacking the radar installation. After that, the squad needed to attack a nearby farmhouse to destroy the power generators there. The combat in this sequence was intense; we set up roadside ambushes to take out German half-tracks, used the Germans' own antiaircraft flak cannon against their infantry, and leveled all sorts of terrain features, including buildings and fences. Thankfully, the game's default "arcade" mode means that your troops can take a lot of punishment before they die, so you don't have to worry about hand-holding your soldiers to make sure they don't get shot.

The controls are fairly easy to pick up. In fact, the squad controls are the easiest to use in the game; you can simply group a bunch of grunts into a squad and then give them all orders with a single click. Whenever you move the mouse around the map, the game highlights the deployment possibilities for you. For example, if you move the cursor behind a wall, you'll see what positions your troops will assume if you move them there. Or if you move the cursor behind a car, the game will display how your troopers will use the car for cover. Once you're satisfied with the move order, simply click the mouse, and the troops will head for that point.

Combat is just as easy. Troopers can automatically engage enemy forces that are in sight, or you can issue specific commands if you need something done. Let's say you see an enemy soldier hidden behind cover. In that case, all you need to do is click on the grenade icon in the inventory and click on the enemy soldier in question, and one of your troops will lower his rifle, take out a grenade, and chuck it at the enemy. The artificial intelligence is smart enough to recognize if a grenade has been dropped, so in that case, the enemy soldier might panic and run away from the grenade, which makes him easy pickings for your troops. The same control scheme is used if you want your troopers to chuck antitank grenades at vehicles, or if you want the grunt with the bazooka to take out an enemy tank.

The micromanagement hurdle gets a bit higher when you're dealing with vehicles and crew-served guns. For instance, a typical tank might require up to five crewmen to man the positions, and if the tank needs repairs, you'll have to have someone climb out of the tank, take the repair kit out of the tank's inventory and place it in the soldier's inventory, and then repair the tank. Or, if you've got a truck hauling an artillery piece, you'll need to assign drivers to drive the truck and then assign two soldiers to unlimber the gun, haul it into position, and then fire on targets that you see. Still, the micromanagement is worth it, as it's fun to see the heavy guns shred buildings with their fire or watch a tank knock down a building using brute force.

Graphically, Faces of War is impressive. Everything in the game looks good, whether it's in pristine condition or blowing up spectacularly. The environments are lush and realistic, full of all sorts of terrain features that you'd expect, while the vehicles and soldiers are rendered with very sharp detail. Particle effects are incredible; you'll watch the smoke trail from a bazooka slowly corkscrew across the screen or grin as a tank explodes in a huge fireball, hurling parts into the air. We only had a chance to play around with the single-player part of the game, but if the multiplayer can deliver the same kinds of visuals and thrills, then Faces of War is certainly going to be a game to look forward to. The game is currently scheduled to ship this autumn.