Real War impressions

Simon & Schuster dropped by the GameSpot offices recently to demonstrate the latest build of Real War, a mainstream adaptation of a real-time strategy game developed for the military. Since the previous build, a number of changes have been made to the game's interface, which has been designed to accommodate players of varying skill. In addition to the basic radar map, there's a main menu that displays all the units available to the player according to type--clicking on the air tab reveals helicopters and jets, while the land tab shows tanks and infantry. This menu is especially helpful in the midst of battle, because players no longer have to go back to their base or the area where the desired units are located. They can instead simply click on the appropriate tab, select the units they want to move, and then choose the target. Also, units within the menu can be mixed so players can send a combination of ground, air, or naval support without even leaving the target area. For those real-time strategy fans who think menus tend to get in the way, all the menus can be toggled off to leave the entire screen open. Since players can assign a hotkey to just about every command, it's possible to play the entire game without any onscreen menus.

Several cosmetic changes have also been made to Real War since the last build. There are some new tiles for the three tile sets--jungle, arctic, and desert--such as bridges, which players can now destroy with an air strike or other similar attack, and small walkways that can be accessed only by infantry. Smaller details, like the way river water interacts with the ocean, are now clearly visible and add a strong sense of realism to the game. Changes are constantly being made to the camouflage on individual units as well, as the development team is constantly looking for ways to show off the detail on the fully 3D units. The development team has plans for more details, especially in the arctic map, where units will leave tracks in the snow and plumes of smoke will come from chimneys on various structures.

The single-player mode seems to be coming along very well, and it features plenty of variety in the missions. In one mission, players must take out a nuclear launch site before time runs out, but as always, it's much easier said than done. There are plenty of land and anti-air units surrounding the small land bridge and the nuclear base, and there are also five or six Apache helicopters ready to launch an assault should players attack. If players go in with guns blazing against the land units, the enemy calls in the air support and all of the player's weaponry is taken out in a very short period of time. So the best method of attack is to go in with land units to take out the anti-air and land units and also assign air support so the land units have some cover when the Apaches arrive.

The development team at Rival Interactive plans to implement more features before the game's release, including commando units that can repel down the sides of cliffs and radio chatter with actual code words used by various military forces. Real War is scheduled for release late this summer.