World in Conflict (WIC) demo first impressions by Isaac Lu (meepokman)
This week, I will be ripping apart the World in Conflict demo, which my brother suggested I jump into for a while. I actually downloaded it quite some time back but never really talked about it to everyone else.
And for good reason.
Yes, yes, I know I promised a Crysis review but I wanted to do a truly fucked up game for once. Anyway, I have received some private feedback telling me that my reviews attacked the reader too much with my insults, therefore scaring away commentators (wimps). Therefore, I shall try to direct my full-blown hate towards the game development team instead of the reader.
Now, let’s chew up the game.
From what I have seen, WIC is a real time strategy (RTS) about some alternate history in which some evil bastard in the Commie Department of Idiocy has decided to invade the US in 1989 instead of ending the Cold War. The story follows some blank slate mute prick (which I hate in games) from the US Army who only stares blankly at everything as the story unfolds. “Everyone else” (i.e. those who speak and have some fucking use to the story) includes one coward, one mean commander and a black guy whose job is just to say crap from time to time.
The demo starts with the coward calling home—in a lazily made cinematic that only uses still concept art as images without even doing animations for shit—and getting scolded by his brother (who seems to be a Marine who has fought in Vietnam) for losing so many fights to defend the country. Something I can fully sympathize with in the shit that happens in battle later. The demo mission starts with a mission to re-capture a town from the Soviet commies (grr) who have taken it the night before. I got off to a flying start when I was tasked to kill a sniper and recapture the rest of the town single-handedly. The coward mentioned earlier is instantly in dire straits and needs me to bail him out.
To get the experience of the demo mission, throw somebody off the roof of a house, pick him up and help him back to the roof, then throw him off again and help him once more; repeat this about 5 times. Oh yes, this is the entire experience of the mission I was given.
After a brief attack on the town, it is just one fucking hold-the–line experience repeatedly with moments to help the fuck-wit that cannot seem to look after his own arse. After a series of fall backs due to some idiot (I don’t have to tell you who) despite me effectively holding against hordes of useless men Ivan throws at me, a Navy ship arrives and kills all the commies with its cannons. Right here the demo ends... Ok, now that I have talked about the shitty demo mission, let’s go to the (truly horrible) gameplay.
For all other RTSes, controlling the camera is as simple as using the arrow keys to move it around and the mouse serving the same function with edge-scrolling. Now Massive Entertainment, why do you have to cock up a perfect system with some new shit? In this game, the mouse rotates the camera on its axis instead of moving it around and W, A, S and D are used to move the camera like a shooter. This may seem good on paper but it serves no purpose at all. Many a time, I wanted to move to see an incoming commie attack only to find myself staring into the sky. By the time I angled the camera to where I wanted, Ivan had already moved out of artillery range. Speaking of which, support such as arty or bombing runs takes ages to come, leaving the commies with enough time to bugger out. Explain to me how the fuck high speed shells from a fucking cannon take 10-20 seconds just to travel and you can only give one set of co-ordinates that you wring your hands wishing could be updated... while enemies merrily waltz out of the teeny-weeny circle you’ve to wait long minutes to re-draw. Also, air support which you task to take out enemy helicopters only will engage targets within a tiny radius of where you click, completely ignoring further threats in the vicinity. It also does not help that they take 30 FUCKING seconds just to come.
OK, the only good thing I can see is the story, which in itself is killed by the mute protagonist. Still, it has an 8.7 out of 10 on http://www.gamestats.com/ and plenty of reviewers I read threw perfect scores at it. Maybe after this shitty part, the game is a diamond in a sea of vomit but the whole purpose of a demo is to make me buy the full version.
And it that respect... it sucks.
To sum up, I can tell World in Conflict just plain sucks from the demo, throwing away all the innovations of better RTSes like Company of Heroes. Save your money—don’t buy this game. The Gold Edition of Company of Heroes is out in stores, featuring two fantastic RTSes for the SAME PRICE as WIC. Use your money for that instead.
No H.O.N.O.U.R. ratings this week, (http://grace-and-salt.blogspot.com/2007/12/oms-and-airborne.html at the bottom of the post) as this is a first impressions rather than a full review.
Still, I would rate it 2.0 out of 10, with its only merits being its great voice acting and story. Don’t play this game.
Credits:
Review by: Isaac Lu
Imaginary background music: Isaac Lu
Idea for reviews: Isaac Lu and Lu Zheng Ping
Gracefully hosted by: Lu Zheng Ping
H.O.N.O.U.R. system by: Lu Zheng Ping
Excess shit on in the review cleaned up by: Lu Zheng Ping
Tell me that WIC is the best game of the year and I deserve to die at: isaacluzr@gmail.com
Ok, I will try the nice approach now: Please fill up the comments page or e-mail me what you think, I would really appreciate it.
Lastly, I endorse John McCain for president.
No comments:
Post a Comment