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War is coming home.
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World in Conflict (abbreviated as WiC or WIC) is a real-time tactics video game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment (later Ubisoft) for Windows PC. The game was released in September 2007. The expansion pack, World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, was released for Windows PC in March 2009.

The game is considered by some to be the spiritual successor of Ground Control, another game by Massive Entertainment. Despite being marketed as a RTS, the game's designers consider World in Conflict to part of the real-time tactics genre.

World in Conflict offers multiplayer functionality, supporting up to 16 players online or over LAN through Massgate. The official Massgate servers were shut down by Ubisoft in December 2015.[1] Subsequently in May 2016, the game was delisted from the Steam store.[2] However, in 2017, the player community restored online multiplayer functionality through an unaffiliated version of Massgate.org. In celebration of Massive Entertainment's 20th anniversary, World in Conflict along with its expansion was part of a free giveaway on Uplay in December 2017.[3][4]

Gameplay

World in Conflict contains three main factions: USA, Soviet Union and NATO, all playable in multiplayer games. Originally however the Soviet Union was not playable in the singleplayer campaign, but the Soviet Assault expansion added six missions for the Soviet perspective. The USA and NATO are pitted against the Soviet Union throughout the story as well as in online.

The player may choose one of four roles in battle: infantry, air, support or armor. The infantry role gives access to various infantry squads such as anti-tank teams, snipers, and light transport vehicles whereas armor allows players to use various classes of tanks, the dominant direct fire land combat unit of the game. Players choosing the air role have access to anti-armor, air superiority, scout and transport helicopters. Finally, the support role contains anti-air, artillery, and repair units. Each role's basic units can be purchased by everyone but are more expensive for players with a different role. In addition, each role has its own exclusive units, that are not available for purchase from other roles.

Most units have special offensive and defensive abilities that recharge after use. For example, standard infantry has the offensive grenade launcher attack and are capable of a defensive sprinting maneuver. World in Conflict uses a tactical aid system similar to the support power system of Command & Conquer: Generals. Tactical aids allow the player to perform special actions such as calling in airstrikes, deploying paratroopers and carpet bombing.

Interface

The game interface for World in Conflict is smaller than that of with other strategy games. There is no framing in the game, so the interface is dramatically reduced especially at the bottom middle. The middle is replaced with a list of units, whereas the top right hand corner contains the expandable reinforcement procurement list. The mini map is in the bottom left hand corner, while the bottom right hand corner contains the special abilities buttons (including unit formation). Overall, the smaller interface gives players a bigger view of the battlefield, allowing players to micromanage more easily than in other strategy games. Players can also use a messaging system that is designed to allow conversation between individuals regardless of whether they are on the same server or playing the same game.

World in Conflict features a fully rotatable 360 degree camera. The player uses the WASD keys to move the camera around the map, while clicking and holding the mouse wheel is used to look around from a fixed position, players can also move the camera very close to the units on the ground.

Multiplayer

Main article: Massgate

Multiplayer games support up to sixteen players and can be played on a LAN or over the Internet. Three types of maps are featured: domination maps, where players must control command points to win the game, assault maps, where one team defends a series of command points which the other teams assaults, and tug of war maps, where teams must fight to capture a series of command points on the front line, whereupon the line shifts towards a new set of points closer to the losing team.

The game host can add bots to play on the server. The AI is quite proficient, using different techniques for different game types and using a variety of forces together, so there are few weaknesses. Bots adapt quickly and react well to changing situations on the battlefield, and are also quite good at using tactical aids effectively. Bots try to obey commands given by the player by replying on-screen.

The online component of the game uses the in-game Massgate system, which is derived from Ground Control. The system helps players keep track of friends, allowing them to see whether they are online or playing a game. Clans can be created and kept track of in-game, with features such as ranks and clan matches. Massgate includes leader boards and a ranking system based on US Army military ranks. Players can increase their rank and leader board position in a way similar to Battlefield 2, by accumulating earnings and scoring points, medals, and badges. Achieving higher ranks becomes progressively more difficult. The leader board also keeps track of clan rankings.

Plot

Main article: World War III

The game is set in an alternate 1989 in which the Soviet Politburo elects to take military action to preserve the crumbling Soviet Union, rather than see it fall apart. Their plan was to blackmail Western Europe to get the needed aid, but failing to achieve this diplomatically, the Soviet Union invades Western Europe.

The player assumes the role of First Lieutenant Parker, an United States Army officer under the command of Colonel Sawyer. At the time of his introduction, Parker was on leave in Seattle when a Soviet amphibious assault force disguised as a fleet of cargo ships launches a surprise invasion of the city. A combination of regular U.S. Army and National Guard soldiers coordinated by Parker, Captain Bannon, Sawyer, and a newly-appointed company commander Captain Webb engage the invading Soviet forces in an effort to buy time for the local civilians to evacuate before retreating south toward Pine Valley, Washington. Here, the elements of the 5th Battalion under Colonel Sawyer defend the town of Pine Valley and make their stand. The USS Missouri arrives and provides artillery support with Parker as the forward observer, ultimately force the Soviets to halt their invasion and tighten their defensive lines. During this brief respite, Sawyer's battalion is reinforced by Oregon National Guardsmen under the command of Colonel Wilkins.

After a month of consolidation, the Soviet Army renews their expansion, heading east into the Cascade Mountains towards Fort Teller in order to disable the United States' Strategic Defense Initiative. While the project was a bluff, the threat of its existence has thus far kept the Soviet Union from launching a nuclear strike. The US Army decides to take the defense of Fort Teller as top priority. Colonel Sawyer and Colonel Wilkins engage in a series of delaying battles while en route to the Fort. As the Soviet main forces gets closer and closer, Sawyer elects to make a final stand in Cascade Falls, Washington. At first, the stand appears to work, as a battalion of Soviet forces are lured in the center of the town and destroyed by a B-52 bombing run, but when news arrived that there will be more armored battalions entering the area, Colonel Sawyer is forced to resort in using a tactical nuclear strike on the upcoming overwhelming Soviet forces. Knowing that the Soviet battalions would notice if all the US forces in the town would retreat at once, Captain Bannon decides at the last minute to sacrifice himself and his entire Charlie Company to lure the freshly-arrived Soviet armored battalions while Webb, Sawyer, and Parker's forces retreat from the town. Parker calls in the nuclear strike and the missile hits the center of the town, destroying the entirety of Bannon's company and most of the Soviet main force.

The game then flashes back to the outbreak of the war, months before the invasion of Seattle. It is revealed that diplomats from both sides had labored for a month to prevent the outbreak of the war and had ultimately failed. The game then shows Parker's service, as well as Colonel Sawyer and Bannon's participation in Marseilles, France in an attempt to drive the Soviets out from the Mediterranean, with help from Commandant Sabatier. A gap on the Russian-captured territory in France opened up and the combined U.S. and N.A.T.O. forces followed through and reaching the Soviet H.Q. under the planning of Sawyer. Parker destroyed all the forces in the Soviet H.Q. in Marseilles, although Commandant Sabatier was killed in an ambush, partly due to Bannon abandoning his outpost in order to reinforce the defense of the town's bridges against a large Soviet counterattack.

After the successful campaign in France, Sawyer was tasked by the Pentagon in a mission deep behind enemy lines in Murmansk, USSR to locate a downed B-2 stealth bomber and recover important information obtained by the prototype plane. With help from Major Johannesen and Captain Bannon, Parker successfully recovered the information from the B-2 bomber as well as its pilots, but Bannon was reprimanded by Sawyer for killing several surrendering Russian civilians while attempting to flank the Soviet forces from behind, thus violating the Geneva Convention. The important information reveals several Russian submarines on the port in Severomorsk, USSR, and the U.S. and N.A.T.O. forces quickly moved into the area to secure all the submarines before they escape. During the operation, Bannon fails to secure the second submarine which thereafter escaped into open waters and later on attacked several naval yards on the East Coast. After the assault on the port, the U.S. commanders received news that Soviet Spetsnaz commandos had invaded New York City and the first U.S. counterattack had been decimated. The second assault launches, which consists of ground forces led by Captain Vance, as well as Parker's attack helicopter support and Captain Bannon, who was assigned to a repair and refueling point for Parker's forces due to his continuous incompetence in the N.A.T.O. campaign. During the assault, the desperate Soviet commandos attempted to launch a chemical attack on the city from the Statue of Liberty and Sawyer ordered an air strike on Liberty Island, but Parker's helicopter forces managed to destroy all the Russian forces on the island before the air strike arrives. Eventually, all the islands are reclaimed from Russian hands and New York City is saved. For his actions, Parker received a leave on Seattle from Sawyer, while Bannon was transferred to the Fifth Supply Battalion situated within the same city as Parker's.

After the flashback, the game returns to the sequence of events after the destruction of Cascade Falls. The scattered remnants of the U.S. Army defenders from Cascade Falls attempt to regroup and reorganize, while also being able to manage to finish off the remnants of the Soviet main force. Later on, the United States receives word that the People's Republic of China has entered the war on the Soviet side, launching attacks into South Korea, India and Taiwan; additionally, the People's Liberation Army Navy sends an invasion fleet to reinforce the Soviet beachhead in Seattle. After mulling over the available options, the President orders the surviving U.S. Army units from the attack on Cascade Falls to retake Seattle and orders a nuclear strike against Seattle as a last resort, should the attempt to recapture the city fail and the Chinese manage to land their troops on the city. Colonel Sawyer, desperate to avoid another situation similar to the battle for Cascade Falls, orders all of his units to swiftly breach the Soviet frontlines via Clearwater Creek and retake Seattle as quick as possible before the nuclear strike. The attack was successful and Sawyer's battalion continues to approach the city of Seattle.

Just as they arrive on the outskirts of Seattle, U.S. forces are ordered by high command to halt and gave new orders to the forces of newly-promoted Captain Parker to reclaim Sandfish Island at Puget Sound, with Webb, now promoted to Major as his coordinator and capture the anti-ship missile launchers in order to be used against the Chinese invasion fleet should they get past the sound. The island was successfully captured and before long, Parker and Webb returned to Seattle, where Colonel Sawyer led the battalion deep behind enemy lines in order to desperately retake the city. The U.S. forces led by Parker were tasked to secure the Soviet H.Q. where most of the elite Russian forces are situated. Despite very fierce resistance from the enemy forces with the highest ranks, Parker managed to destroy them. The remaining Russian forces attempted to mount a desperate counterattack against Sawyer's battalion from behind, but Colonel Wilkins' forces arrived at the last minute to save Parker's defending forces and the Russians are finally forced out from Seattle. Due to the lack of material and supplies by the Chinese invasion fleet in mounting their own amphibious assault and with the elimination of the Russian forces defending Seattle, they decided to cancel the invasion and retreat from the East Coast out of fear of being annihilated by the U.S. forces now situated in the city.

The game concludes with a statement that Parker may be called upon to fight later on, hinting of an expansion or a sequel as fighting continues in Europe and elsewhere, especially in the Asian theatre.

Reception

World in Conflict has generally received excellent reviews. It has received "generally favorable reviews" from game critics according to the review aggregator Metacritic, where the game has an average score of 89%. GameSpot, a popular online game site, called the game "the studio's masterwork". They gave it 95 points out of 100 and the editor's choice award. The game also received the editor's choice award from IGN.com and the Australian gaming magazine PC PowerPlay, as well as PC Zone's classic award. PC Gamer US awarded the game its editor's choice award, as well as naming it the 2007 RTS game of the year.

World in Conflict was highly praised for its graphics, gameplay, and plot. World in Conflict depicts weapons and vehicles from the 1980's with detail and authenticity never before seen in an RTT (or RTS). The physics of the game was also very high quality. Explosions and muzzle flashes also have excellent details. The game also accurately depicts real-world locations, like the Liberty Islands, Downtown Seattle, and others. Other effects that were given amazing details were weather effects, lighting, water details, water reflections, anistropic filtering, full-screen anti-aliasing, and others. World in Conflict can also utilize DX10 effects.

Prior to its initial release in September 2007, World in Conflict received several awards from its E3 presentation in 2007.

  • IGN: Best PC Strategy Game, Best Strategy Game (All Platforms), Best Of E3 2007
  • GameSpot: Best Strategy Game Of E3, E3'07 Editors Choice Award
  • GameTrailers.com: Best Strategy Game Of E3
  • Game Critics: E3 2007 Best Strategy Game, The Best Of E3 07 Winner

The game was played in the 2007 Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) World Tour.

Expansion

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault is an expansion pack for the original World in Conflict and features the ability to play as the Soviet Union in the campaign. At the same time, a World in Conflict: Complete Edition was released with both games in one.

Soviet Assault features 6 new missions and 2 multiplayer maps (these were available free of charge to owners of the original World in Conflict). These 6 missions are combined with the original U.S. campaign. The player can now take control of a Soviet lieutenant named Romanov, who is under the command of Colonel Vladimir Orlovsky. Also under Orlovsky's command is Captain Nikolai Malashenko (who is also the colonel's nephew) and Major Valerie Lebedjev (a KGB officer).

So far, there is no official news of any future games for the World in Conflict series.

Media

Render art

Videos

Cinematic trailers

In-game trailers

Miscellaneous

References

  1. UbiDuchess (8 July 2015). "Online Services Update Masterlist" (archived). Ubisoft Forums. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  2. ShawnS (7 July 2020). "World in Conflict". Delisted Games. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  3. Ubisoft (December 2017). "World in Conflict Giveaway" (archived). Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  4. Zacny, Rob (8 December 2017). "'World in Conflict' Is Unfairly Forgotten, Free Right Now, and Still Great". Vice. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  5. Greg@Sierra (18 December 2006). "Season's Greeting from Team World in Conflict" (archived). VU Games Community Forums. Retrieved 8 January 2007.

External links

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