Unfortunately, games of this caliber are few and far between these days. Even the legendary Call of Duty franchise is now finding itself wallowing in mediocrity when it once was herald as incredible. With heavyweights like Call of Duty faltering it comes to no surprise that other games across all genres are also lacking. Such is the case of the upcoming RTS strategy title from 1C Company titled Theatre of War. A note however. Being that this is a preview build article; any problems with the game could and probably will be addressed before it is released.
Theatre of War, like many WWII based games, has the gamer filling the shoes of a commander on the battlefield. The task is once again to take out the Germans and their relentless numbers. Being an RTS, Theatre of War doesn’t allow for any up-close and personal encounters, but instead shows the player into the omnipresent role of observer. Troops are told where to go, who to attack, and when to retreat all by the click of a mouse. Everything one would expect from an RTS is found in Theatre of War. So what does separate Theatre of War from other RTSs?
Theatre of War relies heavily on realism. Troops are not going to be able to hit an enemy from far away, and don’t expect head on assaults on enemy fortified positions to result in anything but failure. Theatre of War requires the player to think about how to distribute the troops in the most efficient and balanced manner in order to maximize damage dealt and minimize losses. Flanking with snipers, setting up defensive tank barrages as troops charge, and even using the town buildings or rock walls as defensive cover are all options available to gamers. Each of the thirty maps is also recreated from historical land maps, and the over one hundred and fifty vehicles as well as two hundred uniform types are all historically accurate.
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In addition squads can earn points which can be distributed amongst their various attributes to make them more efficient soldiers. Losing a veteran is really going to sting and it keeps gamers from taking risky decisions only when absolutely necessary (much like the real conflicts in the war). Complimenting this realism is the historical accuracy Theatre of War brings to the table. Each and every conflict is described in detail, and gives the gamer a historical context to place the “game” in. This carries over to the campaign mode where gamers can take command of the Polish, French, Russian, US, English, and German forces.
Now while this all sounds amazing on paper, there are some nagging problems with the build of Theatre of War that I played. Like stated earlier, this was a preview build of the game and many of the technological problems will probably be addressed before the game ships. The first thing I noticed was how long the loads times were for the various campaign missions or battles. Theatre of War is not pushing the next-gen envelope by any means in terms of graphics or even physics for that matter. So I found it odd that it took so long to load up a fairly contained map. Also while ducking it out, I found the camera would not lock itself to the lowest position possible. I was constantly scrolling the mouse wheel to get a good look at the action. Finally, the AI of the game acted less than stellar. Many times when I would order my troops to enter a vehicle they would run around not sure what to do. This also overflowed into other areas like attacking certain units as well as firing at the correct target. Can one win a war when his or her troops don’t listen? Not really.
Despite these setbacks the graphics and audio of Theatre of War surprisingly impressed me. Now like said earlier this game is not the one to show off to friends who are crazy about graphics. Even when running at maximum settings, Theatre of War did not come close to other titles like Company of Heroes or even the ancient Warcraft III. What did surprise me though was the level of detail. The tanks have an amazing amount of detail crafted into them, and the village buildings include nice touches like barrels or ladders leaning up against them. It may not sound amazing, but sometimes the small touches are the ones which matter the most. So far, Theatre of War has this in spades. In terms of audio Theatre of War is very generic. The explosions sound like ones we’ve heard a million times before and the battle music in very plain. It still does its job though. Oddly though it reminded me of Final Fantasy 12’s musical score.
The historical accuracy, mediocre graphics and audio and very unforgiving gameplay makes for an interesting experience. How Theatre of War will play in an overcrowded market, remains to be seen in the final retail game version.
