World in Conflict

Taken in pieces, World in Conflict doesn't seem to do a lot that is new. It features squad-based battles where each player has a specialized role in the battlefield. It's got a destructible battlefield where the destruction isn't just cosmetic but also has tactical value. It has a multiplayer system that lets you drop in and out of a game while it's in progress, rather than wait for the round to restart. However, World in Conflict is the first strategy game to really combine these things, creating a new kind of intense and fast-paced real-time strategy experience that really draws you in.

Large-scale multiplayer action games are nothing new, of course. Thanks to the wild success of such games as Battlefield, publishers are queuing up a line of wannabe successors that offer role-based military combat. World in Conflict spins that idea into the strategy realm; instead of controlling a single character, you control a small unit consisting of infantry, armor, support (artillery and antiair vehicles), or helicopters. You control these on a large battlefield populated by other units. In single-player, those other units are controlled by the computer, but in multiplayer, each group of units is controlled by another player. This battlefield is a brutal place, since it can be completely gutted. If the enemy is hiding infantry in the woods, you can level the woods with bombs or artillery, or burn it down with napalm. Or you can simply obliterate it with the game's tactical nuclear weapons.

Multiplayer is a blast because it borrows conventions from the action and shooter genres. Far too many RTS games can be tedious to play online because you have to find a server that hasn't started a match yet, or wait for a current match to end. In World in Conflict, if a server has an open slot, you join the game in the middle of a match, and the action doesn't let up until you choose to leave, which can be hours later. The game is brilliantly paced so there's almost no downtime; you don't have to wait five minutes to build up an economy to attack the enemy. As soon as the game begins, just order up your units and start fighting. If you're units are destroyed, order up some new ones and keep going. It's so much fun that World in Conflict can easily suck away hours at a time.