Act of War: Direct Action

What happens when you mix out of control gas prices, a global criminal network, and the Pentagon? If you guessed an act of war, you guessed right. War is what this latest real-time strategy title from Eugen Systems is all about, and it comes in just about every size, shape, and form you could want. The story is based around an energy crisis stemming from a critical shortage of oil, which plunges the United States into a vicious war. Events go from bad to worse when a criminal organization attacks a high profile summit of world leaders in Britain and an elite American military unit is called in to help get the situation back in hand. The problem is that this isn't your ordinary terrorist organization, these guys have big plans and the hardware to make those plans a reality.

The real-time strategy genre is probably gaming's most active area at the moment, which gives gamers lots of different titles from almost any conceivable setting to choose from. The doomsayers have long predicted that real-time is dead, yet the industry keeps churning out new material and the gamers keep gobbling them up. So what does Act of War: Direct Action bring to the party to separate it from the competition? Plenty, actually.

Act of War comes on a single CD-ROM and installation was painless and trouble-free. We experienced no bugs during either the installation process or throughout the course of our tests. There aren't very many games on the market which are completely free of bugs, but Act of War didn't produce a single crash, driver conflict, or video error on the test machine. You can't ask for much more than that. Documentation consists of a small manual which is mostly devoted to describing units from the various factions. The gameplay and interface are fairly straightforward RTS fare, so veterans of previous RTS games will have little difficult jumping right into the action. No complaints here.

In Act of War: Direct Action you assume the role of the commanding officer of Task Force Talon, a somewhat larger-than-life commando unit equipped with the latest and greatest hardware and technology that money can buy ($900 toilet seats indeed!). Task Force Talon is called in for the really tough and messy missions, and when the Pentagon absolutely, positively needs to be there overnight! The game gets off to a running start as terrorists strike at a high level summit of world leaders who are attempting to deal with a worsening oil crisis. The game unfolds using a set of fairly detailed cut-scenes, in-game orders, and live action video. The video is reminiscent of the kind of thing once made famous by the Command & Conquer series, but there are some key differences here. For starters, these scenes don't simply play out while the next level is loading, they play in between key events scattered throughout each mission. Usually this happens when a particularly important objective is taken or when evidence is discovered of what the bad guys are up to. At times the live action video is a tad on the cheesy side, but overall the quality is respectable and does serve to flesh out the story.

The bad guys in Act of War are not your average terrorists with a few pipe bombs and and AK-47s, this is a global organization with better equipment than many modern day armies! Known simply as the Consortium, this organization sports tanks, helicopters, ground infantry, a hard-hitting air force, and some fairly sophisticated specialized weapons systems that make life tough on the good guys. The third force in the game is the U.S. Army, which more or less resembles a turbocharged version of the real thing. The Army has Bradleys, M1 Abrams main battle tanks, Apache helicopters, and can call on the Air Force for support when needed. All three factions in the game are playable using the skirmish mode or multiplayer, but only the U.S. Army and Task Force Talon are playable during the single-player campaign.

Gameplay in Act of War: Direct Action is pretty standard RTS fare. Resource management and base building are fairly straightforward, though there is only one resource to manage--money. Money can be made by capturing strategic resource points on the map and by building oil refineries on them. During some missions you can also generate money by securing key buildings and holding onto them for as long as possible. In an unusual twist, you also generate money by capturing enemy soldiers and turning them into POWs. This proves to be a bit of a double-edged sword as the enemy also gets money for capturing your soldiers. Often when a vehicle is destroyed or a helicopter is shot down, part of the crew survives and can then become POWs. This tends to add a new wrinkle to traditional rush tactics as a poorly planned assault can reward the enemy with a lot of cash if he captures a substantial number of your troops. Such a design does force the player to have at least some concern for the virtual lives of his/her soldiers, an aspect normally ignored by most games in the genre. This will definitely give players who prefer to constantly build and rush a moment of pause.

One area that Act of War: Direct Action truly excels in is its maps. The maps are richly detailed in full 3D and sport a surprising level of detail considering the sheer size of the larger ones. There is a huge assortment of different building types, bridges, warehouses, farms, etc. Zoom in close and you can see civilian cars parked on the streets, road signs, traffic lights, fences, shrubs, and a lot more. Virtually everything on the maps can--and probably will--be destroyed during the course of a given mission. Artillery and heavy armor can smash down entire buildings if the enemy is using them for cover, and this proves to be one of the more interesting aspects of how Act of War: Direct Action plays out. Many of the maps are in densely populated urban areas, which provide a wealth of opportunities for ambushes and heavily favor defensive tactics. Cleverly placed anti-tank missile teams and snipers can turn the streets into a death trap for both infantry and vehicles. Perhaps more than any other RTS game to date the player is rewarded for actually employing a few units in the reconnaissance role. Knowing what the enemy is doing and where he is can be crucial if you are outnumbered and facing a superior force. Act of War even allows the player to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles in some levels to keep tabs on the bad guys and help coordinate your own assaults.

Act of War provides a fairly standard skirmish mode that will keep players interested long after the single-player campaign is complete. But players should be aware that the AI seems to be tougher here than in the regular game. On the hardest settings the AI proves to be a nearly unstoppable force that even veteran RTS players may struggle against. The AI opponent is relentless in skirmish mode and simply building up your defenses will not save you in the long run. Act of War forces you to venture out and take the fight to the enemy in order to win. A good selection of maps is provided for skirmish use, although these are not quite as cool as the ones found in the single-player missions.

Act of War: Direct Action is an impressive game to look at. Not only are the maps richly detailed, but there are a lot of little graphical touches which help set this game apart from its peers. Zoom in close and you can actually see enemy soldiers lurking in the windows of buildings. Explosions and missile trails are some of the best yet seen in a game of this type. During really intense battles entire sections of a city can be virtually destroyed, leaving mountains of rubble, twisted wreckage, and burning debris behind. When vehicles move around the map they usually take the most direct route, right through fences, hedges, crunching down signs and flattening cars (and even enemy POWs on occasion). But all that detail comes at a price, and gamers with slower computers or sub-par video cards may experience significant performance issues with Act of War. All of this combines to create what is certainly one of the best-looking 3D RTS environments to date.

Act of War plays out in a fully 3D environment with what is rapidly becoming standard RTS-type camera controls. The player can pan around the map and zoom in and out using the mouse and the mouse wheel. One annoying aspect is the inability to tilt the camera up and down like in Dawn of War. While the camera controls get the job done, there are times where the controls simply don't allow the player to get a good angle on the action. And although the player can zoom up virtually on top of an individual unit, it would be nice to be able to zoom out just a bit further in order to take in more of the map. Because of this limitation it can occasionally become a chore to control helicopters or select a unit hidden behind a tall building.

The audio aspect of Act of War is fairly well done. Weapons effects are appropriate and the voice acting during the cut-scenes acceptable, although the acting is bad at times. Sound effects for the units themselves are well done and don't get annoying and repetitive like some other titles. During battle the explosions are meaty, but not overpowering to the point of disrupting the game. You won't really hear anything altogether new or revolutionary in Act of War, however, the sound effects package does a good job of adding to the overall immersion factor of the game and is better than most.