It does exactly what it says on the box. Green is good.If Altar Interactive are to be believed, the key to penetrating thelayer of detritus floating on the surface of the real-time strategygenre is to splice in some role-playing elements; like experiencepoints, character development and a decent story.
The aptly namedOriginal War sets itself up in Siberia, where a time travel devicehas been uncovered that sends anything it comes into contact withtwo million years into the past.The machine is powered by Siberite, a rare element discovered onlyin the neighbouring area of Russia. The Russian government isn'thappy about all this, and doesn't like the idea of Americansexploiting their resources. In an inventive twist, it becomes yourjob to hop two million years into the past and excavate Siberitedeposits, leaving them neatly stacked in Alaska, which was ofcourse just around the corner in those days.It gets better, and the game is delightfully non-linear,encouraging you to write your own ticket.
Original War is a Czech Real-Time Strategy game that was released in 2001 as a budget title. It is noted for including RPG Elements, a resource system built. This Chinese treatise on war was written by Sun Tzu in the 6th century B.C. Each one of the 13 chapters is devoted to a different aspect of warfare, making it the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time.
The difficulty of futuremissions and the choices to be made in them depend on your actionsin the present, and there are plenty of different ways to completethe various missions, with the story traced in the sand by somehammy voice acting and amusing characters in your unit.Nurtured Something fishy's going onReal time strategy games aren't generally known for the rovingnature of their missions, but Original War is all about keeping onthe move, directing units according to your orders (which mayconflict with one another, requiring a bit of planning on yourpart). There's no base unit, no tank-rushing, no boringbuild-rush-build-rush cycle and all the other things that plaguedthe likes of Red Alert.
In fact you can't actually mass-produceanything, least of all troops. Instead you have to put up with yourpre-determined units.Although it shies away from a lot of real-time strategy traditionsthe fog of war still exists, but you need to be careful how youdeal with it. The usual trick of dispatching a jeep out into theblack is unrealistic here; it would just end up getting shot topieces by the first patrol it meets and leaving you none the wiser.The trick is to marshal your efforts conservatively. Space yourtroops out, but never abandon them, and don't leave people on theirown.Before you set off into the unknown though, troops have to betrained as a soldier, a mechanic, an engineer or a scientist. Manyof these skills will be required regularly, and like role-playinggame characters your men develop experience in their work, andbecome more and more valuable as they work or fight. At theconclusion of each mission you can upgrade the attributes of thevarious troops in your unit and train them in new disciplines. Forexample, as your mechanics peak in prowess you can teach them todrive a tank.
Vehicles are pretty powerful on the whole, andvirtually every one can be customized to improve its weaponry,speed, power source, chassis and more. You can also opt to changeyour men's discipline mid-mission - quite useful if you're underattack and your scientists are loitering near the armouryMore good Whomp!As you can probably tell, Original War's biggest virtue is that ittries to endear you to your units. It doesn't give you a pack ofdisposable troops and a wad of cash to reinforce them over andover, but instead offers you a number of men with different skillsand asks you to manipulate them.When you take the level of customization and non-linearity intoaccount, you've got the prospect of a pretty exciting strategyromp. Structures are rare but don't fall easily, troops andvehicles are often extremely individual, and I haven't played asingle level of the game involving a group of tanks speedingfuriously into the enemy stronghold with a minute gone. It's.original.Obviously all this pleasure has to come at a price though, andOriginal War is marred by a number of small problems.
I haven'tmentioned the visuals up to now, because by and large they areneither remarkable or terrible, but there are gaps. For instance,troops don't run. I'm sure their combat gear is probably quiteheavy, but why not have them throw it down and shed a number ofexperience points if a tank is bearing down on them, instead ofwalking very, very slowly in the opposite direction.Finishing Touches I'll have a couple of them, thenAnother problem is the artificial intelligence. I know you'regroaning at the thought of yet another strategy game with dodgy AI,but there's no escaping it. For the most part there's nothing toworry about and the troops all wander around and help one anotherout, but in the thick of battle there seem to be invisiblerange-limiters at work, with troops ignoring the warning signs offallen comrades and standing around catching their breath for a fewseconds before hot-footing it towards the nearest tank momentslater armed only with a bayonet.
A little common sense might havebeen useful. Lassoing troops away from danger should be the leastof your worries when you're under attack.Of course, you might not expect this sort of thing from theaverage real-time strategy game, but Original War is a game thatencourages thought and stimulates the grey matter from time totime.
The troops natter away with one another, complaining aboutthe weather and hard going, and the stereotypical love-of-warcharacter who spurs them on sounds like a mixture of virtuallyevery Arnold Schwarzenegger character you have ever seen. Thisisn't a game that should suffer from dumb-soldier syndrome.Ultimately though, it would be unfair to neglect Original Warbecause of these minor niggles. Okay, so the voice acting is a bitdaft and the artificial intelligence has 'issues', but there is somuch here that deserves to be enjoyed. For crying out loud, it's areal time strategy game that innovates. Open ye wallet, sir, andavail yourself of £30.