It's hard to believe that in 2005, someone somewhere had the audacity to make a real-time strategy game stuffed with live action cutscenes. It's even harder to believe that it works. Yet with Act of War: Direct Action, Atari and developer Eugen Systems have managed to turn convention on its head. Here's a real-time strategy game with the soul of a sleek techno-thriller, stitched together with live action footage that, despite the acting and budgetary limitations, will remind you of the riveting television drama 24 at times. And if that weren't enough, it's also a visually splendid, exciting, and well-paced game, to boot.
The last time anyone attempted anything quite like Act of War was 2000's Command & Conquer Red Alert 2. But where Red Alert 2 played entirely for camp, Act of War goes for grit. The game feels very much like a Tom Clancy-penned techno-thriller. Or, to be more exact, a Dale Brown techno-thriller, as Brown, a best-selling author, worked with the French team at Eugen to create a story about a looming energy crisis (Americans pay $7 for a gallon of gas) and how an international criminal conspiracy is perpetuating it. Act of War's opening introductory movie, cleverly placed so you watch it during the lengthy installation process, lays the groundwork, but the fun starts in the game's opening missions, where you'll discover that you're in for something more than the usual real-time strategy experience.
In Act of War, you assume the role of Major Jason Richter, the commander of Task Force Talon, an elite direct action force equipped with state-of-art weaponry and tasked with conducting the toughest jobs. From the get-go, your team will assault a terrorist training camp in the desert, and then battle around London in a running gunfight that shows off the game's excellent urban settings. Blended in the opening levels are a mix of live action, computer-generated, and in-engine cutscenes that enhance what's onscreen. While the acting isn't on par with what is found in motion pictures or television (it's also downright bad at times), the live action scenes are impressive, especially since we've rarely seen anything of this scale in gaming. For example, one of the highlights is watching a street protest erupt into a gun battle, with commandos and bodyguards taking fire from behind armored limousines. There are very little blue-screen effects in that scene, as most of it was shot outside with a large number of actors and extras.
There's so much live action footage at the beginning of the game that you get the feeling that you're taking part in an interactive movie. However, after the opening levels, the game segues into a more conventional real-time strategy game along the lines of Command & Conquer. There are three factions: the US Army, Task Force Talon, and the Consortium, the evil conspiracy in the game. Thankfully, there is no contrived plot device where you play as each of the three factions, so you don't get to play as the Consortium in single-player, though it is playable in skirmish and multiplayer. As expected, each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Army packs a lot of firepower, but it requires an extensive amount of base-building to unlock the most potent weapons; Task Force Talon is a lot more versatile and mobile, but its high-tech equipment is expensive; and the Consortium can churn out lots of low-level units relatively cheaply. While the three factions are fairly diverse, there are still some clearly equivalent units on each side. And, if anything, the US Army and Task Force Talon are fairly interchangeable, since both belong to the same side.
In terms of gameplay, Act of War doesn't really do much that is notably new, but it does everything remarkably well. This is a real-time strategy game that has a great balance between resource-gathering and combat, and it never feels like one outweighs the other, like it tends to in so many other RTS games. And part of the reason for this balance is because the only resource in the game--money--can be generated in so many ways. You can build an oil derrick and refinery to harvest oil, but you can also capture prisoners, which grants a bounty. Not only that, but holding prisoners also generates cash over time, so it's worth your while to capture and hold as many prisoners as possible. Finally, since many of the game's battles take place in urban settings, such as London and Washington DC, there are banks and treasury buildings that your infantry can seize to generate cash. This aspect is particularly important, because it will force you to venture out to seize and defend these buildings early on in a mission, bringing you into contact with the enemy quickly.
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