World in Conflict [PC]

Multiplayer World in Conflict plays out more like a game of Counter-Strike than Command & Conquer. The game is designed to be supremely dependent on teamwork. At the beginning of a multiplayer match, players have the opportunity to select a "class" (Air, Armor, Infantry or Support) which makes purchasing units outside that specialty prohibitively expensive. Combined with a small pool of resource points and the large maps, this means that any one player will be unable to field a force capable of standing on its own. If an "Armor" player, for example, wants to capture a "victory point" on the map by moving heavy tanks into the area, he or she may be immediately thwarted by an "Air" player with a squad of helicopters. These can then be taken down by anti-air guns wielded by the "Support" player.

Victorious teams are those that coordinate their armies to take advantage of holes in their enemy's force composition and adjusting on the fly to changing victory conditions, and when a team is really clicking, it's the kind of exhilarating team-based experience that multiplayer gaming is all about. Of course, that does mean that a player's online experience is dependent on the quality of the players they hook up with. Lone wolves are not welcome in World in Conflict, and a random group of strangers will usually get rolled by any of the clans who play together frequently.

Massgate, the game's proprietary online matching service, sports a well-designed front end that includes friends lists, clan support, IM services, a solid voice chat system, excellent stat-tracking, tournament ladders, clan matches and a fun series of individual and clan "achievement" medals that can be earned by performing well in multiplayer games. Unfortunately the service experienced a few hiccups during our multiplayer testing. While not a frequent occurrence, there were at least a few occasions where the game unceremoniously kicked us out of a multiplayer game. Since stats don't seem to be affected by random disconnects or quitting, there wasn't any real harm done, but this is something that Massive will need to look at in the days ahead.

World in Conflict is a triumph for Massive Entertainment. The developers have managed to take a quirky "action game" take on the real-time strategy genre and wrap it in an instantly appealing, accessible and highly polished package. Everything from the game's beautiful graphics to the great story and especially the adrenaline-fueled mayhem of online multiplayer matches make this a must-have for the strategy game set and a serious purchase consideration even for those who never thought of themselves as strategy gamers. Pozdravlyayu i Uspekhov, Massive. Your game is yzumitelno!

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