Order of War is something of an oddity to me when it comes to world war two realt time strategy games. It was made by Square Enix which is why it surprised me when it turned out the game was good as I know they can do fantasy RPGs with a bunch of metrosexual men so understand why I was skeptic when buying a down and dirty war game. This game can perhaps best be described as World in Conflict with a ww2 theme and a larger scale. Let me explain.
On one hand it controls just like World in Conflict in that you manage squads of soldiers and tanks and you have to capture certain points on the map. Reinforcing is also similar except that your soldiers are driven in by trucks instead of dropped out of airplanes (unless they're paratroopers of course). Calling in airstrikes feels exactly the same as it did in WiC.
Now here is something I really liked, the larger scale of the battles. Now instead of losing maybe 30 tanks in a battle you can lose hundreds. This larger scale really helps make the game feel realistic to the major battles of the second world war. It also helps that to accomidate the increased scale of the units that the maps are larger as well.
One of the best things I found about the game was the german campaign. So many games feature the germans as baby eating nazi monsters so it feels great where you play as them looking like what they were in real life which is to say ordinary human beings.
The cutscenes are really quite interesting, a blend of footage of the war mixed with computer graphics telling the stats of weapons and forces. To be honest it reminds me of Call of Duty Wolrd at War only a tad more descriptive on the weapons stats. The graphics in game are amazingly well done and if you turn on the cinematic camera it really does feel like watching the actual war play out in front of you.
For flaws I noticed the fire effects to be a small bit glitchy at times, leaving them at a rotating block of a few fire colored pixels. Also the accuracy of stationary tanks leaves a lot to be desired.
On an interesting note there is an upgrade system (this coming from an RPG company it's to be expected) though I never really noticed a difference in effectiveness between my units in one battle and my units in the next.
Overall I have to say I'm impressed by the game as even if it sometimes feels like a total conversion for World in Conflict it's so well done that it's no wonder it's a retail product. If you are a fan of the second world war or World in Conflict by all means buy it. Fortunately there is also a demo available on Steam though I feel it isn't as good as it should've been.
On one hand it controls just like World in Conflict in that you manage squads of soldiers and tanks and you have to capture certain points on the map. Reinforcing is also similar except that your soldiers are driven in by trucks instead of dropped out of airplanes (unless they're paratroopers of course). Calling in airstrikes feels exactly the same as it did in WiC.
Now here is something I really liked, the larger scale of the battles. Now instead of losing maybe 30 tanks in a battle you can lose hundreds. This larger scale really helps make the game feel realistic to the major battles of the second world war. It also helps that to accomidate the increased scale of the units that the maps are larger as well.
One of the best things I found about the game was the german campaign. So many games feature the germans as baby eating nazi monsters so it feels great where you play as them looking like what they were in real life which is to say ordinary human beings.
The cutscenes are really quite interesting, a blend of footage of the war mixed with computer graphics telling the stats of weapons and forces. To be honest it reminds me of Call of Duty Wolrd at War only a tad more descriptive on the weapons stats. The graphics in game are amazingly well done and if you turn on the cinematic camera it really does feel like watching the actual war play out in front of you.
For flaws I noticed the fire effects to be a small bit glitchy at times, leaving them at a rotating block of a few fire colored pixels. Also the accuracy of stationary tanks leaves a lot to be desired.
On an interesting note there is an upgrade system (this coming from an RPG company it's to be expected) though I never really noticed a difference in effectiveness between my units in one battle and my units in the next.
Overall I have to say I'm impressed by the game as even if it sometimes feels like a total conversion for World in Conflict it's so well done that it's no wonder it's a retail product. If you are a fan of the second world war or World in Conflict by all means buy it. Fortunately there is also a demo available on Steam though I feel it isn't as good as it should've been.
