I could have gone for a more popular one, but that would be boring, instead, I decided to cover a personal favorite, which also fits the mold of being a quite obscure one.
There are only 2 ways that you know about this game, either like me, you found it when you checked Bohemia Interactive’s (which is now the owner of the rights) publisher page just to see how many DLCs Arma 3 has, or you are Eastern European.
There is only PC version this time, well, apparently there is a mac version, but, who the hell plays games on a mac?
This time, I had 0 issues whatsoever, it was even running better than last time I played, you see, this game has been receiving updates by a dedicated group of fans, since 2005, so its always good to check up on it from time to time.
Apparently, there is multiplayer, but I couldn’t be bothered, there is an official community site and a discord if you are interested on that.
Alright, I have rambled long enough, its an RTS so there is a lot to cover, so let’s get on with it, shall we?
Story & Setting
So, he took it home, as you do.
The artifact, which they named EON, is a time machine, although only capable of sending anything inside it, millions of years back in time, the potential was immense.
Yet, the scientists were left wanting, as during their experiments, the fuel which powered it, had run out, and since they had no idea where to get more, the project was shelved.
That fuel too, was yet another great discovery, a material capable of producing immense amounts of energy, opening the doors that will allow humanity to achieve cold fusion, and all energy problems would be a thing of the past, this material, was named Siberite.
Until another great discovery happened, decades after that is, in which vast deposits of Siberite are found in… Well, Siberia (duh).
Of course, The US didn’t want their rival to have the Siberite, so, a plan was made, to negotiate enough Siberite to fuel an expedition into the past using EON, the objective, was to extract as much Siberite as possible, and move it to Alaska, ensuring that in the future, all will belong to The USA, but its a one way trip, only meant for those with nothing to lose.
Yet, the expedition came across something strange, they found Soviet soldiers waiting for them, Soviets from a different timeline in which the mission succeeded, in that timeline, the Soviets found traces of the American intervention, so the party ordered an expedition back in time using TAWAR (their version of EON), to stop the Americans and keep the “Alaskite” in Mother Russia.
But, wait, there is more, another faction followed the Americans back in time, the Arab Sheikhs and their German mercenaries infiltrated the base and used EON, their objective, to destroy Siberite and move as much oil as possible to the Middle East.
World War 0 had just begun.
Presentation
The game is a 2D strategy game, which uses axonometric projection to give depth to buildings and vehicles.
Each faction has their own unique look, you can easily tell at a glance to which faction a vehicle, a building, and a character belongs to.
With the Americans having a slick military style, the Soviets with a more industrial look, and the Arabs with a more raw and primal look.
The same goes for vehicles, with Americans having more modern looking ones, Soviets liking thicc bulky boys, and Arabs using mostly trikes and half-tracks.
The Arabs don’t have an official campaign, so you won’t be seeing screenshots from them.
Each faction has their own unique look, you can easily tell at a glance to which faction a vehicle, a building, and a character belongs to.
With the Americans having a slick military style, the Soviets with a more industrial look, and the Arabs with a more raw and primal look.
The same goes for vehicles, with Americans having more modern looking ones, Soviets liking thicc bulky boys, and Arabs using mostly trikes and half-tracks.
The Arabs don’t have an official campaign, so you won’t be seeing screenshots from them.
The game goes out of its way to add a lot of details to the vehicles, allowing you to tell at a glance what they are equipped with, the same goes for defensive turrets, and building upgrades and attachments.
Its the same for buildings, with the game having a lot of animations to show you that they are operating, and a lot of sprites to tell you what kind of building and upgrades it has.
The same goes for UI, with the American being more modern, and the Soviet being more Industrial.
Its the same for buildings, with the game having a lot of animations to show you that they are operating, and a lot of sprites to tell you what kind of building and upgrades it has.
The same goes for UI, with the American being more modern, and the Soviet being more Industrial.
Each campaign has their protagonist, in the American Campaign you will be playing as John Macmillan, in the Russian Campaign you will be playing as Yuri Ivanovich Gorky (Everyone calls him Burlak). Their sprites will always standout for you to know where they are, even while they are inside a building or a vehicle.
As for cutscenes, the in-engine cutscenes will just be you seeing the portrait of the person talking (with some lip movement) in the top left corner, sometimes the UI will be hidden creating a pillarbox effect, and sometimes you get to see battles.
Then the actual cutscenes, for each campaign there is a different style, in The American one, you get Macmillan narrating as you see his sketches in his journal being drawn as he talks, in The Russian one, you see propaganda from Burlak’s perspective, in a retro sci-fi style of computer, which is hard on the eyes.
As for cutscenes, the in-engine cutscenes will just be you seeing the portrait of the person talking (with some lip movement) in the top left corner, sometimes the UI will be hidden creating a pillarbox effect, and sometimes you get to see battles.
Then the actual cutscenes, for each campaign there is a different style, in The American one, you get Macmillan narrating as you see his sketches in his journal being drawn as he talks, in The Russian one, you see propaganda from Burlak’s perspective, in a retro sci-fi style of computer, which is hard on the eyes.
In-engine.
Cutscenes
Each faction has their own music themes, which pretty much embody them to a T, what you will be hearing most, will be the general music for quiet moments, and the battle music when things get interesting, sometimes the victory music which lasts like a minute.
The game relies a lot on sound cues, with many gameplay related aspects having their own specific sound, or voice line, the music never gets in the way of the sound cues.
Sound design is quite good, each weapon has its own unique sound that quickly lets you know what is being fired, allowing you to respond accordingly, as well as certain cues being so unique they are unmissable.
The game has multiple dubs, so I played with the English one, its ok nothing special, there are some voice lines with questionable delivery, but this isn’t “what a mansion!” Levels of bad, the bad Russian and German accents did stick out like a sore thumb.
Some characters have unique voice lines, there are also A LOT of context specific lines (including idle lines), as well as a lot of lines pertaining to gameplay, they too are a valuable source of information.
You can even do some scouting in the fog of war, solely by listening to the sounds of vehicle engines, by the end of my playthrough, I became pretty good at telling how heavy the vehicle was solely by sound.
The game rewards the attentive player, who both listens and pays attention, just being focused can give you an edge over your enemies.
The game relies a lot on sound cues, with many gameplay related aspects having their own specific sound, or voice line, the music never gets in the way of the sound cues.
Sound design is quite good, each weapon has its own unique sound that quickly lets you know what is being fired, allowing you to respond accordingly, as well as certain cues being so unique they are unmissable.
The game has multiple dubs, so I played with the English one, its ok nothing special, there are some voice lines with questionable delivery, but this isn’t “what a mansion!” Levels of bad, the bad Russian and German accents did stick out like a sore thumb.
Some characters have unique voice lines, there are also A LOT of context specific lines (including idle lines), as well as a lot of lines pertaining to gameplay, they too are a valuable source of information.
You can even do some scouting in the fog of war, solely by listening to the sounds of vehicle engines, by the end of my playthrough, I became pretty good at telling how heavy the vehicle was solely by sound.
The game rewards the attentive player, who both listens and pays attention, just being focused can give you an edge over your enemies.
Mechanics
Oh baby does this game got em.
First, the usual things, Line of Sight and Fog of War, if you have played a strategy game in your life you know them.
Then there is the resources, in this game there are only 3 of them, Crates, Oil, and Siberite/Alaskite.
Crates are materials sent from the future to assist the different armies, thing is, they spawn either randomly or in specific areas (varies by mission) forcing everyone involved to compete and take risks to get them, every building and vehicle requires crates, so chop chop, you can also destroy them if you don’t think you can collect them.
Oil and Siberite/Alaskite are found in deposits, which only your scientists can find, do keep in mind that in order to find the latter, you need a specific technology.
Most bases will be made around Oil and/or Siberite/Alaskite deposits, crates are where the risk is.
Oil is for vehicles and generators, Siberite/Alaskite is for the cool technologies, the best generators, and late game vehicles.
Some buildings require power, as without it they can’t work, and if they don’t get enough, they work very slow, so generators are a must.
Turrets without power are useless, so remember to guard your generators, and destroy enemy generators if you get the chance.
Your most important asset is people, each character has 4 different skills, each tied to a class, soldier, engineer, mechanic, and scientist.
Obviously, the higher the skill the better they are at it, and, not only that, their skills get better from mission to mission, giving you extremely useful characters later in the campaign.
Lets quickly cover each skill and class together.
Soldier is what you would expect, their only special skill is crawling which makes them take less damage, but move slower, each faction has an upgrade for the soldier, Americans get snipers, Russians get bazookas, Arabs get mortars, all of them are tied to the soldier skill as well. This skill also applies if they are inside manual turrets.
Engineering, is how quickly they build, but it also adds to better quality building, the higher level the engineer who built it is, the more defense the building has (a better engineer can upgrade buildings to their level), engineers are the only ones who can build, collect crates, and transport resources.
Mechanics, better mechanics repair faster and do more damage while on vehicles, they also build vehicles, and weapons for turrets, the mechanic skill is also tied with who quick they work in the factory/workshop.
Scientists, they heal other characters, and do research, they can also find deposits, and tame apemen.
First, the usual things, Line of Sight and Fog of War, if you have played a strategy game in your life you know them.
Then there is the resources, in this game there are only 3 of them, Crates, Oil, and Siberite/Alaskite.
Crates are materials sent from the future to assist the different armies, thing is, they spawn either randomly or in specific areas (varies by mission) forcing everyone involved to compete and take risks to get them, every building and vehicle requires crates, so chop chop, you can also destroy them if you don’t think you can collect them.
Oil and Siberite/Alaskite are found in deposits, which only your scientists can find, do keep in mind that in order to find the latter, you need a specific technology.
Most bases will be made around Oil and/or Siberite/Alaskite deposits, crates are where the risk is.
Oil is for vehicles and generators, Siberite/Alaskite is for the cool technologies, the best generators, and late game vehicles.
Some buildings require power, as without it they can’t work, and if they don’t get enough, they work very slow, so generators are a must.
Turrets without power are useless, so remember to guard your generators, and destroy enemy generators if you get the chance.
Your most important asset is people, each character has 4 different skills, each tied to a class, soldier, engineer, mechanic, and scientist.
Obviously, the higher the skill the better they are at it, and, not only that, their skills get better from mission to mission, giving you extremely useful characters later in the campaign.
Lets quickly cover each skill and class together.
Soldier is what you would expect, their only special skill is crawling which makes them take less damage, but move slower, each faction has an upgrade for the soldier, Americans get snipers, Russians get bazookas, Arabs get mortars, all of them are tied to the soldier skill as well. This skill also applies if they are inside manual turrets.
Engineering, is how quickly they build, but it also adds to better quality building, the higher level the engineer who built it is, the more defense the building has (a better engineer can upgrade buildings to their level), engineers are the only ones who can build, collect crates, and transport resources.
Mechanics, better mechanics repair faster and do more damage while on vehicles, they also build vehicles, and weapons for turrets, the mechanic skill is also tied with who quick they work in the factory/workshop.
Scientists, they heal other characters, and do research, they can also find deposits, and tame apemen.
At the end of each mission, you can choose which skill you want them to earn more points on, and characters will tell you they have leveled up during the mission.
Characters can change class in some specific pre-mission screens, and by going to the appropriate building and just giving them the command to switch. There are times in which you will be prompted to make a team as well.
Now, there is apemen, they are early humans from the era, which “volunteer” to the armies, you can only use them as either engineers (they can’t start a building, but, they can assist in construction, repair, and move materials), and soldiers, they aren’t as good as your characters, but they are *ahem* acceptable casualties. All you need is to look for them in the map, and tame them with a scientist (requires a technology), they can attack you so be careful, gunfire and vehicles scare them (when they are wild).
Then there is Computer vehicles, and Automatic turrets, although they aren’t as good as the ones that are manned, they serve the purpose of freeing areas so you can get your specialists on other more important tasks. Arabs don’t use computers, instead they hardwire apemen into cars.
Manpower is the most valuable resource in Original War.
Characters have important moments as the campaign goes, and, if they die, you won’t get to see those moments, it can be funny lines, or some extra characterization, but it can also be related to a strategic advantage, so be sure to keep everyone alive.
Let’s talk about vehicles, in this game, they are fully modular, you get to pick the chassis, the weapon, what kind of engine, and what kind of driver.
Characters can change class in some specific pre-mission screens, and by going to the appropriate building and just giving them the command to switch. There are times in which you will be prompted to make a team as well.
Now, there is apemen, they are early humans from the era, which “volunteer” to the armies, you can only use them as either engineers (they can’t start a building, but, they can assist in construction, repair, and move materials), and soldiers, they aren’t as good as your characters, but they are *ahem* acceptable casualties. All you need is to look for them in the map, and tame them with a scientist (requires a technology), they can attack you so be careful, gunfire and vehicles scare them (when they are wild).
Then there is Computer vehicles, and Automatic turrets, although they aren’t as good as the ones that are manned, they serve the purpose of freeing areas so you can get your specialists on other more important tasks. Arabs don’t use computers, instead they hardwire apemen into cars.
Manpower is the most valuable resource in Original War.
Characters have important moments as the campaign goes, and, if they die, you won’t get to see those moments, it can be funny lines, or some extra characterization, but it can also be related to a strategic advantage, so be sure to keep everyone alive.
Let’s talk about vehicles, in this game, they are fully modular, you get to pick the chassis, the weapon, what kind of engine, and what kind of driver.
Rule of thumb for chassis is, heavier is slow but tanky, lighter is fast but squishy, wheels are faster but less versatile, tracks are slower but can cross most terrain. Bear in mind, the heaviest weapons require a heavy chassis.
For weapons, each one has a specific use case, gatlings kill humans faster, guns and heavy guns are for building and vehicles, lasers (Americans only) are good against vehicles and nothing else, rockets have a lot of range but they can be evaded, so on and so forth. There is support equipment, like radar, cargo bay (to transport crates and materials), crane for building, and a bulldozer to clear terrain.
Engine, there is solar which only requires the vehicle to stay still to recharge, but heavy vehicles can’t have it (and its only available to the Americans and Arabs), then there is Oil, which is loud and requires the vehicle to refuel from time to time (only mechanics can push vehicles), and Siberite/Alaskite which allows the vehicle to move forever no problem, but it can be detected with some technologies.
Finally, driver, manual is human driver which depends on their mechanic skill, computer which is bad but gets the job done, and remote (only for Americans and Arabs) which lets a mechanic control it from afar, but the more vehicles a single mechanic controls the worse they control all of them.
What you can build at a factory, depends on what kind of extensions it has built around it, without a weaponry extension you don’t get the heavy weapons, without tracked extension no tracked vehicles, so on and so forth.
Its the same for labs, when you want to research a specific tech, you must add that lab upgrade first, most of the time you will end with 2 labs, as there are 4 special topics to research for every faction.
For weapons, each one has a specific use case, gatlings kill humans faster, guns and heavy guns are for building and vehicles, lasers (Americans only) are good against vehicles and nothing else, rockets have a lot of range but they can be evaded, so on and so forth. There is support equipment, like radar, cargo bay (to transport crates and materials), crane for building, and a bulldozer to clear terrain.
Engine, there is solar which only requires the vehicle to stay still to recharge, but heavy vehicles can’t have it (and its only available to the Americans and Arabs), then there is Oil, which is loud and requires the vehicle to refuel from time to time (only mechanics can push vehicles), and Siberite/Alaskite which allows the vehicle to move forever no problem, but it can be detected with some technologies.
Finally, driver, manual is human driver which depends on their mechanic skill, computer which is bad but gets the job done, and remote (only for Americans and Arabs) which lets a mechanic control it from afar, but the more vehicles a single mechanic controls the worse they control all of them.
What you can build at a factory, depends on what kind of extensions it has built around it, without a weaponry extension you don’t get the heavy weapons, without tracked extension no tracked vehicles, so on and so forth.
Its the same for labs, when you want to research a specific tech, you must add that lab upgrade first, most of the time you will end with 2 labs, as there are 4 special topics to research for every faction.
Then there is technologies, each side has some generic technologies, but as the campaign progresses, they develop the fun stuff.
The Americans are very versatile, The Russians are very specialized, and The Arabs are jack of all trades master of none.
The Americans get a lot of toys to deal with specific cases, but they are better at countering what the enemy is doing.
The Russians are better on fully committing on both attack and defense, so they are better in initiative.
For technologies, they both get ways to find crates, but in slightly different ways, they both get Siberite/Alaskite generic research, automatic turrets, AI driven cars, and some shared weaponry.
But, the special tech is where the fun is, Americans get lasers, remote control, radar, morphing vehicles, and a lot of cool modern tech.
The Russians, get bigger weapons, and time and space manipulation, they can slow down time in specific areas, and they can teleport units around the map, either as an emergency or using an honest to god Stargate, they also get the super heavy Behemoth tank.
Finally, there is a cool little addition, you can capture enemy buildings and vehicles.
When you capture enemy buildings, you get access to their tech tree, but you have to use their buildings to get it and use it, this also counts with units, as sometimes you can get units from other factions, and when they build, they build the buildings from their faction.
For vehicles, when a vehicle is damaged enough, it becomes nonoperational (its the same with buildings), if they have someone inside they must bail, then you can go repair the vehicle and have it for yourself.
You can’t capture remote control vehicles, nor computer vehicles (Russian scientists can hack them however).
Engineers capture buildings, all they need is for the building to be empty, and for a depo to be in range.
A depo is the town center, if its knocked down or captured (if there is no one inside), all buildings in the base become nonoperational, but whoever is inside those buildings stays there.
Do keep in mind, that resources are not global, they are for the depo, so if you want to build say a FOB, you need to bring materials with you to properly make it, there are missions in which ferrying resources across the map is critical.
What you do in the campaign has consequences, some are even tied to extra objectives for you to earn good boy medals at the end of the mission, killing an enemy early and avoid having to fight them later, be nice to someone and they might return the favor, always think before you commit.
The Americans are very versatile, The Russians are very specialized, and The Arabs are jack of all trades master of none.
The Americans get a lot of toys to deal with specific cases, but they are better at countering what the enemy is doing.
The Russians are better on fully committing on both attack and defense, so they are better in initiative.
For technologies, they both get ways to find crates, but in slightly different ways, they both get Siberite/Alaskite generic research, automatic turrets, AI driven cars, and some shared weaponry.
But, the special tech is where the fun is, Americans get lasers, remote control, radar, morphing vehicles, and a lot of cool modern tech.
The Russians, get bigger weapons, and time and space manipulation, they can slow down time in specific areas, and they can teleport units around the map, either as an emergency or using an honest to god Stargate, they also get the super heavy Behemoth tank.
Finally, there is a cool little addition, you can capture enemy buildings and vehicles.
When you capture enemy buildings, you get access to their tech tree, but you have to use their buildings to get it and use it, this also counts with units, as sometimes you can get units from other factions, and when they build, they build the buildings from their faction.
For vehicles, when a vehicle is damaged enough, it becomes nonoperational (its the same with buildings), if they have someone inside they must bail, then you can go repair the vehicle and have it for yourself.
You can’t capture remote control vehicles, nor computer vehicles (Russian scientists can hack them however).
Engineers capture buildings, all they need is for the building to be empty, and for a depo to be in range.
A depo is the town center, if its knocked down or captured (if there is no one inside), all buildings in the base become nonoperational, but whoever is inside those buildings stays there.
Do keep in mind, that resources are not global, they are for the depo, so if you want to build say a FOB, you need to bring materials with you to properly make it, there are missions in which ferrying resources across the map is critical.
What you do in the campaign has consequences, some are even tied to extra objectives for you to earn good boy medals at the end of the mission, killing an enemy early and avoid having to fight them later, be nice to someone and they might return the favor, always think before you commit.
Final Thoughts
You still with me? My longest review so far, huh.A bit long, but I wanted to be as thorough as I could, as its a strategy game.
This game was made in 2001, and the amount of stuff it has is very impressive, there is so much depth to the mechanics which seem deceptively simple at first glance.
If I were to criticize it, well, I don’t like The Russian Campaign, it has some of the worst maps in the game, as well as the most tedious objectives, and it takes a long time for it to actually get good, and for you to play around with the cool tech.
The American Campaign on the other hand, suffers from the fact that for the most part, its an extended tutorial for the many mechanics in the game, as well as being the actual introduction to the story.
Characters wise, The American Campaign has a lot of memorable characters with tons of unique lines and funny moments, in the Russian Campaign however… The only constant is that your commanders are assholes, and most characters (including Burlak) barely get any moment of characterization, so its difficult to actually care, the only fun thing is when you get to pick Masha (Burlak’s personal tank).
The most fun moments relate to rivalries between commanders, or when you get to fight the protagonist and commanders of the other campaign.
There are a lot of pop culture and historical references in mission names, and a lot of small details like seeing your progress in the world map between missions, and the ability to create new timelines when you start new missions from the menu.
The award for finishing the mission with no loading is nonsense tho, specially with how long missions can be, thankfully you can freely increase and decrease game speed.
Each campaign has 15 missions, plus an added 4 if you choose to abandon your side and join The Alliance (a splinter group of both Americans and Russians working together), problem comes from having very little motivation to do so, besides just wanting to see it, and with the missions having little change besides 1 mission, and half of another (as you can do it in both the American and Russian campaigns).
This game was made in 2001, and the amount of stuff it has is very impressive, there is so much depth to the mechanics which seem deceptively simple at first glance.
If I were to criticize it, well, I don’t like The Russian Campaign, it has some of the worst maps in the game, as well as the most tedious objectives, and it takes a long time for it to actually get good, and for you to play around with the cool tech.
The American Campaign on the other hand, suffers from the fact that for the most part, its an extended tutorial for the many mechanics in the game, as well as being the actual introduction to the story.
Characters wise, The American Campaign has a lot of memorable characters with tons of unique lines and funny moments, in the Russian Campaign however… The only constant is that your commanders are assholes, and most characters (including Burlak) barely get any moment of characterization, so its difficult to actually care, the only fun thing is when you get to pick Masha (Burlak’s personal tank).
The most fun moments relate to rivalries between commanders, or when you get to fight the protagonist and commanders of the other campaign.
There are a lot of pop culture and historical references in mission names, and a lot of small details like seeing your progress in the world map between missions, and the ability to create new timelines when you start new missions from the menu.
The award for finishing the mission with no loading is nonsense tho, specially with how long missions can be, thankfully you can freely increase and decrease game speed.
Each campaign has 15 missions, plus an added 4 if you choose to abandon your side and join The Alliance (a splinter group of both Americans and Russians working together), problem comes from having very little motivation to do so, besides just wanting to see it, and with the missions having little change besides 1 mission, and half of another (as you can do it in both the American and Russian campaigns).
By the way, the game has its own Steam Workshop, and has a quite active modding scene, it has also become quite easy to mod, you can even play the fan made Arab campaign mods if you wish.
All in all, I hope this somewhat long review managed to catch your interest on a very quirky game which although has some problems, has a lot of heart in the right areas.
According to wikipedia, its loosely based on the book The Last Day of Creation by Wolgang Jeschke… I haven’t read it, so here you go, some nice trivia to end the review on.
Pros
- + Very In-Depth Mechanics.
- + Amazing Sound Design.
- + Perfect Blend of some RPG Mechanics with RTS.
- + Very Creative Gameplay Ideas and Setting.
Cons
- - Some Very Tedious Missions.
- - Steep Difficulty Spike If You Aren't Prepared.
- - Takes Too Long In The Campaign To Get Access to the Fun Technologies.
8
Gameplay
If it wasn't for some very tedious missions (mostly on the Russian side), it would be an easy 10, it has a really cool modular vehicle system, and the way it makes you care about your units is genius.
10
Graphics
It looks really good, even so many years later, the attention to detail is marvelous, and the amount of information you can get at a glance truly improves the experience.
7
Story
Its pretty much your standard Red vs Blue, with Yellow sometimes in there, I did find the setting very cool, and with lots of potential, its a shame there is no sequel.
9
Sound
The music doesn't get in the way, and the amazing sound design enhances the experience for the attentive player, but the voice acting can be a bit hit or miss.
7
Replayability
Easily moddable, enough said, not a 10 cause unless you wanna get all the medals and see what your decisions do in later levels, there isn't much else, The Alliance although fun, its more of the same.
8.5
out of 10
Overall
Original War is a very fun game, with a very fun concept and refreshing mechanics, if you are a fan of the RTS genre, you owe it to yourself to try it out. There is a lot of attention to detail, on both the visuals and the sound departments, which rewards you for paying attention and being observant. It makes you care about your units, and can even have the XCOM effect of wanting to save scum to save your favorite unit. The access to Steam Workshop, and a thriving modding scene gives you tons of extra content to play around with. This game is only hampered by the baffling design decisions on some of the missions in the Russian Campaign.
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