Act of War: Direct Action review

The game is no walk in the desert even if it looks that way...

Last year will be remembered as the year when Doom III and Half-Life 2 where released. This is not exactly fair as 2004 was an equally golden year for Strategy enthusiasts. First our legs where kicked out under us by Soldiers: Heroes of WWII, then we saw the arrival of the brilliant Rome: Total War and finally we where spoiled by a great game in the Tolkien universe in the shape of LOTR: The Battle for MIddle-Earth.

This leaves a lot on the shoulders of a game like Act of War: Direct Action, especially if it wants to achieve a good ranking in our neck of the woods. Unfortunately we did not start off on the positive side of the scale when this review got underway, since the first thing we look at is the storyline of a game. And that is the least succesful part of this one.

When Americans protect the Queen of England

England sends street officers to fight terrorism...

Our story unfolds in the near future. A series of terrorist attacks stuns the world and it is your task to clean up a bit and get the war criminals in front of a tribunal.

You start off as a Major in the American antiterror corps, who for some unfathomable reason are patrolling the streets of London during a summit meeting. Thus your first mission includes the protection of Buckingham Palace since the Brits themselves have only managed to procure some police officers for the great day.

The storyline is very fragmented and seem to have been put together to fit the different locations. The attempt to support all this with plenty of cutscenes with real actors, is no improvement.

Their performances is so bad that I had to check on numerous occations whether my editor had given me a skin flick from the 80s by mistake. But the lack of a doorknocking pizza delivery boy as well as no explicit nudity convinced that this was not the case. As you progress in the story many of the cutscenes are made by the games graphics engine instead. A great relief.

Tourist attractions as background

Explosions pr. second is at maximum rate...

So let us forget about the story and concentrate on why you after all maybe should not leave Act of War: Direct Action on the shelve at your local gameshop.

The thing most people notice from the screenshots is the level of detail. The game is beatifully made even if we miss the possibility of smashing through a house with a tank, as one could in Heroes: Soldiers of WWII. This, however, does not change the fact that you have a very decent feel of actually being at the various sites the game gives you a tour of.

It suits the game perfectly that you -a few exceptions aside- only have access to units that are actually present in the armies of the world today. This really helps emphasize the feel of fighting in known locations. Especially when compared to Red Alert and the C&C: Generals games

The Generals Gameplay

We lack the possibility of smashing our tanks through these buildings.

There is the flipside to that coin. The gameplay is more or less copied from the very same C&C: Generals. You can simply build a massive army and drive at your enemies. Your missions are often controlled by a certain sequence of events and the possibilities of deciding how best to solve a problem are not particularly present.

This is worsened by the physics of each level, as there is no support for the destruction of obstacles and troops often have great difficulty in negotiating a forest. Hence, if you get off on stragtegic elements, Act of War: Direct Action is not for you.

Fortunately the action part has been made user friendly in more aspects than one. You do not have to produce different units if you want soldiers who can handle mortars, rifles and rocket launchers. All soldiers can be upgraded to handle such things. If only they could think for themselves and know to select their rocket launchers instead of their rifles when I ask them to attack a tank. It gets frustrating to choose for them...

For action fans

The idea of capturing enemies is simply brilliant.

The resources in the game stem from oil wells, but a nice feature is the possibility to capture your foes, who have been pricetagged at 500 dollars a piece. A little extra something in the otherwise traditional action gameplay.

Act of War: Direct Action is an entertaining game, but the best in strategy gaming is represented by the three titles I mentioned initially, and this game is far from that level.

This does not change the fact that strategy fans should have the game in their collection, and should you hunger for a good C&C: Generals clone, look no further. Even if we have noted a few negatives in this review, these are minor flaws, since Act of War is a purebred action game. And it aims no higher.

Source: Boomtown DK
Translated by: William Bjarnø (Dworkin)