World in Conflict: Massive Interview

Find out why the Swedes at Massive Entertainment think this might just be the most successful console strategy game yet.

Page: 1  2  3 

Page 2

Where? Well, Massive is keeping things hush-hush for now, but we do know that Seattle is one of the locations. The world-famous Space Needle is there, but Walfisz is more excited when talking about the Kingdome.

This giant structure was built in the '70s and hosted sports stars and rockers. It was destroyed in 2000, but in the game's timeline it's still there. That gave the team a chance to play with their world a bit more. The fighting comes hard and heavy to the coastal city. Intense and Mayhem are two words used by Cederstrom, who describes the scene as "D-Day in Seattle". Throw in the use of nuclear weapons, and you get the idea.

"One of the philosophies has always been to have these wonderful environments that we're so familiar with from movies and all that and just blow them to pieces so that in the end you're fighting in an ashtray," says Cederstrom with glee.

The presence of nuclear weapons is probably one of the more controversial inclusions in what is already a touchy game, but Massive denies being overly concerned about causing offense.

"The Cold War is history," says Walfisz. "We're presenting a What If scenario. It didn't really happen. It's not as sensitive as it potentially could be." He adds that the team hasn't shied away from doing anything to preempt overly sensitive analysis either.

In an early trailer for World in Conflict, Massive used archival footage of the most prominent players in the Cold War - US president Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, head of the Soviet Communist party. The leaders added that extra sense of plausibility to the trailer, but Massive isn't decided yet on whether it will be relying on archive footage in the game.

"There are some aspects of that that are really good and some aspects that take away from what we want to convey," explains Walfisz. "We want to make sure that this game isn't about Gorbachev and Reagan. This game isn't about the big politicians. This game is about the soldiers on the ground that are fighting the war."

For a game with such a rich and complex backdrop, World in Conflict is surprisingly agile. The developers have deliberately steered clear of some of the staples that hold strategy games back. The nods to previous games in the genre are there, but, as Walfisz explains, there's an element of first-person shooters too.

Take the way resources are handled. In most RTS games, players begin and immediately start to build units and harvest resources. World in Conflict does away with most of that heavy lifting. Instead, the game relies on a fixed pool of credits.

You start with a fixed amount of credits that you can use to buy units, which are then airlifted onto the battlefield within seconds. These units go into battle for you. When they die, you get the credits back, letting you send in more of the same units or perhaps mix up your strategy.

Page: 1  2  3 

NEXT PAGE >>