Conflict Zone

Forget about Sun Tzu. The following is now the number one rule of modern warfare: If you�re going to wage a brutal and misery filled war against an enemy nation, make sure you smile for the camera. Yes kids, war is almost as much about looking good as it is about gaining freedom for one's people. That theory is the single interesting feature of Conflict Zone, a strategy game that mixes the standard "horrors of war" theme with the possibility of a media backlash against your best efforts. On paper, it's a good idea that offers a lot of potential for the real time strategy genre. In reality, it's still got a lot a potential. Maybe someone will use this potential to make headlines in a better-executed game the next time around.

In the disturbingly near future, many of the world's richest and most powerful nations have formed a new coalition to protect their interests. Known as the IDP, it has replaced NATO as the premiere multinational group in charge of squishing the unruly enemies of these countries. Of course, not everyone wants to play ball by the IDP's rules. Especially opposed are smaller countries and groups backed by deep pocketed, shadowy corporate types bent on extending their power and wealth. Known as GHOST, this faction opposes all the IDP stands for and wants to see them taken out permanently.

Okay, so the plot has absolutely zero originality, but there's a slight twist in the actual gameplay. Whether you choose to play for the heroic IDP or the dastardly GHOST factions, you'll need to maintain a high approval rating in the eyes of the media to be seen as competent enough for your superiors to keep stocking you with supplies. IDP, being the do-gooders that they are, pride themselves in constantly building refugee camps to protect civilians, which of course, makes them appear to be more humanitarian (keeping loss of life to a minimum is also a plus) and all around generally pleasant people. GHOST on the other hand, isn't quite as concerned about worldwide PR, but wants to use the press for propaganda purposes in its efforts to recruit more people to their side.

Conflict Zone is looks and plays like a number of other real time strategy games. Almost instantly, the camera�s default angle and operation caused fond memories of Sierra's great Ground Control to come to mind. The camera allows you to view the mayhem from just about any angle and at almost any height. Also, like Ground Control, even at the very beginning of a game you can view the entire battlefield without having to physically move your troops. It's good that another RTS maker has acknowledged the fact that military commanders are somewhat knowledgeable of their terrain better the conflict starts. Where the enemy is located is another story, and you'll still need to explore the terrain to find them by building special recon units. In general, CZ�s graphics are functional and show some decent detail, but are unquestionably a tad rough and behind the times. Still, at the near budget shelf price of around $25US, the visuals almost become "attractive".

Leading your pixelated men isn't especially painful most of the time. In addition to good path finding abilities, left alone your squad can dish a fair amount of damage. The AI makes decent use of the strengths of individual units. Tragically, the AI is a bit too slow when it comes to retreating from a losing skirmish. Yes, you can adjust individual squad combat attitudes and assign up to four special commanders to boost your mens' offensive prowess, but expect to do a lot of babysitting of your up to 200 soldiers.

As in all wars, there will be losses on both sides. If the bodies start to pile up due to mismanagement, somebody�s got to take the blame! Unfortunately, (especially with the IDP side) that somebody is you. Since IDP relies on the media to look good enough to earn support for their war effort, minimal losses are essential. I found that the news reporters were screaming about my lack of competence for almost every loss of civilian life and almost as often about the death of my troops. Towards the middle of a campaign, the feeling that you need to be better than MacArthur or Patton to keep the media types off your back becomes very strong. Aside from the occasional slander and the slight slowing down of production, I didn�t quite get the feeling that the press was really all that interesting a factor.

Part of this media problem has to do with your forces insisting on staying tightly clumped together in ill-formed groups. Since you can have up to 200 soldiers (spread across 50+ unit types) on screen at a given time, the constant jumping around the battlefield to make sure your quys aren�t standing about waiting for the next bomb blast to hit is incredibly discouraging. You�d think that the designers would have the media and your superiors understand that, yes, people do in fact get killed in war and be a little bit more balanced in how this affects gameplay. The fact that you get blamed for acts that aren�t directly your fault can drive hot-tempered desktop generals mad.

If there is one thing that keeps the game from being a total waste, it has to be the somewhat less than extremely serious approach the game takes to the combat at hand. A few of the cutscenes show a silly, twisted sense of humor. The news reports are basically overblown parodies of cable news presenters. Meanwhile, the leaders of IDP are self-righteous and over bearing do-gooders, while GHOST leaders tend to be shady types that operate in dark rooms while wearing sunglasses and turtlenecks. If the designers had adopted a more serious tone, like a Talonsoft or most Strategy First games, the AI problems and emphasis on herding neutrals would be much more devastating to Conflict Zone's final score. But, since the game makes half hearted attempts at dry, dark humor that at times fits the frantic onscreen action, the problems aren't as standout as they would be otherwise.

The problems with CZ do cripple the game, but it's not exactly utter rubbish. If only the standout feature of media involvement had been integrated a bit better and the AI were a bit smarter, CZ could've been one of the better RTS games of the year. As it is now, aside from the under utilized media feature, the only reason why it might catch your eye is the cheapo pricing. Compared to what else available today in combat gaming, Conflict Zone is barely newsworthy.

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