By: TraderX
With the success of Total Air War, Digital Image
Design's last release, I'm not surprised that their
latest game is as well quite successful. Wargasm is
a highly entertaining and unique game that ties
together elements of Real Time Strategy,
Simulation and Action all in one! You are presented
with the options of controlling various real life
tanks, superbly trained ground troops or the
deadliest attack choppers. It's an action/sim fan's
dreams come true!
I booted up the game and was pleasantly
greeted by an easy to navigate menu system,
complete with little special effects here and there.
To begin the game, I tried out the training. At this
point I was unaware of my options, but it gave me
the choice of training as a tank, soldier or chopper.
Only one word was visible in my head, awesome.
Quickly choosing the tank, the training
commenced. The training missions are actually
useful in learning nearly all of the tactics used in
the game, aside from teaching you the controls
you learn valuable lessons about sniping,
awareness and many other techniques to use in
the game. I thought this was great for people
learning how to play (such as myself) because it
always seems the problem with simulators is that
you know how to control your vehicles, but you
don't know what to do with them. All of the training
missions have full speech, and when a key is
required to be entered, the commander tells you
which key to press.
As I stated in the introduction, Wargasm
is like the perfect blend of Strategy, Simulation and
Action. If you begin the game by choosing "Instant
Action" you play through an action type game
complete with levels, where the objectives are
simply "destroy anything that moves". If you pick
the "War Web", which is the main game, you are
given the options of choosing various campaigns. I
really love the fact that you can customize your
own mini-army for each mission. Tanks, soldiers
and choppers are all available for the taking. In the
same menu you can see how effective your unit will
be compared to the opponents, giving you a sense
of command as if this were a real mission. Once
you have selected a campaign to achieve, the game
starts. The first screen you'll see is an overhead
view of the entire map (complete with land levels)
and different spots to deploy your troops. In this
mode (Map Mode) you are able to control your
units and send them to various spots
simultaneously, it is done all in real time.
Explosions and cannon fire are vaguely visible on
the map, but they are significant enough to tell you
when you need to take over. By taking over, I
mean literally taking control of any unit you desire.
It's excellent, because as soon as you take control
of a unit, it deactivates its Artificial Intelligence and
you are in charge. All the options are available that
are in Instant Action and Training modes. I found
the main game to exciting and fast paced, I raced
through 3 missions in about 45 minutes. But don't
fret, there are approximately 5-8 missions for every
continent in the world. Of course, to continue to
the next mission you must complete the current
one, but the continent (campaign) is entirely your
own choice. So all in all, Wargasm is really a
futuristic war game where you control units either
as a commander or as a fighter. In either mode, the
game is pretty much equally fun, because you are
able to view the action in the beauty of 3D while in
map mode as well.
The artificial intelligence is absolutely
amazing; probably the best I have seen if you
compare Wargasm to games like Uprising and
Battle Zone. They enemies know how to hide
behind trees and mountains, and attempt to shoot
you when you are not facing them from long
distances. I also noticed that shooting your
teammates turns them against you (I learned this
the hard way). Fortunately I was able to make one
of my units shoot the team member attacking me,
and they turned on each other. Although unrelated
genre-wise, this reminded of Quake 2, because you
can perform the similar "turn on each other" move
with the Quake 2 enemies. Another aspect of the
A.I, are the movement paths. Unlike most RTS
games, the units don't choose their own paths.
When you designate a unit to go somewhere,
rather than going the fastest route possible, the
computer picks the best route for them based on
ground levels and enemy ranges. I found this to be
unrealistic, because in some cases I would want a
unit to take the path I wanted, but the computer
would make them do a zigzag around the whole
damn map. Despite the fact, you are able to control
the units individually, and although it's a pain
sometimes, you have no choice.
If you have a keyboard and only a
keyboard, 2 words: forget it. The control with a
keyboard is horrible. It is very hard to aim up to
shoot someone which makes it even harder to
attempt to snipe them I wish they made the game
sense how much pressure is given when pressing
each key, because it's very difficult to get your
aiming correct. On the other hand, if you have a
joystick, the control is perfect! Since the game can
recognize the amount of force given to the stick,
you can move your targeting boxes and crosshairs
slowly or quickly. In the map mode, the game
simply uses the mouse. While I'm still talking about
controls, I might as well mention that the quit
procedure is "Shift + Q" (just like every DID game),
someone asked me this earlier.
As for realism, Wargasm is kind of a mix.
At some points in the game it can get highly
realistic, and in others, well it can appear
impossible to simulate in real life. I'd say the map
mode is most realistic aspect of the game
(movement issues aside), it's as if you are a
commander surveying the entire battlefield. If you
are wondering about the vehicles, well the tanks
are complete with a great magnitude of
maneuverability. You can control the cannon and
base of the vehicle individually. The soldiers are
realistic in the sense that they move slowly
(compared to the tanks); it also takes them a few
seconds to work into a run, just like real life. As for
the choppers, I thought they were the most
unrealistic. I can understand though that the game
isn't focusing on choppers, but they just seem
rather arcade-like like the one's in the game
"Incoming". All the vehicles are equipped with
sniper modes for bombarding enemies are long
ranges (you'll see in some screenshots the sniper
mode).
The graphics are truly outstanding. They
just left me with my jaw hanging. I seriously doubt
the screenshots can do much justice, because you
have to experience the game in motion, but I'll do
my best to describe the graphics. The lens flare
was impressive, because not like your average lens
flare, it was layered. Meaning, the more you were
facing its direction, the more intense the flare
became. The water ripple effect was equally cool; it
even left bloodstains and shrapnel in it. The
texture scarring isn't the most realistic, but at least
it's implemented. The shadows are unique,
because they aren't static size shadows; they
actually change dimensions depending on how you
are facing the sun. I believe the same effect was
used in Interstate 76 Gold. Lastly, the one thing I'd
like to mention are the explosions. You get a full
taste of what a real explosion is like when playing
this game, no space age super novas (ala.
Incoming) but real shrapnel pieces flying and great
roaring fires. Also, if you get close enough to an
explosion it was notable that the vehicle or troop
jarred a little to the opposite direction of where the
explosion came from. Realistic physics and
graphics really make this game worthy. Just about
EVERY major 3D Accelerator card is supported in
Direct 3D mode, and all resolutions are available as
well. You can turn on mip mapping and dynamic
texturing within the configuration options. I was
too scared to try the game in software, but Snipez
tried it in software on his AGP card, so read his
review to find out how it performed.
Multiplayer, an area where this game
should shine, but it sadly it doesn't. Lag & Ping
wise the game is excellent for Direct Play
(Microsoft). When playing over the Internet with
my 56k modem, I experienced zero movement lag.
The only significant instance when lag was
noticeable was when the enemies were jerking
from side to side a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't find
multiplayer to be as good as single player fun
factor wise. You basically throw in one troop at a
time and see who can run out of units quicker.
Perhaps more variants can be created to make the
multiplayer factor more enjoyable.
There is little to say about the sound,
but it's really rich in stereo mode. You can hear
things fly past your head and hear what direction
enemies are coming from in the distance. The
speech is pretty low quality but again, at least it is
there to guide you and provide a sense of realism. I
think the low quality is to simulate the speech
being broadcasted over a radio, personally I
couldn't really tell. The explosions sounds are nice,
but sound too similar. For example, blowing up a
building should have greater impact on my ear
lobes than blowing up a support chopper, but it
didn't. Overall, they are well implemented but not
above average quality.
I only have a couple of complaints with
Wargasm. I wasn't used to the arcade-like feel of
some of the vehicles, DID is noted for their highly
realistic simulators in the flight sim category. And
speaking of flight simulations, where are the air
fighters? I would have preferred an F-22 or an F-16
over the Commanche any day. Anyhow, that can't
be changed now, it's more of a suggestion than a
complaint. :) I also noticed a few minor glitches in
the graphics, I am not sure whether it was just my
system, but they are visible. For instance, in some
heavily populated areas of combat, you can see a
few textures switch and flicker. This doesn't really
affect the game, but perhaps DID will consider
releasing a patch to fix this. (On a side note, I was
using a Monster 3D II Accelerator card). The other
complaint I have is that this game is a giant
resource hog, even more so than F:22 TAW. I was
unhappy with the loading times, and often when
going into combat mode the game took 3-5
seconds to register all the models and run
smoothly. Perhaps DID should have tweaked their
3D engine a bit more to perform better. This is
coming from a P2-300, so you can just picture the
performance on lower end (sub P200) systems.
In conclusion, whom do I recommend
Wargasm to? Well, I recommend it to the
simulation fans, the strategy fans and the action
fans.. I guess that includes almost everyone.
Problems aside, it really is a fun game to play. The
campaigns should keep most of you busy for
weeks; maybe even a mission pack will come out
(who knows). The arcade-like sense does take
away from the realism, but it's nice to have for a
change. If you are like me and don't like
configuring keys, and just enjoy blowing
something up, Wargasm's instant actions are
perfect for you. Digital Image Design has done
another great job with another great game. So
prepare your troops, arm your tanks and ready the
choppers, this action packed title should be
heading your way soon.
Graphics: 20/20
Audio: 11/15
Gameplay: 27/30
Fun Factor: 19/20
Multiplayer: 3/5
Overall: 8/10
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Rating
88%
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By: SNiPEZ
Wargasm the first game to implement more than
one type of vehicle playable in war time action.
This game is an amazing group of new technology
graphics, with high-speed action, hundreds of
levels and tons of weapons. What more could a
game player ask for?
This game has got the best graphic
engine of all the DID games, which seeing as they
have had some good graphics, is pretty amazing.
With a multitude of cards supported from voodoo
to Nvidia chipsets, to even a not so bad looking
software acceleration. I played software on my
moderate p2-300 with 8 MEG AGP and it ran as
smooth as when I ran it in voodoo. Of course it
didn't look as good, this is one of the first games
for me with notable compatibility. Among the many
effects there is fog, amazing explosions, dirt flying
under fire, perfect skies with puffy clouds, shells
flying over the frozen snow ground, and beautiful
reflective water smeared with the blood of your
opponents. There is great radar feature that
shows your enemies, yourself and support
choppers, but trees, buildings, and other terrain
objects are not visible. Only a few graphics bugs
occurred like choppy textures and screen cuts but
on the whole the graphic engine is the fastest I've
seen yet. This game sets a standard for quality, as
with most other DID games this truly lives up to
their legendary name.
Although very confusing at first, Wargasm could
be the next greatest multiplayer game and
definitely leads in the war simulator genre. The
game is very fast paced some times a little too fast
but with the hundreds of single player missions
and extremely fast multiplayer, to create some of
the most advanced gameplay to date. The
controls of this game are almost impossible, it was
very frustrating trying to find a manual for the
game because even in the tutorials of the game the
controls are not discussed. Joysticks and
keyboard are supported but playing with the
keyboard is even harder. Aiming with the
keyboard is extremely hard and will even turn
some people away from the game. There is almost
no repetition as every level has new opportunities
with three types of units.
There is a lack of options to configure this game
compared to some. Along with the lack of
multiplayer chat, there is one other thing that
annoys me; you cannot customize the controls.
Why this was not implemented is beyond me, they
do however give you a few options none of which
suited me (wanted keyboard + mouse). Wargasm
is definitely a clone, but it does bring something
new to the War Simulator genre, allowing you to
fight the battles or control them, or both. This
game would have scored over ninety had you been
able to control the game with the mouse during the
action view and if there was a way to make your
own levels.
The sound in this game is pristine, crisp
accurate, and original. You can hear the shells of
your M16 ping off trees and you can also hear (3d
hardware) shells flying from behind you and
whizzing past your head. Although the speech
sound recorders are not the most talented and
emotional ones I've ever heard, there is a tone of
speech, I mean for almost every mission there is
four new pieces of speech. There is no
background music, but the huge amount of sound
effects will make up for that, when playing 5-player
multiplayer you would have no music playing in the
background anyway.
Although there is an amazing multiplayer
speed, many levels, many vehicles, in the game for
some reason DID didn't put chat into multi! This is
so annoying because you can't annoy the tank you
just blew away or taunt the helicopter hovering
over you while you hiding. All types of connections
are supported: Tcp/Ip, serial, modem, and IPX
(LAN). This means that the game will quickly
implement itself as one of the number one multi
games of the year easily because of its wide
compatibility.
Wargasm is not the next killer game, yes
it is considerably good, even great, but not close
to perfect. A lot of the things DID promised to put
in were not included which frustrates me. This
game could have been game of the year had it
been less complex and playable, you will either get
addicted to this game or will play for a day and
drop It. I definitely recommend getting this game,
and playing, but it is definitely not for everybody,
not for the hardcore f22 players, or the hardcore
Quakers, but if your somewhere in between you
will fall in love with this Jewel.
Graphics: 19/20
Audio: 13/15
Gameplay: 26/30
Fun Factor: 19/20
Multiplayer: 4/5
Overall: 8/10
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Rating
89%
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