Act of War: Direct Action – PC – Review

Innovation in the real-time strategy
genre has been marginally small in the past few years. While a few titles have
tread new ground in presentation and graphics, the majority have merely been
clones of some of the more popular franchises. Act of War: Direct Action doesn’t
innovate this genre much, but the way it is presented will have gamers on the
edge of their seats until they see the concluding credits roll. What makes this
game like this? Read on to find out.

Unlike most real-time strategy
games, when players load up the story mode of this game they will not be playing
as all three fractions but will play only with the US Army and Task Force Talon.
The storyline is very riveting and seems like it might be taken place out of a
Tom Clancy novel. Players will be trying to stop a group of terrorists that are
trying to cause upheaval around the world. If players fail in their mission the
world will be a different and horrific place to live. Failure is not an option.

Act of War: Direct Action does
something that I have not seen any real-time strategy do successfully before,
and that is weave real live action cutscenes throughout the game. What is even
better is that in this game it is very seemly integrated and makes the game feel
more realistic and fun to play. The footage is placed throughout the game to
make it feel like gamers are in an interactive movie. This will make the players
strive to finish each mission to find out what else lies before them. Another
thing that makes it more realistic is during a mission there will be a little
box that will popup and inside is “real time” news footage of what is currently
happening. It is little things like this that make the game flow together
nicely.

That’s not a good sign…

The only thing that kills the
cutscenes is that the acting is very bad, almost laughable at times. The
expressions on the actor’s faces and the fake accents will kill the mood, but I
really have to applaud the attempt. Even though it might get on the goofy side,
it is still really integrated into the game well, and keeps the players pushing
to see what will happen next.

After players finish the
exhilarating story mode, they will have the option to play in skirmishes or
multiplayer. In these modes players have the option to play as all three of the
game’s factions: US Army, Task Force Talon, or the Consortium. Like every RTS
game before it, each faction has its definite strengths and weaknesses, but that
is what makes the game great because they each have their checks and balances so
no one faction is the powerhouse.

The US Army defines all of the units
under the Pentagon’s control including the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
They can handle anything at any given time. The biggest weakness that it has is
that it will take longer to get the heavy-hitting units because you will have to
do some base upgrading first. Task Force Talon is an elite military faction that
is comprised of the very best from all of the branches of the U.S. Military.
They are very fast at what they do, but the problem with this faction is that
everything they need is very expensive. The Consortium has control in many of
the terrorist organizations around the world. They can create low-level units
quickly, but in order to create their huge forces they will have to rely on
using captured POWs.

Nice plane.

A staple of every RTS game is
resource management and this title has a unique way of doing it. For the
traditionalist out there you will be able to build an oil derrick and harvest
crude oil in exchange for some serious money. There is also another interesting
way to generate money and that is while you are in combat you can capture the
enemies and get a bounty for them. This is a great addition because when you are
in battle is when you tend to spend the most money to recoup for the loss of
soldiers, so now there is a way to get some money back.

Another thing that makes Act of War:
Direct Action stand out is the background for all of the fighting. Unlike many
real-time strategy games, this game will take players all over the world
fighting missions. Players will visit London and Washington, D.C., and to top it
off,the world is teaming with life. In one of the introductory missions, players
will have to go to Buckingham Palace in order to protect some important people,
but they will have to go through a huge protest that has multitudes of people.
While the people will not prevent you from getting to your location it does
provide players with a more realistic approach.

The graphics for this game are
nothing short of wonderful. Everything is highly detailed and just oozing from
its pores with pure eye candy. The thing that really stands out is how detailed
all of the environments are. Buildings blow up with smoke bellowing out of them
and with rubble littering the ground nearby. When things explode it is a
glorious sight that you will want to behold more and more because it looks that
good. What will really get you is that the developers made the environments
teeming with life so it really feels like you are battling it out in a local
neighborhood.

The graphics engine is great.

The sound for this game is a mixed
bag. First the sound effects are really well done from the explosions that you
will hear to all of the automatic weapons firing at your enemies. Everything
sounds realistic and gives players the sense that they are truly in the middle
of a war. What is a killer is the voice acting for the cutscenens and some of
the units. In many RTS games you will want to click on the unit multiple times
just to hear all of the things it will say. The lines that the units have are
decent, but they are not as good as it could have been. The cutscenes accents
are really lame and just laughable.

Act of War: Direct Action is rated T
for Teen for blood, violence, and language.

The system requirements are:
AMD/Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
256 MB of RAM
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
2X DVD-ROM
DirectX 9.0
64 MB of VRAM
6 GB of Hard Drive Space
Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay: 8.5
The game plays like most RTS gamers on the market, so if you have
played one in the past that you will understand all of the mechanics in no time.

Graphics: 9.1
The graphics for Act of War: Direct Action are great! This game is
dripping with eye candy that will melt in your eyes not in your hand.

Sound: 8.3
On the whole the audio for this game is fairly good. The sound effects
are really good for this game. The explosions are really realistic and the music
fits the whole urban warfare theme as well. What kills the mood here is the bad
voiceovers and the fake accents are laughable.

Difficulty: Medium
Depending on your skill level will define how hard this game will be
for you.

Concept: 8.6
I really like the idea that capturing enemy units generates cash for
you. Not only do you get to lower their forces but you get money for doing it
that goes towards your army. Great idea!

Multiplayer: 8.5
There are no really huge innovative things in multiplayer, just
the multiplayer normal stuff.

Overall: 8.6
Act of War: Direct Action is a really good real-time strategy
game. While it doesn’t really innovate the genre any, the story for this game
really pushes the players to continue playing so they can see what happens in
the end. The real-time cutscenes are a terrific addition, even though the acting
was on the lame side. If you are in the mood for a good RTS game, then you
should pick Act of War: Direct Action up.