Coming out with a hit game that garners top honors from almost every gaming
e-zine and print publication is no mean feat, but following
that up with a couple more hits is what truly proves that you are a force
to be reckoned with.
Redstorm Entertainment is just such a company, taking the gaming
community by storm last year with their mega hit title Rainbow Six and
the Eagle Watch mission packs. Having redefined the genre of
the first person shooter into the first person tactical, RSE now has
made
their move into the real time strategy (RTS) genre with Force 21.
The Force is With Them
Force 21 is a 3D RTS game set in the near future in the year 2015, where
the US and Chinese forces have come together on the battlefields of Kazakhstan
in a test of wills over disputed oil fields. Allowing the gamer to play
from either the US or Chinese side, Force 21 is Redstorm’s attempt at modeling
the modern day dynamic mechanized battlefield.
In some ways Redstorm succeeds,
such as in their creating an atmosphere of uncertainty with short and somewhat
inconclusive briefings. While some gamers may find these briefings lacking
for a game, I found them more along the lines of what you would face in
a battlefield situation. As the saying goes, military intelligence is an
oxymoron.
But, in all fairness, as you continue through the game you will find some
briefings that are misleading relative to the mission that has been designed.
A great example of this is the second mission where you are tasked with
defending a village from a Chinese onslaught, or so you’re lead to believe.
I spent a lot of time setting up my forces in what I felt were pretty good
defensive ambush positions in relation to the expected avenue of advance.
Once set up I sat back and waited and waited and waited.
Finally, after
too long a time waiting I sent out a recon force and found the enemy just
sitting there waiting for me! Finding enemy placements throughout the map with
no signs of advancing I was force to abandon my defensive positions and
take the fight to the enemy. Only after engaging them and ‘triggering’
their reactions was I faced with a running battle.
Here is where the game fails to be a great 3D real time wargame and instead
falls into the real time action game genre. By forcing the gamer to trigger
the actions of the enemy AI, and lacking random placement of the enemy when you
replay the mission, the game becomes a study in memorizing unit positions
and ganging up on the enemy before moving on to the next enemy position.
Tactical Teatotaller
This sort of setup doesn’t challenge the gamers tactical thinking much
and instead becomes a twitch fest as you are feverishly moving and clicking
the mouse onscreen to take out your enemies. Random placement of enemy
units as well as much less trigger driven action would have better served
this game.
As a real time action game Force 21 is fun, but lacks depth unless
you find yourself some online opponents. The more serious wargamer
will be left unsatisfied by Force 21, as its realism doesn’t
expand further than the vehicles and weapons represented.
Continuity and Visuals
Speaking of which, the characteristics are not accurately
modeled and the AI and pathfinding of your
units is also lacking. There are some futuristic weapons platforms and
vehicles, which may or may not come to fruition in the future, but for
the
games purpose their ideas sell well. Force 21 ends up more like a
standard RTS using modern day vehicles and weapons, not bad but not a
serious wargame.
There is no force continuity in the campaign missions either.
If you finish
a mission with only one or two vehicles you still get your full force
for
the next mission. With linear campaign missions and no consequences for
losing almost all your vehicles the campaign is nothing more than
a series of canned missions.
Visually the game is very
nice, not eye boggling but nice once you get used to the jittery movements
of vehicles perched on small hills and the clipping problems that ensue
from that. Sometimes units will disappear halfway into a hill as they are
cresting it and once they stop they tend to jitter around like they all
had an epileptic driver. Weapons effects are beautiful and the smoke trails
of TOW missiles are superb, as are the explosions when a unit is destroyed.
The interface is good for
the pre-mission layout screens, where you can pick your platoon leaders
and check out a satellite map of your upcoming AO. The interface within
the game, however, is a bit limited and confusing, although you’ll learn to
use keyboard shortcuts real quick.
Interface and Tactics
One issue here is that the unit formations are limited to line, column, wedge and reverse
wedge. There are no echelon formations to be seen, something that would be nice
for those times you’re moving a mixed armor force and want to use the terrain
to mask one flank and an echelon to refuse your other.
Another fault with the interface is the fact that you can’t judge your
unit movements very well. While Redstorm has made it easy for you to just
click on the map and tell your unit where to go, you can’t always get them
exactly where you want them. You’re forced to constantly micromanage your
units to place them properly.
The most glaring problems
arise from the friendly AI’s actions and pathfinding as well as engagement
ranges of all the vehicles in the game. Most engagements happen at close
range and when you have a thin-skinned APC or TOW vehicle in the engagement,
your chances for survival are slim.
Not saying that this can’t happen in the real world but in the game that’s
all you see. With engagement ranges limited due to the 3D accelerated environments
of the game you can’t use proper tactics very well.
Normally you’d move
your armor units ahead as the tip of the spear and move your anti-tank
platforms in positions of support at long range from suspected enemy positions.
With the 3D accelerated environment of Force 21, you can’t do that since visibility
is limited to a couple of hundred meters instead of the thousands needed
to keep those thin skinned vehicles alive.
Not only does the friendly AI have problems with pathfinding but with also firing
their weapons. It seems that both the friendly and enemy AI have a tendency
to not wait until the tube’s clear to fire at a target, instead they fire
directly into the mound of dirt in front of them.
Not that it matters much
to your ammo conservation, as there don't appear to be loadout limits. But
it can get them killed as they move and reload, allowing the enemy a chance
to take them out. Worse, the enemy AI doesn’t seem to suffer this problem
as badly as your own units, and their accuracy is much better.
On the ... Move?
Movement of your units is also very flawed, as they tend to bump into each
other a lot when given a change formation order, so we see the ‘bumper car
effect’ again here. Once engaged with enemy units you must manually force
your units to face the enemy to bring your front slope to bear on enemy
weapons, hence presenting a smaller silhouette and your strongest armor.
What would have been nice here would have been a ‘contact drill’ button
or hotkeys where you could just click and have that unit perform
a specific action. For example, you have a platoon of tanks moving along
and all of a sudden you see enemy AT vehicles to your right. You click
on the ‘action right’ button and your platoon would automatically key off
the platoon leaders tank which would turn right towards the enemy and lay
off a snap shot.
While this may not kill the AT vehicles, it should at least cause them
to occasionally go off target with their wire guided missiles. It also
gives
you a fighting chance against the enemy and allows you to fight the
battle
instead of each individual tank and engagement. While micro-management
may be fun for some, it makes the game feel much more like an arcade
action game that a
strategy wargame.
Summary and Pesky Insects
Another issue I've had is lockups. It seems Force 21 has a tendency to
lockup every now and again for no reason. I've had this happen to me when
I first start it up, when I'm in the middle of a mission and even after
having completed a few missions. There seems to be no head nor tail to
the lockups other than the game has a habit of doing so, which can quickly
get on one's nerves.
The concept for Force 21 is great but the execution is flawed,
leaving the gamer wanting and expecting more from the game. If you’re
looking
for some quick action with a modern armored environment and can deal
with
the lockups and AI issues, this might be one to look at. Otherwise I'd
check out Panzer General 3d or wait to see if the game gets patched.
This one reminds me of Hidden and Dangerous; great concept but failed
execution.
Possibly a comprehensive patch could fix the AI and pathfinding issues
as well as the graphics glitches and lockups. Force 21 is not a strategy
game as much as it is an action game, with the emphasis heavily on action.
The addition of a mission editor adds some replay value to the game, something
I think should become a necessity in all games released these days.
With some patch
attention to address the AI issues mentioned above I think Force 21 would
be a better deal for the gamer. As it is now the game is playable (beyond
the lockups) but has little life beyond the linear campaign missions.
