Faces of War Hands-on Preview

You remember how everyone in your family would roll their eyes whenever boring old granddad started another ‘During the war…’ recollection; the fact is, modern gamers could soon be facing this same scenario, despite never setting foot in a trench or holding anything more deadly than an infrared Laser Quest gun. Practically everyone who owns a PC or games console has played at least one Medal of Honor-style game and, for virtual soldiers like myself, many have fought countless campaigns and waged war from all sides of a conflict. Now combat fatigue has unsurprisingly started to set in, particularly for titles set during World War II, and it’s getting harder and harder for a new product to join the ranks of the elite.

Hence Ubisoft’s Faces of War has barely registered on the video gaming radar, despite actually shaping up to be one of the most ambitious and gloriously entertaining titles of the year. But, unless players start getting genuinely excited about this ambitious game, it could end up being just another unnamed soldier, buried alongside all those forgotten WWII tank strategy games that failed to blast their way into the charts. So, forgetting all this war-themed hyperbole, why should you be excited? Well, for a start, Faces of War has been developed by 1C, the team behind underrated modern strategy/action classic Soldiers: Heroes of World War II (which was much more thrilling than its dull as the ditchiest ditch water title), and it plays a hell of a lot better than it sounds on paper. Still, I’ll give it a go.

Pitched as a squad-based real-time strategy title, Faces of War gives players the chance to relive some of the most significant battles of the Second World War from the perspectives of soldiers from the Allied, German and Soviet Forces. In the build I tested, each side had two sets of missions (based around a pair of characters with differing skills) climaxing at the same key point – such as the Russians seizing the German Reichstag. Before you sign up for the real action though, there a couple of excruciatingly slow paced training missions to master, but they do adequately serve to prepare you for the main campaign.

Although the first mission I played starts out like a (pre-3D transitional blunder) Commandos stage, complete with lots of crawling slowly past enemy guards, once the squad is spotted all hell, literally, breaks loose. Mission orders are barked on screen and you desperately search for cover before returning fire, while waiting impatiently for reinforcements to come to your aid. Then, with the immediate threat removed, it’s straight on to investigate (well, destroy) a nearby farmhouse, where spawning enemies appear in platoons to whither your meagre defences. Other missions are equally dramatic, with a full-on assault on a German Citadel being the perfect example of the kind of bombast 1C can serve up.

Throughout you generally manage only a small squad of skilled soldiers – the kind who know when to duck and hide – while AI combatants fight around you. When your numbers dwindle as squad members are turned into human colanders by enemy fire, reinforcements can be randomly called in or hand picked, and occasionally the camera swoops to another part of the battlefield, where you’re given control of a tank for a heavier assault. Movement is easily controlled with context sensitive mouse movements and backed up by a user-friendly on-screen menu. Want to bazooka that machine gunner? Just click on the weapon icon and click on the enemy. Hey presto, he’s now just a hole in the ground. Ammunition and supplies can be scoured from crates and even the bodies of fallen comrades, if you don’t mind a spot of blood on your new rifle.

With so much action surrounding you, at first it’s hard to concentrate on your objectives rather than watch the unfolding action, but once you get into the flow of play the endless rattle of machine gun fire becomes background noise, and you’re able to zero in on a target. Although it’s viewed like an RTS, with an easily manoeuvrable camera, Faces of War actually feels more like Call of Duty than, say, Total War. The pace is relentless and tactics have to be developed on the fly as the game’s engine features fully destructible buildings, meaning being constantly on the move is the only way to stay safe. This makes for a gripping action experience, even if your only contribution is the occasional mouse click, or – if you are feeling adventurous – firing yourself by selecting a player, holding a key and aiming at your target. Fortunately, the default Arcade mode can be switched to Tactical for a slightly more sedate, cerebral experience, but for the most part this is a dramatic, full-on assault on the senses that normally only a state-of-the-art FPS could provide.

Don’t believe me? Well, I’ve played the Omaha beach sequence and can honestly say it’s easily on a par with Medal of Honor’s finest hour. Winning that battle requires the kind of dexterity, tactical skill and odd spot of blind luck that makes you feel glad to be gamer.

Visually, Faces of War is a feast on a high-end PC, packed with bloom-ing marvellous explosions and huge scale battles that can be zoomed in on for a closer peak. The sound, too, is excellent, and is loud enough to deafen anyone with a decent sub woofer – although the ceaseless gun fire can start to grate over extended periods.

There might still be a fair bit of polishing to do before the game is released, but with such a sturdy, diverse campaign, and 16-player multiplayer to conquer, Faces of War has the potential to invade the PC of any discerning player, RTS fan or not.