Conflict Zone - Modern Day Media Warfare
In Conflict Zone, it's the year 2010 and the forces of peace (the ICP) are fighting against the forces of chaos (GHOST). Both manipulate the media to tell their story.
On the other hand, the media is always watching. So it's important to build refugee camps, show just how much work you're doing to maintain peace, and get key shots of the enemy and the atrocities they are committing. That media attention - and your subsequent popularity - are just as key to winning the war as actual units and troops are.
The graphics are resonably good, rolling across the meadows and mountains of the Ukraine and other hot-spots. You can zoom in and out and rotate at whim, getting a super-close-up of your units or a far-off view of the field. The AI is also reasonable, with units coordinating attacks on the most important targets first.
What really was annoying, though, was the interface. I've played hundreds of strategy games - it's my favorite type of game to play - and even with the tutorial the unit control in this game was pretty awful. I've heard this from many, many other people, and some simply refused to play after the first few attempts. I don't know I would give up on it quite that quickly, but it definitely makes the game far more frustrating than it should be.
Also, the various cut scenes of talking heads telling you to "save the civilians" or "kill the enemy base" never line up properly with the mouths moving. The mouths sit there yapping for a good 5-10 seconds after the speech is done. There are various little things like that that, while not major when it happens once, get really annoying when they are happening continuously.
It's a very nice attempt at something "different" with the media angle, but it ends up being a not-great strategy game with a PC bent to it. You should be able to find this for half price or less, so it might be a good "in between" game to play while waiting for one of your must-haves to come out.
Buy Conflict Zone from Amazon.com
 | On one hand this is your traditional strategy combat game. You control troops, you build barracks and weapons factories, you crank out marines, grenadiers, tanks and jeeps. |
On the other hand, the media is always watching. So it's important to build refugee camps, show just how much work you're doing to maintain peace, and get key shots of the enemy and the atrocities they are committing. That media attention - and your subsequent popularity - are just as key to winning the war as actual units and troops are.
The graphics are resonably good, rolling across the meadows and mountains of the Ukraine and other hot-spots. You can zoom in and out and rotate at whim, getting a super-close-up of your units or a far-off view of the field. The AI is also reasonable, with units coordinating attacks on the most important targets first.
What really was annoying, though, was the interface. I've played hundreds of strategy games - it's my favorite type of game to play - and even with the tutorial the unit control in this game was pretty awful. I've heard this from many, many other people, and some simply refused to play after the first few attempts. I don't know I would give up on it quite that quickly, but it definitely makes the game far more frustrating than it should be.
Also, the various cut scenes of talking heads telling you to "save the civilians" or "kill the enemy base" never line up properly with the mouths moving. The mouths sit there yapping for a good 5-10 seconds after the speech is done. There are various little things like that that, while not major when it happens once, get really annoying when they are happening continuously.
It's a very nice attempt at something "different" with the media angle, but it ends up being a not-great strategy game with a PC bent to it. You should be able to find this for half price or less, so it might be a good "in between" game to play while waiting for one of your must-haves to come out.
Buy Conflict Zone from Amazon.com
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