War. What is it good for?
In the summer of 1944, the Second World War entered its end-game when the Allies launched two major operations that would drive back German forces on both the Western and Eastern Fronts at once. In the ultimate test of military strategy, Order of War will challenge you not only to lead America’s finest to victory in the West, but also place you in command of German forces charged with repelling the Red Army’s seemingly unstoppable offensive in the East.
Even the keenest military minds will find that it’s one thing to make history, but quite another to change it. Do you have what it takes to command?
To me, there are far too many RTS games these days. As a result, it makes it hard for the better ones to stand out from the crowd. Order of War is surprisingly made by Square-Enix, while they have had plenty of practice making RPG’s, RTS games are very different. Can Order of War do enough to please fans of the genre?
To me it does, but it doesn’t exactly give anything new to it. Order of War is great but it lacks innovation and feels like most RTS games I’ve come across over the years. That’s not a bad thing since OoW manages to keep to those standards well and on its own manages to impress. It’s easy to control, while offering a real challenge to gamers. I didn’t think Order of War would turn out to be as good as it did, but I’m glad to see it end this way.
The two campaigns are top-notch. It’s great to fight the German forces, but it’s also quite interesting trying to change the outcome of battles while you play as the Germans. As with most war games, there is plenty of old war footage shown between missions and gives a pretty good insight into each battle. Overall, the presentation is incredibly strong which ultimately plays to the game’s strengths. It may not bring new ideas to the table, but it does maintain a solid performance both in terms of telling the story of each battle and keeping an impressive framerate.
There can be a lot of action going on at once, so you would expect that the framerate would dip…but it never did for me. Of course, I do have quite a powerful PC so I’d be surprised if any game dipped in framerate. Each mission is great visually; the locations are well detailed and small details like explosions look and sound authentic. Voice-acting is a mixed bag as it can be a bit laboured, but that’s the only complaint on that front.
The Verdict
Order of War is a surprisingly good RTS. While it doesn’t add anything to the genre, it matches the high standards of the best games on the market which makes it a must-have for any RTS fan.
