Title: Faces of War

Date: 10.15.2006

Genre: RTS

Platform: PC

Developer: Ubisoft

Publisher: Ubisoft

Almost 2 years ago, a game was released that got almost no publicity, and most gamers hadn't even heard of. It was an RTS that wasn't really an RTS, and a 3rd person shooter that wasn't focused on one character. It was something bold and innovative, and many who played it became instant fans. It was Soldiers: Heroes of World War II.

But finally the sequel has come, hopefully to fix some of the problems in the original, add new elements, and provide better graphics and sound. Does Faces of War live up to its predecessor and improve?

Gameplay

Faces of War game revolves around small groups of units taking on large armies. Most missions give between 2 to 10 soldiers for you to control. With these men, you must accomplish goals that when glanced at in a large perspective, look insurmountable. But as you play, tactics, preparation, and the right mix of equipment (not units) will win the day. You could spend an indefinite amount of time preparing your units with the right equipment and squad setup, and then attack the enemy with utmost precision and speed with no casualties, or you can attack the enemy with what you start with and use your wits to adapt to the situation as it progresses. Either way, it'll be action packed and very exciting each time. On top of that, it almost never be the same as the physics engine allows anything to be destroyed in a multitude of ways, and the AI does act intelligent and can adapt.

The inventory system allows you to customize as much of what your soldier has as possible, the only limit being space. You can change your soldiers gun from a Thompson to a 50 cal with machine gun ammo to last the entire war, or a sniper with a slew of grenades (Molotov, AT, AP), or even a guy with tons of bazooka ammo and an SMG. You'll figure out the best way to set up your soldier as you play.

There have been some changes which fans of the original, including me, will gripe about. The biggest thing being squads. Now all soldiers come in squads, and you can either move one soldier, or an entire squad. At first, this is a major handicap and can be very confusing, but after an hour I found this to be much more convenient.

Squads appear on the left side of the HUD, with icons representing what they are. A row of soldiers appear at the bottom when a unit is selected, showing whether or not the people in the squad, vehicle, or single soldier have a bazooka, MG, or sniper rifle. This makes selecting the right unit in the heat of battle very easy. Squads can be customized in any way to put your soldiers in the right groups for best efficiency.

Also, the damage system has been significantly changed for vehicles. An armor piercing shell against a tank is calculated based on distance traveled, angle, and the MM. If it penetrates, it does an amount of damage based on how much it penetrates. The more times you penetrate that one spot, the more damage it does, represented by the texture on that spot of the armor changing to more of a damaged metal surface. This is a small implementation of a hit point system, but in reality is much more realistic.

Multiplayer has been significantly improved. Now all purchased units come in squads which have different types of armaments. Engineers can set up tank obstacles, Anti tank has bazookas, Rifleman and SMG squads are the backbone of infantry, and sniper and scout squads, plus tons more. There is also a new section with tons of artillery and gun emplacements, including Machine guns, flak cannons, mortars and howitzers. All can be moved by soldier, or towed and 4 times the speed by vehicle. All vehicles come with full crew, and some of the heavier ones get soldier escorts. The Germans get the best tanks due to the German army really having the best, which is kind of off balanced against other tanks, but can be easily taken down with a sneaky bazooka squad or mines.

There is several multiplayer modes, including Combat FFA and Combat (teams), which is simple death match. Frontline, which has a defending team and assaulting team. Chicken Hunt, which involves stealing chickens and bringing them back to your way point, but the chicken farm is defended by an invulnerable farmer with a double barreled shotgun that can kill anything in one hit. Another mode involves a conquest-like game mode from the Battlefield series.

And then Co-op. Co-op in my honest opinion adds a ton of replay value. Splitting up your forces between 1 to 3 friends makes it much easier to manage your units. If you have 1 or 2 friends who play this game, you may never play single player on your own as Co-op is the same thing and way more fun.

There is some downsides to this game. Sometimes soldiers in squads don't act right, and will not follow your squad leader. Although the AI has improved, there are situations in which your units act stupid as hell compared to the enemy, like standing in the middle of a road shooting blindly while under fire, and tanks that waste ammo long after the enemy is dead. Driving through buildings lags the game to a crawl, and in one scene I was going at .5 (POINT FIVE) FPS when a plane in a scripted scene crashed into a house.

But the squad problem can be fixed by resetting your squad leader which takes on button click. A patch promises to fix the issues with soldiers standing in the open sometimes, although most of the time they take cover if set to free roaming.

Make sure to play this game for 1 to 2 hours in a mission before saying it's bad. Because it just takes getting used too. There are so many changes that at first glance, making you frustrated. But after playing around you'll soon enjoy the additions and changes, and find the game has significantly improved.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are great, but not amazing. The game seems a little cartoonish, but maintains the original feel. Water is reflective, fire is nice, and explosions are amazing. When you blow up something, the screen shakes, people fly through the air, and your speakers boom with excitement. Explosions in this game are like the steak at Sizzler. Although most of the game environment seems a little washed out and not entirely realistic, it does have some things that stand out. Textures on tanks are beautiful, and are bump mapped. Same with water; after a giant battle with many destroyed vehicles and dead soldiers, you'll look back and say "Holy hell!" cause the scarring of the terrain and dead bodies can sometimes look like the apocalypse.

The soldiers’ voices are quite humorous, but can be a little repetitive. When units talk, they don't seem very tactical and sound more like a casual talking at a dinner table than battle chatter, although the developers may have gone for this as it can be funny at times. Tank drivers sound very tactical and distorted by radio static, which sounds cool but doesn't fit in well.

The sounds of guns aren't very good, and even the flak cannons and 150 MM shells don't sound as booming as they should be. They look great and devastating, but sound weak and puny.

Final Verdict

This game has a kind of steep learning curve. The interface can be confusing, and isn't explained very well in training. But once you learn the ins and outs you can focus more on tactics and that's where the game shines. There are many ways to approach any level and battle, and it's not always obvious; creativity can accomplish things in fun and strange ways. But this game is not made for the usual RTS player; it's more suited to those who enjoy more micro management and a more focused view on their soldiers, rather than the whole map at once.

People compare this game to Company of Heroes very often. Both games are very well done, but Faces of War wins out for me because of the focus on your soldiers and depth to the game compared to COH.

Game Score

B+

Reviewed By: Contributed