E3 06: War Front: Turning Point Impressions

LOS ANGELES--There can be no doubt that World War II real-time strategies have been pretty popular with developers in the last couple of years, and the signs are that we're set for more by the end of the year. One of the titles that'll be vying for our attention before the year is out is War Front: Turning Point, an alternate-history game which sees Hitler killed early on in the conflict, the Germans join with the Allies, and the Russians take on all comers.

It's a premise made more interesting by the fact that, as a result of lots of money spent on research, technology has advanced very quickly so that there are new "super" units. While the Germans will have exoskeletons (much like mech warriors), stealth bombers, and jetpack infantry, the Allies get nukes, earthquake bombs, and a shield-generator unit. The Russians, on the other hand, can deploy liquid nitrogen bombs, an ice thrower (as opposed to the flame variety), and a vodka dealer. The latter actually buffs troops with higher morale and more hit points, rather than some of the more interesting alternatives you might think of.

The game plays out much like any other RTS you can think of. There's only a single resource to gather, which you do by sending out trucks to collect it (the game's producer was a top-ranked Command & Conquer player, back in the day). The emphasis, therefore, isn't so much on management, but instead on getting your buildings and units constructed and getting them out there to destroy stuff.

Controlling your units is as simple as selecting them and clicking where you want them to go, or what you want them to attack. But there are a couple of surprises in store. First up is that you can zoom in to a shoulder cam on some units to get a better feel for what's happening on the ground. And you can also jump straight into any stationary turrets and start shooting away as if you were in a first-person shooter.

It's not clear how much effect either activity will have on the actual gameplay, and there's no perceivable disadvantage to leaving the hard work to the AI, but it's another perspective on things. At this stage of development it also wasn't clear if, or to what extent, destructible environments will be featured in the game. That aside, there's already a good level of detail on the artwork, and lots of animations from not just the units, but also from some of the buildings, so the game at least looks alive.

It wasn't possible to tell just how the missions will play out, or how many hours of gaming we can expect, but developer CDV sees this title as a priority and there's still more time to tweak the various elements before its September release. We'll have more information when it's available.