A dream come true: Red Dawn without Patrick Swayze.
Still, the storytelling aspect is not without flaws. The most annoying of these is the gimmicky camera always showing the character you play, Lt. Parker, from behind or some other unfortunate angle during the cut scenes, which is apparently supposed to help us imagine our own face under his helmet or something. Must work for some; has (kind of) worked for me in shooters or RPGs, but too transparent for my taste in an RTS. Still, I got over it, because on the whole the campaign is thoroughly entertaining, and nicely put together, although kind of on the short side. It's also on one side only, as there's regrettably no Russian portion of the narrative.
The gameplay goes the way of the new wave of RTSs, with base building and resource gathering culled in favor of airdropped reinforcements and special powers ordered via radio, such as napalm strikes and - everyone's favorite - tactical nukes. This system works well on the whole, if you are familiar with its basics and are not an RTS fundamentalist. The points you spend on these goodies are earned through combat, although it seems only the tactical aid (special powers) points are earned directly by killing enemy units. The reinforcement point system is not entirely clear to me. It seems dependent on control points you control, but I couldn't figure out the exact pattern. To be fair, you probably won't bother with those during the single player missions, because you'll have a lot on your hands and will be content to simply call in those reinforcements whenever they become available.
Yes, you'll be busy. The single player missions are satisfyingly difficult, but not overwhelmingly so. For me, the campaign is enjoyable if I have to restart a few missions after getting my behind handed to me, and World in Conflict certainly delivers on that front. The feelings of urgency and chaos of war are wonderfully realized. When your objectives change, it's often because the enemy is either counterattacking or has done something "unexpected." The units are what you would expect from a realistic USA vs. USSR warfare. There's little difference between the sides of the conflict beyond the names of the units, but there are enough units available to make up for that realistic gameplay flaw. You'll have infantry, armor, support and air units available, several of each type, all of which are fun. Some of missions are timed, although the timer is usually rather generous, at least on normal difficulty. The fact that most of the maps you will be fighting on are realistic and familiar adds to the overall mood and stokes the patriotic fires.
Of course, these maps are so familiar and realistic because of the graphic engine at work. World of Conflict is a beautiful game with an incredible amount of detail. The colors are vibrant, the explosions and destruction effects are gorgeous, the units look legit. You can zoom all the way in to sniff your tank's fumes and read names of diners, or zoom out and watch a nuke's blinding flash that slowly fades to reveal a living, breathing, cascading mushroom cloud, which will leave a crater as it dissipates.
The sounds are also up to par. Aside from the standard war sound menu and a great, brooding orchestral score, when you zoom in close to the ground, you can hear soldiers chatter and exchange news, and you can tell the news are rarely good.
Despite this, at some point you will probably win. When you do, it will be time for some multiplayer action. I'm happy to report that multiplayer for World in Conflict is also excellent. You will play as one of the abovementioned divisions - infantry, air, support or armor - free to switch between them at any point. Each offers a different experience and is equally important to your team's success. It really is an amazing system and a brilliant idea to borrow classes from FPS multiplayer. Arguably, in terms of balance, it works out better in World in Conflict than in most shooters. You are also free to join an ongoing match at any point, and the load times are not bad at all. Multiplayer supports up to 16 players per match. Because of the point system, you will have a small number of units with which to help your team win. Save enough points - and you can drop a nuke like you always wanted!
Sadly, when I go to Massgate to play, there are no more than a dozen populated servers to be seen. It probably won't get any worse for a while, but with rumors about Massive getting closed you probably shouldn't expect things to get any better either, what with Russian campaign expansion being put on infinite hold.
Still, at 30 bucks, there's never been a better time to buy this amazing game. It really is a one of a kind gem. Play it.