World in Conflict II (2017)
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC
Announcement
Nearly a decade after the release of the original World in Conflict, Ubisoft announced the sequel to the real-time tactics game at E3 2017.
The pre-rendered announcement trailer opened with a shot of a large hermit crab crawling along a tropical beach, the surf rolling up just short of the crab's legs. The third wave rolls in tinted with blood as the camera slowly pans out, revealing the body of a United States Marine laying in the sand. Gunfire and explosions streak back and forth across the beach as the hermit crab hides inside its shell, narrowly avoiding being stepped on as another Marine charges forward. USMC AAVs roll out of the ocean under heavy fire, an M1A1 Abrams rolls off a burning LCAC and shoots into the jungle lining the beach. The camera pulls back farther to show numerous warships under attack offshore, including a burning Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The screen cuts to the previous game's tagline of: "On November 9, 1989, the Cold War was supposed to end. It didn't." Cutting back to the naval invasion, the screen flashes blinding white and a mushroom cloud similar to that of the Operation Crossroads nuclear test engulfs the battling warships. The shockwave races towards the camera, smashing into the beachhead and flipping the Abrams over onto the camera, the screen cutting to black. The title card 'World in Conflict II' fades in, before glitching to show the release date of November 9th, 2017.
Over the Summer of 2017, additional details of the game were announced. Special Edition pre-orders would come with a remastered version of World in Conflict and its expansion, Soviet Assault. Upon release, a map editor would be downloadable for free from the game's website, allowing players to design their own multiplayer maps for download. Details were kept light on the campaign, instead focusing on the improved graphics, physics, audio, and scale compared to its predecessor.
Gameplay
World in Conflict II features gameplay similar to its predecessor, focusing on real-time tactics (RTT). Players deploy their units onto a battlefield and must carefully make use of them to achieve victory, making use of support assets to further assist them. World in Conflict II contains four factions: the United States, Soviet Union, NATO, and the People's Republic of China. While players may only play as US and NATO forces during the single-player campaign, all four factions can be used in multiplayer games.
The game sees the return of the tactical aid system from the first game, allowing the player to call in anything from airstrikes on enemy positions, deploments of paratroopers, to launching carpet bombing raids and tactical nuclear strikes. Tactical aids are puchased with tactical aid points, which are earned by destroying enemy vehicles, supporting other players, or capturing objectives. A tactical aid can allow up to three deployments, after which the player must wait until the support has recharged. In the single-player campaign, players are restricted by what tactical aid they can use, which can change during a mission. World in Conflict II differs from its predecessor in the ability to impact the tactical aids of either the AI or a real opponent. While certain tactical aids cannot be hampered, such as artillery strikes and tactical nuclear strikes, the presence of anti-aircraft support units can disrupt and destroy attack and fighter aircraft, while fighter sweep tactical aids can shoot down larger bombing aircraft if properly timed and deployed.
The maps present in both the campaign and the multiplayer are on average 2 to 3 times as large as those featured in the previous game, allowing for large portions of cities to be battled in and around, or several smaller towns to occupy a single map. The levels themselves are highly destructible, with every tree and structure able to be leveled. Structures are affected by physics, allowing for unique destruction depending on the damage inflicted, even allowing for buildings to be 'dropped' on enemy or friendly units. To reduce system strain, smaller structures hit by the blast of a tactical nuclear strike are instantly destroyed, but large buildings are still affected by the physics system for some spectacular destruction effects. The game also features terrain deformation, allowing explosives to create craters in the landscape.
Single-Player Campaign
The campaign of World in Conflict II returns to the alternate 1990 of the previous game, picking up shortly after the climactic Second Battle for Seattle. Once again following Lieutenant Parker (Now promoted to Captain following the events of the first game), the story follows NATO's grinding pushback against the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China during the Third World War. Alec Baldwin reprises his role as Parker, narrating the events of the game's campaign in the loading screen prior to each mission; he neither speaks during missions and cutscenes, nor is his face shown.
With the Soviets finally driven off American soil, the United States Army is exhausted by the fighting, but still has numerous global commitments to uphold. Despite having little time to rest and reinforce, Colonel Sawyer and Captain Parker are part of the first American reinforcements shipped to the South Pacific. Sawyer and Parker undertake a risky amphibious landing at Pohang to put an American foothold on the Korean Peninsula, assisted by ROK Special Forces Major Somun. Pushing through heavy DPRK and PLA resistance, American and South Korean forces solidly break through the Communist lines at Taejon, driving North to retake Seoul.
After securing the South Korean capital, Sawyer, Parker, and Somun turn east to cut off the remaining North Korean and Chinese spearheads, but instead find themselves isolated by a sudden snowstorm and an unexpected counterattack. With tactical aid hampered by the weather and with the numbers stacked heavily against them, Parker and Somun manage to fight a desperate breakthrough battle to reach friendly lines, managing to save most of their men and equipment, however Colonel Sawyer is captured and taken as a prisoner of war. But before a rescue attempt can be made, the batallion is pulled off the line and reassigned, and sees the return of recently promoted Colonel Webb. Still recovering from his injuries recieved in Seattle, Webb informs Parker that with the European Front stalemated, the Russians have renewed their drive into the Middle East, hoping to cut off a vital source of oil to the Western armies and secure it for their own use.
Fighting through rolling dunes and burning oil wells, Webb and Parker blunt several Soviet armored thrusts. Webb proves to be a more cautious battalion commander than Sawyer was, sticking to a more defensive deployment. However, a breakthrough by a Soviet Operational Maneuver Group threatens to sunder the whole American line before Parker manages to destroy it. At this point the desperation of the Soviets to bring the war to a swift end becomes clear when they deploy several tactical nuclear devices in order to annihilate the oil fields and refineries that they had failed to capture. The detonation of in-theatre nuclear weapons stuns NATO leaders and results in the decision to make a final, risky counteroffensive against the Warsaw Pact.
Returning to Europe, Webb and Parker take part in the combined NATO attack to breach the main Soviet lines. Battling across a war-ravaged Germany, Parker and his men face increasingly desperate resistance as they close in on Berlin. Webb slowly grows into being a more aggressive battalion commander like his predecessor as the end of the war gets nearer. Soviet POWs captured by Parker's forces reveal that there are mutinites spreading throughout the Warsaw Pact armies as the war dragged on without victory. The prisoners also inform them of the presence of several RT-2PM Topol mobile launchers deployed with orders to launch if Berlin was in threat of capture. But the NATO armies will not pause and give the Soviets the chance to solidify their positions even more. The climax of the game involves Parker being tasked with securing the mobile launchers within a time limit (affected by difficulty) before capturing the Soviet command center managing the defense of Berlin. He has to hold off against a final, overwhelming counterattack by the Red Army, utilizing all available tactical aid assets. With the attack broken, the Soviets withdraw back from Berlin.
Following the victory, reports leaking out from within the Soviet Union detail massive unrest in Russia and the Warsaw Pact nations. The severe losses of men and materiel sustained in multiple theatres have bankrupted the Soviet Union. World War III ends with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, and a status quo ante bellum offered by a China overextended and suddenly shorn of its Russian ally. While there is a resentment that the Chinese are getting off lightly, NATO is militarily exhausted and critically low on fuel. The world settles back into an uneasy peace, POWs from both sides being returned to their respective nations - including a battered but unbroken Colonel Sawyer - with Parker expressing his hopes that it will be a long time before the world's sees a conflict of this magnitude again. But with global oil reserves severely depleted and a veteran and relatively unpunished PRC returning home, as well as a fractured Russia wracked by civil war, he realistically expects it will take a long time before there will be true peace again.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer also plays similar to the previous game, however matches can now support up to twenty players. Three types of maps are featured: domination maps, where players must control command points to win the game, assault maps, where one team defends a series of command points which the other teams assaults, and tug of war maps, where teams must fight to capture a series of command points on the front line, whereupon the line shifts towards a new set of points closer to the losing team. One side plays as either the United States or NATO, while the other as the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China.
In multiplayer gameplay the player may choose one of four roles in battle: infantry, air, support, or armor. The infantry role gives access to various infantry squads such as anti-tank teams, snipers, and light transport vehicles whereas armor allows players to use various classes of tanks, the dominant direct fire land combat unit of the game. Players choosing the air role have access to anti-armor, air superiority, scout and transport helicopters. Finally, the support role contains anti-air, artillery, and repair units. Each role's basic units can be purchased by everyone but are more expensive for players with a different role. In addition, each role has its own exclusive units that aren't available for purchase by other roles.
Reception
World in Conflict II was well recieved by critics and player reviews, earning several 'Best RTS' awards for 2017. GameSpot gave it a 9.7 out of 10, citing that it improved upon what players loved about the first game, while increasing the scope and scale to fit with the improved technology and industry expectations of the age.
