Ah, the days of Command & Conquer in its prime. For me those days were actually the Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun days, I missed out on Generals during its heyday thanks to an underpowered PC and no money to get a new one. I also missed out on Act of War, which remains on a shelf in a back catalog that only grows by the month. Turns out, the makers of Act of War and RUSE, Eugen Systems, are back with Act of Aggression. This is a new, near-future techno military game in the vein of Command And Conquer or Act of War.
I was intrigued with Act of Aggression when I first heard about it because it wasn’t looking to turn the genre on its head. It wasn’t looking to instill a bunch of new gameplay elements, instead it was designed from the start to provide an experience that so many RTS gamers have fond memories of. These designs and mechanics, implemented properly, are still just as satisfying today as they were twenty years ago. The basic pillars of Act of Aggression will sound familiar and no doubt exciting for those that long for the gameplay style of those late 90s and early 00’s games.
First, there are three factions: the US Army, the Cartel, and the Chimera. The US Army is not your present-day force. It’s a near-future version of it that’s gone through many decades of being spread thin, and suffering from numerous budget cuts. It’s reliable, skilled, and tough as ever, but it’s not as versatile as it used to be and thus it lacks behind in some of the agility and bleeding edge tech the likes of that the Cartel has at their disposal. The Cartel is an unfortunately generic name for a ultra-shadowy organization that has existed for decades and is responsible for the demise of the Russian and Chinese financial infrastructures. Now they have their sights set on taking down the US, and thanks to crazy conspiracy theory deep roots, they have the personnel and the backing to do this.
Finally you have the Chimera, a multi-national force that was formed after the collapse of the Chinese regime. Formed, funded, and implemented in secret by members of the United Nations, the Chimera are a solid middleground faction. The game’s main campaign features the Chimera as the first playable faction and sees the player zipping around the globe taking on a variety of missions in a near-future military thriller complete with all the whiz-bang gadgetry and tech-laden presentation you could hope for. The story is not likely to be as memorable as some of the finest GDI/NOD moments in C&C history, but it’s compelling enough.
The campaign is a perfect place to start playing Act of Aggression, but don’t expect too much hand-holding. There isn’t much of a tutorial available, but, even better is a series of great videos posted up on the Steam Community page found here. While you’re downloading the 10+GB game, you might as well learn the ropes here to help you jump right in. Failing that, anyone with a moderate RTS background, of which I would categorize myself, should learn in pace with the difficulty (on Normal) without too much trouble.
Regardless of which faction you’re using, strategy is obviously the name of the game. Base-building and resource harvesting are vital, so expect some of your old tactics and instincts kick right in. For me that involves doubling up on resource harvesting as quick as possible and sending out a couple of expendable units for scouting the area and doing away with that pesky fog of war. A great satellite view that you can toggle with tilde (by default, but you can change the controls) shows things in a cool and useful perspective, by the way. Finding resources to harvest and having your harvesters get after them is likely going to be your primary source of funding, but you can also locate and capture banks, but expect these to be hotly contested in multiplayer.
Act of Aggression has a good veteran system too, as well as upgrades that are researched and unlocked as you advance during the course of battle. POWs are an interesting element that I do not recall seeing in any other RTS game that I have played. POWs can be taken, housed in a jail, and even sold back to enemies.
I’m still working my way through the campaign as I type this, and I have not engaged in but a handful of multiplayer battles despite their being twenty maps, dedicated server support, and spectator mode available at launch. Four or five small patches have been released for the game in the week that I have had it installed, and it’s clear from looking at the history of the development and community interaction that Eugen and Focus Home are committed to making Act of Aggression something special and lasting. For me, it already is, but only through time and numerous matches will bugs and balance tweaks get ironed out, it’s just comforting to know that the support is likely to be there for some time to come. Any issues I have had with have been relatively minor to this point. Path-finding, an ever challenging art in RTS games, isn’t perfect, as sometimes you will see characters either take a strange route or fail to take one at all when given an objective. To be sure though, this is the exception and not the rule.
I’ll cover the rest of my topics in the summary below…