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OK, I admit it; I’m a huge fan of War of the Worlds, the musical. I first heard it when I was six and it scared the hell out of me, and even now it creeps me out a bit when I listen to it. I have long considered it an excellent prospective license for a computer game, of any genre, simply due to its intensely brooding atmosphere. When I heard that there was to be a strategy game made of it I was seriously excited at the prospect, and now I’ve finally had a chance to play it through.

For those who haven’t heard of it (yeah, right), The War of the Worlds is a classic science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells. It basically tells the story of a Martian invasion of earth, specifically Britain, at the end of the 19th century. It has since been made into a Hollywood movie (which deviated from the original quite a bit) and a 1970’s musical. The game takes the basic setting of the musical and turns it into a hybrid turn-based / real-time strategy game. Though the plot has obviously been tampered with somewhat (in the original the humans don’t put up much of a fight) the atmosphere is all there, from the original Martian fighting machines, to a remixed version of the musical soundtrack, to an intro closely matching the storyline of the musical.

The game basically runs in two states, the war map and the battle map. The war map is a map of Britain, and is divided up into regions or sectors. This is where deployment and resource management is handled. The battle map is simply a section of land used to represent the sectors for the purpose of battle. This is where the RTS aspect of the game is played out. You choose when you start a new game whether you want to play a human or Martian campaign. Both campaigns run identically, the obvious difference being that in each case you’re on a different side. The Martians begin with their base in the Grampian Mountains, towards the north of the island. At the start of the campaign multiple cylinders fall around this area and within a short period of time the island is divided roughly in half between the opposing forces. It is from here that the game really begins.

I personally felt the game was a tad easy, and patience was a greater requirement than skill. The human campaign in particular basically ran with me using a few cruisers to hold a bottleneck sector, while I researched up and built an unstoppable horde with which the win the game. I place the blame for this lack of difficulty squarely on the poor AI of the computer opponent. Though a battleline 3 sector wide had been drawn, the AI repeatedly attacked the same sector, one that had impregnable defenses. Had it attacked the other two, it may well have broken through and caused me serious trouble. Playing the Martian campaign revealed a similar weakness, where not only would the scope of the AI attack be limited, but also it simply wouldn’t attack with sufficient numbers to breach the defense. I sincerely hope the AI is improved with a future patch, as it really does mar an otherwise enjoyable single player game.

Graphically the game is spectacular. Using 3d-terrain and unit technology very similar to Total Annihilation, WOTW improves upon it with enhanced lighting, fire, and water effects amongst other things. Supporting most available resolutions, it can also be tailored nicely to the speed of your system. I found my P2-450 handled 1024x768 quite nicely, with slight slowdown in major battles. A more mainstream system would probably want to stick to 800x600 or 640x480. The units range from the simple yet realistic British "tanks" (I use the term loosely), to the monstrously impressive assorted Martian fighting machines. Weapon effects I felt could have used a little more work, but they aren’t terrible and certainly do the visuals no great harm. Of particular note is the fact that the game incorporates a full time system into the war map, so that battles can take place at day, night, dawn, dusk or whatever. While it doesn’t change during a battle - the earth only turns so fast – depending upon when a battle is initiated you may be treated to dawn sunlight shining on mountains, green-tinted Martian night-vision, pitch-blackness, or broad daylight.

As you would expect from a game based on a musical, the music is fantastic. Remixes of the stirring original soundtrack make for excellent battle music, while the moody war map music has you holding your breath for the next enemy attack. Much more surprising however was the quality of the sound effects. They’re actually good! I often complain about the generally poor quality of strategy game sound effects, but WOTW effectively provides the realistic rumble of engines, the creepy metallic whirring of the Martian machines, and the thunderous roar of naval guns. While not what I would call truly spectacular, they certainly do a solid job of complementing the top-notch musical score.