The developers of Ground Control II, Massive Entertainment decided to make an RTS with the most intense gameplay. For this, they worked on their engine named MassTech to allow the players to witness an amazing graphics and to complete the gameplay they were about to test.

When they released the multiplayer Beta, everyone was intrigued whether they will fulfill their promises or will be just dust in the wind.

Giving you the possibility to play as four different combat roles:  Infantry,  Armor, Support Forces, or Aerial, you will have to be the best of the best but at the same time play as a team and help your team to reach their victory.

The maps (only 2 maps are available in the beta) can host up to 16 players. At the beginning you will have to choose your team (USA or USSR) and your role. After you also decided where you want your drop point to be located, it's time to crush the enemies.

You will be given a maximum number of reinforcement points (4000). Each reinforcement you call has a fixed number of points that will be taken from you total number. After you decided what you want, you call them on the battlefield. After a short period of time they will be present at the drop point and ready to use. The exception represents the helicopters which will fly to you and will not be dropped in boxes like the other units.

Each role has its advantages and drawbacks. While infantry is perfect against land and air units, they are slow and very exposed and vulnerable to enemy fire. The support has role can use artillery to create havoc on the battlefield and bombard enemy positions, creating massive damage. They also have the best anti-air units, perfect to support the allied helicopters. Armor is all about tanks and heavy support. The helicopters are used for scouting, transport, anti-air and anti-ground.  Fast, but at the same time highly vulnerable to anti-air units, the helicopters are one of the most versatile weapons in the game.

On the battlefield there are the so called "command points". These points represent special locations on the map that once conquered and held will turn the tide of war in someone's favor. If you lose one, you must take it back in order to dominate you enemies. The players who assist in the capture of such a point or inflict enemy damage will receive "Tactical Aid". The Tactical Aid consists in additional forms of support like napalm strikes, air-to-air strikes to take down enemy helicopters, or the almighty Nuke. Each has its own cost and range so use them wisely. The effect area is most of the times small; you will have to place them when and where you think you will do the most damage to the enemy. There is also a delay of 15-20 seconds after you click an area until something happens...

{pagebreak}The longer you control the command points, the more points your team will collect. When the time expires or your team reached the most points, you will win the map. Or lose if you played solo and not helped or received help from your teammates.

To ease the teamplay, in case you don't own a microphone, Massive decided to implement a number of generic commands like "need ground support" or "advance here" or "need tactical aid" and the ability to place them on the map so everyone in the team could see them and know what everyone is playing and switch their strategy accordingly (default key is Q).

As I said before, Massive and Sierra used an improved MassTech engine to give life to the game. Available in both DX9 and DX10 (Vista) version, World in Conflict features amazing graphics. The backgrounds look amazing; the explosions are very real, with an array of visual effects that almost drop your jaw to the table. On DX10, the things go even further, with smoke interacting with the environment (a helicopter disperses the smoke coming from a burning unit for example), the FoV starts to shrink because of the fog on the battlefield, the view is getting darker and darker thanks to the smoke, and not to mention a nuclear bomb deployed on the battlefield, erasing everything in its path to oblivion, with trees flying in the air, leaving a grey mushroom nuclear cloud on the map, with a Geiger counter beeping in the background, giving you that nuclear feeling.

World in Conflict is much that a standard RTS game, it tries to get out of the classic RTS borders and provides something new to the gamers. The game tries to combine both teamwork and fast paced gameplay with stunning graphics.

It is surely a game that deserves a look as it promises to be one of the best real-time strategies of the year.