The Wargamer

Introduction

Well, here we are again upon the fields of France, fighting the bloody and disastrous campaign in the west. The same campaign in which the German army managed to do in six weeks what it had failed to do in four years of previous bloodshed: conquer France and send the British scurrying into the English Channel. Unfortunately, Cornered Rat have not quite managed to pull off a similar feat. Their ambitious title, World War II Online, has been plagued with bugs, unbalanced gameplay and scathing press since its original disastrous launch in 2001. The game was pushed to market well before completion and far below hyped expectations, and it was a flop, to say the least.

However, the game, much like Nazi Germany during the later war years, refused to give up. With a band of loyal players in tow, it managed to struggle through the dark winter days of its early life and in March 2002, nine months after our original less-than-spectacular review, The Wargamer went back for another look at how the game was shaping up after undergoing much patching. We liked it much better, though there were still many reservations. Now, two and a half years later, I’ve been sent back to the Western Front to see if World War II Online has finally shaped up to be the game we all expected it to be. Is it still worth playing? Three years is a long time in gaming, even for a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Having already come from a disadvantaged launch, World War II Online could well have run out of gas by now…or has it?

For those not familiar with World War II Online, it is an MMOG First Person Shooter (the granddaddy of PlanetSide, no less) which re-creates World War II (in case you hadn’t already guessed), and currently the Battle of France in 1940 in pedantic levels of detail. Players choose a side, Axis or Allied (though the player can switch between them), and create characters in the armed forces of Germany, France, or Great Britain. Players choose the branch of service they wish their character to serve in, and can gain rank, by successful completion of tactical missions. With increased rank comes greater control over the strategic conduct of the war. After advancing in rank players can create and post missions for others to play. The higher the rank, the broader in scope those missions can be. Regardless of rank, players can drive tanks, fly aircraft, captain ships or fight as simple infantrymen…the scope is vast, though not all encompassing as of yet.

System Recommendations, Installation and Fees

This being an older game engine, the system requirements are not all that hefty by today’s standards: a 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and a 64MB graphics card should do the trick. In order to play the game, the player must download the client which is about 160MB, including a small patch, which is not all that much for folks with broadband; on a 512k connection I got it down in an hour and a half. If the player happens to be running 56k then they may want to get a better endowed friend (broadband wise) to burn a copy onto CD, though the server technology on the back end is surprisingly slick and in-game lag is very infrequent, even for those on a 56k modem. Installation is fairly straightforward and I had no problems with it. However, this being an MMOG, installing a game is not the end of a gamer’s worries. In order to play, the game the player must first purchase an activation key which is $19.99, but which also comes with a free 30 day trial. After that, a flat fee of $12.99 per month is required.