The chances of anything coming from mars... (WarBirds (PC))

Member Name: mithrandir

Product:	WarBirds (PC)
Date:	06/03/01 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: musical tie-in, nation-wide ballte, 3d without need of a 3d card

Disadvantages: no levels, no sense of victory

Remember that line? Then you're probalby a fan of the worldfamous musical by Jeff Wayne, or have been listening to the radio too much ten years ago. The lead song of the play roamed the stations at that time. It is based on the book by HG Well. Orson Welles made a radio play on it, allegedly alarming half the population into thinking we were actually being invaded by aliens from mars(thanx for the info Marcel).

The play
~~~~
For those that do not know the play, it is set in late nineteenth century. The martians attack our world, and the play concentrates on the battle in England.

Well, it's not much of a battle, since the Martians are vastly superior to us, humble beings, and therefore their tripods quickly lay earths' defences in ashes. The conquired humans are used for food, and the martians are feasting while having a great dinner. This is where the big surprise comes in. The martians are vulnerable to bacteria, and they all die from it. At the end of the play, all martians are dead, and the battle has been won by Earth.

The game
~~~~~
This game from 1998 is a combination of RTS games like command & conquer, and the X-com series. It continues the story of the play. Mankind just won their first battle against the invading martians, but there is more to come. The second time around, the martians will be a little more careful, and actually start planning their attack. They set up a base in northern part of the UK, while the human troops bunk up in the south.

Battle takes place on two levels. First is the 'warmap', which is a nationwide lay-out of england divided in 30 'sectors'. Each of these sectors can be occupied by either side, and in good Risk-tradition, you are only allowed to attack neighbour sectors. On this level, tactical decisions are made, you can move troops from one sector to another, view your level of resources, and launch attacks.

Any action takes place on the
?battlemap? level. On this level, you zoom in on one of the sectors, and this is where all sector-specific actions are taken. The most obvious thing of course is that this is where battles are fought. But, that?s not all. It is also here, where you order the building of structures and defences and strategically place troops prior to an attack.

The good
~~~~
The game heavily leans on its licensed musical-rights. This definitely is A Good Thing, because combining the music and narrative quality of the original play with computer graphics really add up to a quality experience. The music and story are used very wisely indeed, and the intro-footage follows either side of the balltle. The human intro follows the start of the play, with the initial battle at the common as its high, whereas the martian footage shows the same battle from a martian perspective! You finally get to see what the martians encountered when they first leave their first pod. No wonder they burnt everyone in sight.

The in-game graphics are top-notch. All machines are 3D, although the game apparently doesn?t use a 3D graphicscard. This is quite amazing, since most games nowadays do. You don?t? really miss it, although this does mean you will probably need a little more powerful PC. On the bright side, this does mean that this game can even be played on a laptop. Very positive indeed.

The game doesn?t feature all those nifty features of today?s 3D RTS games do. No zooming inor out, no turning the viewpoint around. Instead, the game focusses on gameplay. In my book, that is a good choice. It really manages to capture the right balance between good looks and sheer fun.

The two battling parties are very different. The humans are with many, and start with the larger part of the map (and therefore the better resources). The Martians, on the other hand, are only with a few, and barely have enough resources. They do however have the technological edge. Their power
ful machines are able to shred the human machineries to pieces. They also have a larger and more powerful research tree, leading to very powerful extras. Each party will need its own strategy in order to win, and this really prolongs playability.

The bad
~~~~
As you have read at the start of thie op, the battle is split in two levels, the warmap and the battlemap. As a result from this, the entire war against the martians is fought in one stroke. The game doesn?t know any levels or assignments. There is only one goal, win the war, any way you want.

This can be marked as a good thing, since it gives you great sence of scale, and any action will have effect on the entire game. It differs whether you win a battle flat out, or with just one machine left, since the resulting machines (including their damage!) return to the warmap, to fight another day.

On the other hand, this idea also has some backdraws. There is no sense of victory when winning a battle, since it is only a small part in the entire battle.
Also, there is no save option. This really is a miss, since you don?t get the chance to backtrack if you just lost a key-sector because you left it undefended for a minute. This does add an extra level of involvelement, since a loss of a battle now really hurts, possibly even to the level of having to start all over again. In the end, I find it too much of a hassle, and having to restart all over again, will not appeal after two or three times.

The game is quite hard to get into. The interface differs slightly from the 'standard' RTS-game, especially the interaction between the war-map and the battle-map. F.i. moving between sectors is done in the warmap, but positioning your troops in a sector is done on the battlemap. Also, the overview of what is built where can be monitored on the warmap, while the actual building of structures must be ordered on the battlemap. This leads to regular switching between the
two maps. Luckily, this goes relatively quickly, but still... Also, the game doesn't feature a tutorial, so you'll be a bit in the mist at the start of the game.

The conclusion
~~~~~
In total, the balance is very positive. The team of Rage/GT Interactive have delivered a very positive product, that will give you a lot of fun and gameplay. The use of the tie-in musical is great, and really adds to the experience.
Even better, since the game is somewhat older, it can now be found in the bargain bins. I picked up my copy at 3,5 Euro, which really is a steal. If you can find it, buy it. Especially if you?re a fan of the original play.

Remark: As said, the game really could do with a tutorial. If someone requests one, I would be willing to provide one. If so, please leave a remark, of send me an e-mail.

Summary: