Units and Gameplay

It's all real!

Units in Real War are taken directly from modern military documents. OCI refers to the Federation of American Scientists for much of its military information. What do the French use for anti-cruise missile technology? How does the F-18 hold up against a Mig-29? What is the accuracy of a Triton cruise missile? Everything documented by the FAS is in Real War. Each side will have over 40 units, ranging from Special Forces (Navy Seals) to technology that isn't even available yet (F-22s) to Psy Ops (who drop propaganda on enemy forces to lower morale.)

One distinguishing factor in Real War is the use of air units. There are dozens of helicopters, bombers, and jet fighters available for use. All aircraft attack patterns are modeled after real-life -A-10s pitch up and dive directly at ground targets; Apaches hug the terrain to reach their target. Real War will also include micro-management for the aircraft -- you can order your F-117As to take evasive maneuvers or drop flares to avoid missiles.

Impressive, isn't it?

Jungle warfare

The engine behind Real War is a custom engine developed by OCI. Units are 3D, while the map and infantry are 2D. 3D acceleration will be implemented for units, but a software renderer is also built into the engine. Three tile sets are included: desert, arctic, and jungle (all three can be mixed together.)

OCI is pushing for photo realistic artwork -- no cartoons here. Units will leave footprints and tracks as they traverse the map. The terrain has height relations and modifiers. Units standing above the enemies they are attacking gain bonuses to their attacks. The line of site of your units makes up the Fog of War. You can use detection units, such as AWACS planes, to increase the viewable area on the map.

Huey	It looks so real.

Gameplay

We had a chance to look at Real War with Jim Omer from OCI. The unit control grabbed our attention first. The normal "point, click, and kill" mouse commands are available, but a new tab-based command system sticks out. All units and buildings are available from a menu. Each type of unit has its own tab-- submarines and ships sit in the naval tab, buildings are in the buildings tab, etc. Clicking on a unit's icon selects the unit, double-clicking centers the camera on it.

You can issue orders from the tab menu - no more hunting around the map to find units. If you need to bomb a bridge but you don't have any bombers, just click on the building tab to select your runway, tell it to build a bomber, and when the bomber is ready, order it to blow up the bridge. All of this can be done without moving the camera away from the target.