JoWood productions has
produced an interesting game that takes its cues from real life instead of fantasy.
World War III: Black Gold takes all the action of a real time strategy game and
adds real life units and terrain. The story is one of this games strongest
points combining realistic circumstances with a fictional story. Units and game play are
also a prominent part of this game. Game play and is affected vastly by the ability to
edit your units, affect the terrain and supply or not supply your units.This
game is based on a fictional World War that happens "in the near future" and
centers around the fight to control the oil of the world. World oil reserves have
plummeted to only a 5-year supply, and no country has the resources to change over quickly
enough to alternate energy sources. The world war breaks out when certain countries try
and take control of the only oil left in the world. You as Russia, America, or Iraq
fight for total domination of world oil reserves and world domination in the process.
Heroes abound on every side as the world plunges deeper and deeper into a war
without winners.
Units in this game are based on current units used by the militaries of
the world and thus are very realistic. Jo Wood productions worked with he U.S. military in
and effort to create more realistic units for this game. U.S. units include such battle
vehicles as the Apache and the Abrams tank. The vehicles are made as closely as possible
to actual U.S. units and use an incredible array of weapons. Russian units are units that
are easily produced and are used almost solely for mass attacks. Iraq has a huge supply of
old surplus weapons from the various armies of the world and basically uses shear will
power to defeat its enemies. Buildings consist of various structures to gather oil, power
the base, and fly units in. There is a large array of automatic defense buildings with
which to defend your base. Players design units with the unit design menu. As the
player, you use the design menu by choosing from a selection of parts you have researched
and placing them together to form many different units. By using your own designs, you can
gain a vast advantage if you build each unit with a purpose.
By far the most interesting of the units are the supply and engineering units
used by the various sides. One of the most innovative portions of this game is that your
units will run out of ammo and thus become useless in battle. Game play is vastly affected
by this and adds huge depth to the game. Supplies are brought to your units by the supply
helicopters and, depending on your enemy and your fighting style, can be the difference
between victory or defeat in a battle. Battles, although relatively complicated, are very
interesting. Depending on your playing style, units may go low on ammo before the end of
the battle and become basically useless to you. If you dont use each type of unit in
the aspect of the battle they were made for, theyre easy prey. Each unit has its
strengths and weaknesses, and one group of units cannot win a battle for you, but with
selective targeting and group building you can form groups that overpower even enemy
forces of far greater number and strength. Not only are battles influenced by the units
and supply access, but they are also effected by the terrain on which you are fighting. If
you are on high terrain you have better aim and attack ability; if you catch enemies
between your forces in a valley, they sometimes cannot even get a shot off on your
besieging units. The most innovative use of terrain is delivered by the all-important
engineering vehicles, which can alter terrain in a few significant ways. Engineering
vehicles can build trenches that act as almost complete barriers to at tacking enemy
units. Vehicles caught in trenches are severely limited in their fighting ability and
cannot even move out of the way of your units shooting from above. Also, engineering
vehicles can build bridges allowing your units to traverse bodies of water and sneak
attack enemy bases with almost any amount of units you can build.
This game is very nice but still has some problems, and it seems to be a well
made remake of Earth 2150, which was all but the same as this game. GUIs and the terrain,
and terrain mod system seem to be totally unchanged from the original game. Still around
is the problem of terrain modifying units getting stuck on their own modifications thus
making them far less effective if you do not pay close enough attention to them. Although
seemingly the same, it still has its differences that make it a good game and a worth
while buy.
World
War III is pure gold and a good buy for any war game or real-time strategy enthusiast.
Games like this are in great supply however and most people will not have the resources of
both time and money to afford this game. All around this is a fairly decent collector type
game but one I would not recommend for those new to the strategy genre.