Although the yearly financial results made us believe that big companies like Electronic Arts or Activision wouldn’t be affected by the global economic crisis, reality proved us wrong. A fine example is Massive Entertainment, well known for its Ground Control series, which was “let go” after the Activision-Blizzard merge. Fortunately for strategy fans, the French publisher Ubisoft was more than happy to take over the Swedish studios and help them launch the first expansion for World in Conflict (WiC).

 

Launched in the fall of 2007, WiC was highly appreciated by real-time strategies fans and the gaming press alike, though it didn’t really bring anything new to the table. Still, the producers compensated this soft spot with an interesting storyline, good graphics and an entertaining multiplayer mode. Even so, many gamers would have enjoyed playing for the guys on other side of the barricade, not only as NATO forces, and Soviet Assault came as a response to their wish, giving them the opportunity to be a commander in the Russian army.

 

For those who do not know what this is all about, I recommend reading this review, but in short, World in Conflict is a real-time tactics game, with the action taking place in a hypothetical Cold War turned hot, in which USSR invades the USA in 1989 to avoid total collapse.

Due to the fact that this is not your standard real-time strategy fare – we cann’t build a base and gather resources – the gameplay consists in controlling infantry units, tanks, artillery, and light/heavy (depending on the situation) aviation, which we have to use as efficiently as possible to netrualize the enemy.

 

As Soviet Assault is more of a new perspective on the story already told by its bigger brother, the content is very similar to the original. The missions where you’re in control of the Russian forces can only be accessed by going through the main campaign from WiC, being only six in all(Liberation, Harvest Insurgents, Lighting Strike for the Motherland and Fratricide). Their small number is compensated by objectives variety, from the main attack on the NATO forces and the protection of a convoy, to bombing strategic targets using aviation or artillery.

During these missions, you must constantly use the additional available resources, such as artillery or napalm strikes, in order to “liberate” the forests from the enemy infantry, or destroy the tanks which represent the first line of the enemy counter attack. Unfortunately, the Russian units are simply mirror images of the NATO ones, the only small differences being their attack power and name.

 

Just like in WiC, the cut scenes from Soviet Assault are very good and the characters are again in the spot light, ensuring a much more personal experience, along with the realism crafted by the game’s atmosphere, which can easily give cold shivers to those who studied or even lived during the Cold War era.

The camera allows free movement on the map and the zoom level can help you observe even the smallest details or have a general view of the battlefield. Moreover, Soviet Assault keeps the “maneuverability” tradition imposed by his brother, especially in the tense multiplayer situations, granting a panoramic view of the hostilities that can decide the ending of a match when you need it the most.

The AI has remained unchanged, still having pathfinding issues (common to all similar strategies), while its aggressiveness increases proportionally with the level of difficulty. The graphics and audio effects are almost identical, which isn’t really surprising, but the musical score from the new missions is much more alert and distinguishable, assuring a more engaging action. And although the engine used is not version 2.0, the game still looks good (or even better in the new missions).

The fights are also a delight, with spectacular explosions, units running frenetically in every direction and the aerial space full of helicopters and supersonic planes of all kinds. Another good news is that this time more gamers can play it with maximum details, although WiC still remains one of the titles which can be used as benchmark for the new video boards.

 

Regarding the multiplayer, with the exception of two maps (Airport and Bocage) and a few server modifications, Soviet Assault doesn’t have any novelties to speak. And taking this into consideration, the inevitable question is if this add-on is worth being purchased as a separate product.

Because no matter how you look at it, paying 15 Euros for six single-player missions and two multiplayer maps which can be downloaded for free isn’t much of a bargain. Moreover, Ubisoft already released the Complete Edition of the game, which contains both World in Conflict and Soviet Assault.

I can recommend the latter without hesitation to those who have not tried World in Conflict yet and are looking for a high quality strategy title, but for those who already own World in Conflict, buying Soviet Assault remains a questionable decision.