Faces of War

It’s another World War II real-time strategy game! I wonder if there’s some sort of conspiracy going on, where the developers making each game are just covers for some sort of gigantic machine that churns out clone after clone. With games like Faces of War, it certainly feels that way.

Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh – Faces of War can be very enjoyable at times, and it has a lot going for it. It’s just that it also has a few key flaws, not least of which is its extremely derivative nature. Déjà vu is a common sensation with genres as overcrowded as this one, and its certainly alive and well here.

But let’s start from the top. Faces of War takes place towards the end of the war. You can play as the Germans, the Allies, or the Russians, in a series of missions that (perhaps thankfully) eschew many of the overdone ‘celebrity’ set pieces that get recycled each time a new WWII game comes out (I’m looking at you, D-Day). You have the option of playing a tutorial for each side, but these soon start to drag – if you’ve played an RTS before, you’ll soon pick up what you’re supposed to be doing. Or at least, you would if the interface were a little better. Essential buttons and actions tend to either be wedged amongst many others, or hidden behind tabs. You’ll get the hang of things eventually, but it feels like an unnecessary step back for an RTS game.

The gameplay itself is fast paced and intense. You’ll control anything from a handful of infantry to a veritable army of tanks, jeeps, and other assorted units. Resource management is kept to an absolute minimum (read: it’s non-existent), allowing you to concentrate on taking down the enemy. This is lucky, as you’ll really need to keep your head amidst all the gunfire, smoke, and flying debris. You’ll quickly learn that cover is your friend, and the game encourages you to really think about how to outflank the enemy, especially when you’re fighting in crowded streets. Unfortunately, while this style of combat can be very fun at times, it can also get quite frustrating – the gunfire rarely lets up, and the less-than-stellar controls can let you down at the worst times.

The missions themselves aren’t particularly inspired – they’re full of the same old objectives that you’ve achieved a dozen times before, and feel quite arbitrary and forced. Speaking of which, you’ll soon notice that, whichever side you’re playing as, absolutely everyone speaks with either an America or British accent, or some terrible mix of the two. If you’re going to have Russian soldiers speaking English, you should at least give them awful Russian accents!

Faces of War certainly looks the part – it features some very nice graphics, and while they might not be quite on par with those found in Company of Heroes, they did run a lot better on my computer. Slowdown was rare, except when explosions filled the screen. The level of graphical detail is impressive – the maps are littered with all sorts of debris, trees, and buildings. Practically everything can be blown up or torn down, which makes the battlefields more exciting. Another nice touch is the direct control system – if you hold Ctrl or press End, you can directly control the unit as if you were playing a 3rd person action game. It’s a handy feature for a few particular moments, but I found that it wasn’t all that necessary for most of the game.

In the end, one of the biggest problems with this game is that it has been released in the shadow of the (superior) Company of Heroes. Comparisons are inevitable, and given the choice between the two, it’s hard to recommend Faces of War over its competitor. This is a shame, as FoW is certainly good enough to be given a try – it just contains enough technical and stylistic flaws to relegate it to a distant 2nd place. If you can’t get enough of WWII strategy games, give this one a go ...but, in such an overdone genre, Faces of War fails to stand out from the crowd.