After playing Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, I wanted to try one of their previous games to see if it played any differently and to see if it was any fun. I’m very glad that I did, otherwise Syrian Warfare would have passed me by unnoticed which would have been a great shame. While my quick impressions of their new Terminator game weren’t all that positive (I blame it on mood at the time), Syrian Warfare is an excellent realistic RTS that everyone who likes the genre should play.
Syria
In Syrian Warfare, you get to follow and participate in the campaign for freedom from the terror groups that one day decided that Assad needed to go. The ordeal starts rather small with police units defending against low-tier terrorist groups, but as time goes by, the scale gets larger and larger, and soon it will involve everything from tanks to helicopters. There is also a narrative line to follow through the game, however, Syrian Warfare does take fairly large jumps in time between the combat scenarios – which are all based on real-life conflicts. So, it feels more like a historical insight into the struggle, than actually playing it out in a full campaign.
The presentation still works, and gives you a sense of the toil the Syrian people had to go through, and still are at the hands of terrorists. Given the that conflict is pretty recent, and is still raging on, gives the game a distinct flair for the dramatic. The briefings and additional “quests” you get during the missions feel very professional and to the point, but it’s not without humor. Like the guy who says that he wouldn’t be a true Arab if he didn’t have an RPG buried in his backyard. Between battles, you also get a sense of what the general populace feels about the war through social media, news articles, and forum posts. Then there is the commander you play who writes his thoughts and concerns in a diary, which adds another level of humanity behind the fighting. Syrian Warfare also got a big bad, surprisingly. I enjoyed the interaction he provided. In the end, you really want to drive him over with a Russian tank to end his mocking tone.
Terrorist Hunt
While the story is fine, for what it is, where the game truly shines is in the gameplay. It’s very realistic, as it uses a true line of sight for the units, bullets are deadly and the platoons come with their own ammunition which they can run out of. Combat is the mainstay, and the core of Syrian Warfare, but you have to be on top of logistics too. The logistics is basically half the game – if you can’t provide your men with ammo and fuel, you are a dead man waiting for a grenade to bury you in the dirt. A good strategy is always to bring extra supply trucks, or just make sure to capture them from the enemy instead of blowing them into smithereens, even if fun. However, supply trucks also have a limit. While a truck can supply infantry with plenty of ammo to last them for days of fighting, artillery, tanks, and helicopters chew through your limited supply like it’s candy on Halloween.
Just like the logistic part of the game, the battles also come with plenty of detail and complexities. From armor values to learn, what kind of vehicle to use in each scenario, when to hold back men, and when to commit. In general, when it comes to infantry avoiding open spaces is a good choice. However, you can force your men to hit the ground, which increases their survivability by some degree. But you don’t want to be caught in the open, ever, since bullets and grenades as mentioned are very deadly, and will make short work even of the most veteran units.
It’s also very important to make sure your men live through the battles, as they get better at what they do, and you are limited to the ones provided by the map/your command points. Usually, when capturing an objective, you get to call in reinforcements. However, you might not want to commit all the stuff you have, as it can make you a bit reckless (speaking from experience). When a unit dies, he is gone for good, and each unit dead has a cost in command points. See, you get these points from killing enemies and capturing objectives, and you lose them by taking casualties. These points are used when calling in reinforcements, and setting up your starting force. You can also sell units to bolster your accumulated points if you want something particularly juicy to blast the terrorists out of their boots. It’s important to keep soldiers alive, more than just keeping your soul intact since they directly influence the monetary value of your division. And the real good stuff costs a lot of points, so you can’t throw tanks and men away if you want to play with the big boy toys.
I won’t go into all the things you can do, or what tactic is better than others, because Syrian Warfare seems to allow for a lot of different playstyles, depending on how you prefer to control your army. But a good idea is to sacrifice one or two infantry slots for tank drivers. These men can occupy and repair abandoned tanks, which is a really good way of strengthening your military force. Another point is to take care of your Russian brothers when they decide to lend you soldiers. These dudes are damn good at what they do and usually come with top-tier equipment for killing.
Design & AI
The AI isn’t the greatest, since it seems their movement is scripted and rarely moves out of the spots the map designer put them in. They are static in other words. It’s a bit of a bummer, and almost every map also has groups of minor respawning enemies that like to throw themselves against your defenses. This design decision is questionable at best, but at least it provides a challenge in that you better secure your flanks, or you might find an RPG rocket coming at you from behind. These issues aren’t too noticeable, unless you spend a long time contemplating your forces, which, to be fair was pretty common in my case. Each mission easily surpassed an hour of gameplay, and I think the final mission lasted two. These are some hefty maps to explore and blow up!
Looks & sounds of war
The engine that runs Syrian Warfare is great. The nearest comparison I can make is the engine the Men of War franchise runs on. It has the same level of detail and realism where every bullet is calculated correctly in a 3D space. It’s very impressive, and it looks spectacular too. Walls and houses crumble dramatically through its physics engine, and tanks burn away beautifully in the desert heat. It truly makes the battlefield come alive, tracers and rockets streaking across your screen while you watch the little infantrymen scramble for cover.
The coolest part of the game is probably the “house-occupying system” that works under the same realism system. In other games a house would just provide an extra layer of defense, however, in Syrian Ware houses work like buildings in real life. It has different floors, windows, and a rooftop, which your men will use to shoot from. It makes it worth capturing strong points like huge multistory buildings, as your men on the roof can see and send rockets for miles on unsuspecting tanks. What also is interesting here is that the men need to traverse the steps inside these buildings, which takes time. While you are hoping to get a quick ambush going, your men must actually huff it up ten floors before getting a good angle. Everything takes time, and it makes it feel all the more tactical.
The sound and voice acting is good, even the rock music to accompany the action is pleasant and pumps you up for the coming engagement. However, if you turn off the music when there is currently no battle going on, the game is dead quiet. There is no ambiance in Syrian Warfare at all. A bit weird, I must say, not hearing the desert wind while crossing it with tanks, or the murmur of a dead city when waiting for the enemy to strike, takes something away from the game and immersion. A strange design decision to be sure, which unfortunately makes the game seem almost unfinished without the music in periods of calm.
In conclusion
Syrian Warfare is an awesome and unique RTS that shouldn’t be missed. It’s a few years old now, but it remains a looker, at least by strategy standards. Plenty of detail to gawk and soak in while you battle terrorists over yet another house. It’s also pretty cheap nowadays, which makes it an even stronger recommendation since you can find it as low as three euros. It’s well worth that money! I highly recommend Syrian Warfare to everyone who enjoys realistic games and wants their inner commander to be challenged. It might seem daunting, yet I recommend playing on the hardest difficulty (realistic) for the ultimate struggle. It’s never unfair, but on this setting, it will put your tactics to the test. Another thing Syrian Warfare has going for it is that it’s a conflict that is a little off-beat. It’s not the standard US vs. Russia (or whatever) setting that is usually the case. Highly recommended!
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 