We will War Rock you

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

ON WEDNESDAY, ABS-CBN Multimedia treated a few gaming journalists to a preview of War Rock, their new online first-person shooter game created by Korean firm Dream Execution Technology.

The event took place at the popular gaming cafe Station 168 in Tomas Morato, Quezon City. With War Rock Philippines still in closed beta stage, what ABS-CBN Multimedia showcased was the original Korean version, meaning all of the text was in Korean. Luckily the game marshals already knew how to tweak the game so 16 players teamed up to battle each other.

It is said that the game plays much like Counter-Strike, which it does since it has all the elements of CS: two groups teaming up to kill each other, either as a counter-terrorist or terrorist. But at first glance, War Rock closely resembles the more popular Battlefield series. As such, the main goal is to either capture the flags of enemy territories or wipe out foes.

When starting, players will choose five types of characters: the Scout is basically the sniper, who can also call for artillery support; Combatant is the staple assault warrior; the Medic basically heals teammates; the Military Engineer can plant bombs and fix vehicles; and the Heavy Weapon is the one-man army with weapons that can tear down a building. The characters have specific walking or running speeds depending on the type of weapon they carry. Scouts and Medics are the lightest while the Heavy Weapons are the slowest but with the toughest armor.

There are only two groups in the game, much like the counter-terrorist and terrorist groups in CS, but both are fictional: one is called the NIU and the other is the Derbaran. Both share the same types of characters with only slight variations in the weapons they carry. There are over two dozen types of weapons in War Rock ranging from pistols, grenades, assault rifles, sniper rifles and, surprisingly, a minigun. To those not familiar with a minigun, or think that it’s a small pistol, it’s a hand-carried Gatling gun, the type used by Arnold Schwarzenneger in “Terminator 2.” This particular weapon, when used in a game, is powerful enough to destroy armored vehicles. However, the player is burdened by its weight so it moves slowly.

As in Battlefield (and even perhaps the older game Operation: Flashpoint) there are various vehicles that can be used in War Rock. We were treated only to two maps with only a select number of vehicles, such as the Persian Gulf designed Humvee and an anti-personnel tank, as well as a motorcycle. The camera goes into an in-close third person view when riding on vehicles, each of which have different responses but all have the same ASWD basic control configuration. The tank is a particularly useful vehicle since one player can control the vehicle’s movement as well as its gun turret. However, it becomes vulnerable to frag grenades.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that when using vehicles, there is less likelihood that enemies won’t be killed instantly when running them over. I’ve been run over by a Humvee and a tank twice with no noticeable damage, though I was killed by a sniper. Maybe it would be a treat if vehicles can be used to ram into groups of enemies and kill them instantly.

There were other vehicles not played during the media event and among these are the jets and helicopters. Based on what was seen in the screenshots, these planes can be controlled from either outside or inside the cockpit. Would have also been a treat if these were included in the media run.

Among the features from Battlefield incorporated into War Rock is the crouch- and lying-down positions, which can be toggled with the C button. These are rather useful when trying to duck enemy fire or hiding behind underbrush or walls. These are also useful when sneaking up behind enemies. However, it is best to use this sparingly as players in these positions will be vulnerable to snipers or enemies in close range.

Two other features added to the game include duck-and-dive wherein the character rolls forward, backward and left or right. This can be done with the ASWD buttons plus the shift button. Perhaps this is the most useful move in the game as it prevents players from being shot at. The second feature, taken from another FPS game, SWAT 4, is peeking. Using the Q and E buttons, a player can take a peek over corners and lessen the chances of being shot. However, players holding on to long while peeking will also increase their chance of dying from a well-placed sniper shot to the head. I often did get shot while doing this.

Of course, in Battlefield and Operation: Flashpoint, War Rock also features a capture the flag mode. There are at least four neutral flags strewn all over a map and the goal is to capture these flags to be able to respawn in these areas and also to make use of the available facilities such as healing stations and armament reloading. In doing so, players of the same group would have to defend their captured flag and pursue the other flags until the competing team is cornered.

While War Rock is so similar to Battlefield, the gameplay is also tweaked to run really fast. The speed of the game is nearly twice as that of Battlefield and almost as fast as Counter-Strike so the elements of strategy and speed become necessary. Teamwork will also be a necessity to win, especially since the game has really large maps with many buildings and hiding places.

Although I’m a CS and Battlefield player, I may have to retrain for War Rock. On the other hand, I may also have to buy a new PC as this game is a system hog: no less than a Pentium 4 PC with 512MB memory and a 128MB graphics card is required to play. Likewise, a DSL connection is needed to connect to ABS-CBN’s game servers. Hopefully, DSL providers would lower their prices so that gamers can play their online games.

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