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Remote Assault - War By Computer
By Jim "Bismarck" CobbArticle Type: Review
Article Date: October 08, 2001
Variations on a Theme? Not!
A sign of maturity in any game genre is when games offer different themes rather than variations on one theme. Since Warcraft, Real Time Strategy (RTS) games have concentrated on gathering resources to create forces that either overwhelm the enemy or use puzzle-like solutions. Some of these games have elaborated on this basic theme: Starcraft, Homeworld and Cossacks come to mind. However, serious students of tactics still had to rely on turn-based games (IGO/UGO) or simultaneous play (WEGO) for satisfaction. OneGames designer, Brian Gantt (with an assist from COMBATSIM.COM commentator Simon Ng) has blazed a trail for serious RTS tactical games with Remote Assault.
No Blood, Just Booms
The setting of Remote Assault is in the far future during a civil war in the US. The plot is irrelevant except that it gives the designer latitude of freedom to create simple, clean game play. Gantt accomplishes this by making all combat units remote-controlled and unmanned. At a single stroke, all quality, training and morale issues are resolved while giving actual play a parallel with the game interface. The player is doing exactly what the commanders of the forces are doing, not an abstraction of it. The commanders are, theoretically, fighting battle on computer screen with hotkeys and mouse just like the players.
Forgoing the temptation to include whiz-bang, sci-fi weapons, Remote Assault’s armory resembles a modern day force structure. The mainstay is the treaded tank, divided into the usual heavy, medium and light categories. Wheeled vehicles, called All-Purpose vehicles (APVs), provide an awesome backup to the tanks by combining speed with powerful weapons. Self-propelled artillery includes 155 mm howitzers, surface-to-air missiles and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), both able to saturate marked areas with long-range indirect fire. Light, fast recon units and helicopters fulfill scouting missions and may be able to pin the enemy until the big fellas clank up. Trucks re-supply combat vehicles at the front. The only unusual unit is the Robot Assault Bipeds (RABs), two-legged stalkers. However, the role of these units remains conventional—they merely take the place of infantry.
A tank group is ambushed and calls in a smoke screen.
These units are deployed as groups of squads, which, in turn, contain discrete units. Each unit has up to four weapons ranging from machine guns to large caliber guns. Thus, a tank group can pop smoke while firing high explosive and a RAB squad can have one unit firing SAMs with another guarding with a chain gun. Orders can be given at either the group, squad or unit level.
The movement, offensive and defensive capabilities of these units are detailed yet abstract at the same time. All four sides of vehicles of armor strengths with 100 being max. Every unit has a mix of ammunition ranging from anti-tank to smoke. Ammo capacity is a function of unit size and range in not clearly marked as units automatically move into range. The effect of ammunition types against armor appears to be accurate in a relative sense, a near-miss by high explosives won’t destroy a tank but may immobilize it while anti-tank rounds chew up lightly armored vehicles.
War by Abstract
More than most games, the graphics are determined by the interface in Remote Assault. Interface buttons, information windows and message boxes frame the combat window. The feeling of fighting remotely is thus enhanced, if at the price of somehow sacrificing a degree of immersion. The map itself can be tilted and zoomed easily with mouse and keyboard. The top margin is filled with different map options such as move, scroll, zoom and selects for five different view conditions such as “show hex” and “satellite view”.
A length of numbered boxes allows the player to set views to unit groups and go to them quickly. The next box allows for group, squad or unit selection and the level of detail shown in the information box on the right. This information relates to number of squads or units, weapon composition, armor status and amount of remaining ammunition. The bottom of the screen shows incoming messages from groups. Color coded, green messages report accomplished mission, yellow indicates pleas for re-supply or retreat and red for “No can do” or “That’s all she wrote”.
The remaining 75 percent of the screen is taken up by the combat map. The map is just marginally above the purely functional level. Zoomed-in vehicles show enough detail to distinguish one type from another but little more. Terrain graphics are an odd mix of the rolling Myth graphics and stylized details for roads and forests. Only ridges rise above being rather dull.
This blandness is unfortunate as terrain plays a very important role in play. Certain terrain slows or prohibits movement for particular vehicle types while a major innovation to the system, real 3D line of sight, depends of terrain. These limitations are compensated partially by different viewing options but switching them on or off either interrupts play or makes for an ugly map. Nice touches are the different highlights of squads when groups are selected.
Combat graphics are equally mixed. Smoke is done very well and explosions do the trick. However, the first mortar rounds resemble a bucket of golf balls landing. Sounds are fine with volume decreasing as the move moves away from the action. All in all, Remote Assault has very little eye candy and the playing area is cluttered by the interface.
Bringing Up Tankie
Remote Assault’s failings in graphics are more than made up for in its game play. The overall Fog of War requires adequate reconnaissance. Usually, recon means sending an expendable unit out to be killed. With this game, recon is more intelligent because units are more intelligent.
That’s right: players don’t have to hold their units’ hand. Behavior is selected for units depending on their primary mission. Therefore, a recon unit that has found something ugly will pop smoke and find a ridge to hide behind without direct orders from the player. A heavy tank group with orders to take an area will blow through light resistance but will deploy defensively and notify headquarters while waiting for reinforcements if met by an equal force. The system breaks the clickfest tradition of RTS play. Forces act intelligently and allow the player to react without spraining a wrist.
The excellent pause function allows for giving orders in an intelligent fashion and a calm contemplation of the situation. What’s more, behavior can be taught to units. At a unit level, behaviors can be of six varieties ranging from self-preservation to conserve ammo to independent. Group and squad behavior can be “taught” the same way—just click on a button and chose from the list. The ramifications of this are significant. One part of your force can be taught to be wild while another behaves conservatively, acting as a reserve. An overall plan using different behaviors is a much better alternative to the usual fevered mouse frenzy of RTS combat. All this and more is laid out cleanly in the 39-page printed manual and the tutorial campaign.
RABs are taught to take orders.
While behaviors are ”sticky”, they can be overridden by right-clicking on the unit, squad or group level and bringing up an orders menu. Depending on the force’s status, the possible ten orders change formations, direct movement and dictate the form of combat. Most of them are self-explanatory such as “Take Area”, “Attack Units” and “Retreat.” Clicking on the command and then the goal is all that’s required. Two orders, however, require more explanation and are critical to success.
“Suppress area” is an artillery command that requires a box to be drawn on the map after it’s given. Artillery then saturates the area until ammo is low. This tactic is great on stationary targets and putting a block in the way of advancing enemies. When combined with nearby spotters, the fire is incredibly lethal. “Smoke the line” doesn’t refer to an illegal drug habit but rather laying down a smoke screen designated by the player during a pause. Smoke is fine to cover both retreats and advances. Combining these commands with the ability to lay down phase lines and modifying behaviors give Remote Assault players far more control than in other RTS games.
That control is needed. The scenarios and two campaigns present a range of tactical situations covering everything in the tactics book. Players must not only take into account the usual matter of terrain, objective and force mass but also the combination of forces available. In several scenarios, the available forces aren’t optimal to the job.
For instance, taking an area with heavy forces may sound easy except that every scenario has a time limit. Slower units may not make it in time so a fast light unit should be held back to shoot the gap. The AI in this game is incredible and will not fall for simple tricks. In defense, it will ambush; in attack, it will outflank. Players should not expect to win the first time they play any scenario. In fact, they should begin with a slower than normal game speed while extending the time limit to the max.
A recon group receives orders to smoke a line
The results
Cheers and Jeers
Alas, Remote Assault does have two regrettable flaws in terms of play. The relatively small number of scenarios limit replay in spite of the variant options for each scenario. The missions in the campaigns not only have no variants but are not linked. A player can lose all his troops in one mission, get chewed out by HQ, and still go on to the next mission with only a bad score.
Defining victory in terms of points for controlling objectives and maximizing kills while minimizing casualties is fine for single scenarios but the price of failure in a campaign should be a change in strategic direction or a reduction in force. This concept, present in games since the original Panzer General, should be implemented along with an editor. Until these features are added, OneGames should flood us with inexpensive scenario packs. In the meantime, LAN and Internet play will fill the void for some players.
Faults aside, Remote Assault represents a new page in RTS military games. Players with tastes rising above the click-and-sparkle genre will be challenged and entertained at the same time. Bravo, Mr. Gantt.
