Aspiring To Be Great

Stormregion had a worthwhile concept on their hands when they created S.W.I.N.E.. The graphics set a new standard for that of real-time strategy games and it'll get a smile or two out of you along the way as intended. Similar to Ground Control, there is no resource gathering, no building of structures, and a moderate diversity of units. Unfortunately, flawed gameplay hits it hard, with limited replay value.

A great war is developing between the pigs and rabbits. In a conflict that plays out similarly to the events of World War II, you come in as the "French" rabbits, who have their furry backs up against the wall after a pig invasion. As commander, you must force the "German" pigs back into their homeland and begin your own assault. Then you switch roles and play out the pig campaign from the other side of the gun barrel. The effort at humor is evident throughout this title?in the voice acting, in the cutscenes, in the briefings?but nothing that'll really tickle your funny bone.

S.W.I.N.E. is fairly innovative in its tactical aspects, but falls on its snout (please forgive me, I couldn't resist) during the thick of missions. The importance of fuel and ammunition is one not commonly seen in today's games, but it plays a pivotal role in the gameplay of S.W.I.N.E.. Units can also be customized and gain experience points in order to advance to higher levels of performance. However, the cookie cutter missions don't keep you guessing and lead to slightly dull action.

Visuals/Sound

Terrain, effects, and units are all superbly rendered by the 3D engine utilized by S.W.I.N.E.. High-resolution textures cover the landscape and detailed features such as barren trees add character to the environments. But it is the animations that bring the game to life. Tanks rock back and forth in recoil after firing shots and smoke billows up from their damaged armor. The turret on a Rocket Launcher pitches forward when the unit comes to a complete stop. All vehicles leave behind tracks in the dirt. Water flows along in rivers brilliantly?enough to make you pause and watch it for a while before moving on.

Framerate drops did rear their ugly head at times when there were many friendly and enemy units in the same area, making it difficult to issue commands quickly. At least the handy pause function of the game enables you give commands to your units and consider the situations carefully before moving on.

Another thing going in S.W.I.N.E.'s favor is its unit acknowledgements. Despite the huge developments that have been made in the real-time strategy genre over the past few years, far too many of today's titles still suffer from repetitive responses from your troops. Even such powerful words as "That'll teach 'em" get old after their 341st rendition. S.W.I.N.E. includes many lines that are specific to a mission, meaning that you'll never have to hear them again unless you play through the map once more. The acknowledgements for basic move commands aren't extremely annoying either, although you can be sure that the horrible French and German accents can be.

The rest of the sound effects in the game keep the atmosphere exciting, flooding it with the noise from running engines and volleys of missile fire. S.W.I.N.E.'s music is playful and fits the mood perfectly, a nice addition to the game.

Cutscenes are thrown in here and there to offer a little chuckle, but don't really make the story progress. They simply portray individual encounters between the rabbits and the pigs. The mission briefings are where the storyline is laid out. You become aware of the consequences of your last mission and get a decent look at what lies ahead of you in the upcoming mission.

Gameplay

The maps of S.W.I.N.E. are large enough to allow different approaches to the same objective. However, many of those approaches can be unbearably frustrating because of the game's poor pathfinding. Crossing bridges is a must sooner or later because of the aforementioned rivers, but moving your entire troop across at once is next to impossible. It takes an unnecessarily long amount of time due to a couple of faults. First, when many units are selected simultaneously and a move command is issued, some just plain don't budge. And after a second move command is given, those units usually get up and go, while others remain still. Second, many times when a faster unit bumps into a slower unit in its path, it makes the assumption that it cannot pass through this route and goes seeking another way around. Typically it will find another way, but most likely come across a hoard of enemies in the process and arrive much later and heavily damaged at that.

While the missions do provide a good enough challenge for even experienced real-time strategy players, some bugs take the wind out of the enemy A.I.. By using a vehicle with a large range of vision coupled with some artillery, you can launch an attack on distant enemy units which won't lift a paw, thus allowing themselves to be clobbered. Another cheap, but effective, tactic is basically to lure small groups of enemies back to a row of your own poised and ready tanks. Otherwise, the opposing A.I. does a good job of hurting you in confrontation, although it isn't intelligent enough to go for your most vital units. Its typical attack is upon the units closest to it.

The single player is such a big part of S.W.I.N.E.'s gameplay that its predictability is a major shortcoming. Missions are lengthy, offering a wealth of actions, but should you fail, the next attempt is immeasurably easier because you know exactly what's coming, when it's coming, and which of your units will be the best match for it. Multiplayer is organized through GameSpy Arcade, LAN, or direct IP with deathmatch, countdown, capture the flag, and elimination modes in which to play. There are also ten good maps on which to crush your opponents. Unfortunately, games in GameSpy Arcade are few and far between, to put it bluntly.

Unlike such games as StarCraft, the units of S.W.I.N.E. are identical for each faction except that the rabbits have an effective Tank Killer at their disposal, and the pigs have a powerful Heavy Tank that is available to them early in the game. As you can see, this leads to very little variety when you switch over to the other campaign. On the other hand, you are already experienced with the units and don't need to go through another tutorial session again.

S.W.I.N.E. manual is as helpful as one could have hoped for. It contains overviews of the available units, the story, keyboard shortcut commands, and so on. In other words, it's something that I'm grateful to have around when I need it during a mission.

One of the more exciting aspects of the gameplay is the collection of special abilities of the units. Each has its own and each is useful in certain scenarios. Artillery must lower their supports before they can fire, Command Vehicles can call in bombing runs which absolutely devastate a small area of concentrated enemy units, and Light Tanks can dig themselves into the ground to put up a better defense against attacks.

Between missions, you have the opportunity to purchase more units for your army with strategy points earned from preceding missions. This is where you can also pick up to three upgrades for each of your units, ranging from a Repair Kit to a Fuel Tank. Should you choose to save some of your strategy points, you can use them to either request bombing runs or fly in additional units during a mission. This becomes a valuable asset when you are suddenly unprepared for what a mission requires. For example, your tanks must pass through a narrow corridor with enemies on the cliffs. The only weaponry in your arsenal capable of dealing with the situation is the Artillery. It takes a while for the helicopter to make it from the lower left-hand corner of the map to your position, but you can do this as many times as needed. However, one must be careful of anti-air weapons set up by the enemy, which can take down a helicopter in just a few seconds. Once this occurs, you can no longer request units for the remainder of the mission.

Despite the numerous reports that have been published complaining about the stability of S.W.I.N.E. even after the latest patch, the program never crashed on my Windows XP system, let alone locked the system up hard. S.W.I.N.E. will certainly entertain those familiar and happy with the state of real-time strategy, but it isn't the next Age of Empires either. Stormregion has a bright future ahead of themselves in this genre, but first they must polish their A.I. and level design.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Wonderful graphics
• Great sound effects and music
• Variety in unit acknowledgements
• Innovative unit attributes

Cons

• Frustrating pathfinding
• Faulty enemy A.I.
• Missions lack inspiration

SLRating: 7/10

Re-Printed From SLCentral

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