Syrian Warfare is a classic Real Time Strategy game brought to you by tiny Russian developer Cats Who Play.
Now if you already enjoyedSyrian Warfare is a classic Real Time Strategy game brought to you by tiny Russian developer Cats Who Play.
Now if you already enjoyed pseudo-realistic military RTS or TBS games from Russia like Sudden Strike 2, Blitzkrieg, 7.62 High Calibre, Stalingrad or 9th Company, then look no further. You'll friggin' adore this game. It has great combat gameplay mechanics, almost completely destructible environment (which you can use to your advantage), simple micro-management and definitely an interesting, modern military setting.
Speaking of that, you play as Syrian Police Officer Anwar who first commands a small unit of Syrian Police Forces and later in the game changes to the regular Syrian Arab Army. To those who still don't know at this point - that's the Assad Forces of the still raging Syrian Civil War. Over the duration of the whole game you first fight against various extremist Jihadi groups, including Al-Nusra or ISIS.
But make no mistake - this game is tough as nails. If you mindlessly let your tanks and APCs charge into open fields and streets, you're already doomed to be the target of countless ATGMs. Enemy snipers hiding in apartment blocks will ruin any of your infantry attacks. Many fields, country roads and streets are covered with mines, which can only be detected by sappers and special forces. Hidden forward observers will see you from miles ahead and mercilessly call artillery strikes on you. To make things worse, they will even send suicide bombers - against you.
To survive through all that mess you'll have to clinch to every unit and resources available to you. Ammo and Fuel are limited and have to be re-supplied with trucks. To blind enemy observers you can use smoke screens to cross streets and buildings. To avoid being hit by ATGMs you must hide your tanks between buildings and structures and let them only briefly come forward to shoot and get back to cover again. Enemy tanks with strong front armor you have to take out from behind with fast and versatile ATGM technicals. You may use snipers or RPO rockets to take out forward observers in buildings and to clear the way for your assault squads - and the list goes on. Thankfully there's also a «Pause Mode» in which you can freeze the game and coordinate your commands.
Individual units can gain experience in battle and can be used again in later missions. You will definitely love that glorious moment when you lead your favorite tank crew in a brand-new T90 to the final battle of Palmyra - just some missions before they were absolute rookies handling a rusty T55.
At some points it's a bit too much of a «Trial-and-Error». Your troops may bite the dust pretty often and you'll get accustomed to the loading screen flashing on your monitor. Even on «Realistic», the medium difficulty next to «Normal» and «Ironman», the game is not forgiving at all. Normally I don't start playing video games on the easiest difficulty mode, but in this case I rather recommend to do so.
Due to the tough level of difficulty you'll have to spend about 20 hours to complete all 7 missions of the campaign. For the current price and the prospect of possible DLCs or sequels I find that absolutely OK. Another forte I must praise is the mission design. Some of these missions, like the rescue of the Russian pilot shot down by Turkey in 2015, are based on real events of the Syrian Civil War. The developers, even if they may dramatize to some degree, made a good job of recreating an authentic experience. If you closely followed the events of this conflict or watched reports by Anna News you'll definitely notice so on many details.
Now despite all the praise, are there any downsides? Yes indeed. The pathfinding can be frustrating at some points and you may occasionally yell at the stupidity of your own troops. The voice acting may annoy some linguistic purists, but I found them actually really OK.
The Good:
+ Highly interesting yet controversial setting
+ Awesome combat gameplay mechanics
+ Huge tactical depth, but still simple gameplay mechanics
+ Destructible and interactive environment and buildings
+ High level of detail in terms of military equipment and events
+ Political incorrectness ;)
+ Simple micro-management of units
+ Individual units gain experience for further missions
+ OK graphics engine with some gorgeous effects
+ Great price for the value
+ Good music and sound effects (incl. Arabic voices)
The Bad:
- Annoying pathfinding
- Much Trial-and-Error type of gameplay
- Only one campaign (SAA)
- No skirmish or multiplayer
To put it in a nutshell, if you're interested in realistic modern warfare in Middle East with a touch of alternative point of view, then absolutely grab this game. The price is a steal and you'll have an intense experience for at least 20 hours. After you finished the last hidden Al-Nusra thug in the insane Battle for the Damascus Suburbs you'll definitely shed a tear of joy, believe me.… Expand
