With Soldiers of Anarchy, Simon
and Schuster presents a stylish RTS with a strong tactical emphasis set in an apocalyptic
future. While Soldiers of Anarchy is sure to please any fan of the genre, this game brings
more to the table than just a relevant storyline and solid graphics. The toolset shipping
with the original release promises to be as user friendly and powerful as Biowares
Neverwinter Aurora Toolset, enabling gamers to flex their creative muscles and design
their own levels, campaigns, and even cinematics and dialogue.A zealous cult has triggered a
disastrous outbreak of the AIDS virus, killing millions of innocent people and
destabilizing governments all over the world. You play a band of NATO troops trying to
keep the peace and eliminate the cult threat. At your command are an impressive variety of
troops, tanks, helicopters, and gadgets. Particularly notable are the 29 vehicles
available in Soldiers of Anarchy, as well as plenty of guns and explosives. The fully
interactive game world makes piloting these vehicles an intense experience, as any
building can be destroyed, any tree uprooted, any car exploded. All of this destruction
will be rendered in rich, full 3D detail featuring a mobile camera that can zoom close
enough to read license plates or far enough to see the whole battlefield at a glance.
The user
interface is icon based and quite intuitive, shortening the learning curve enough to
satisfy veterans to the genre and newcomers alike. The 23 levels through ten campaigns
will keep these gamers busy for at least fifteen to twenty hours. But when the
single-player campaign is over and the eight different multi-player modes have been
explored, thats when the fun really begins. The powerful, user-friendly toolset in
Soldiers of Anarchy works within the trend toward taking player/game interaction to the
next level, providing would-be designers with the versatility to make structures in 3D
Studio Max and import them into the game. Everything gamers see and use in the
single-player campaign is available in the toolset, plus unusual items like control chips
and medicine. The idea behind these unusual items is to allow players to make their own
games or missions not centered on the typical kill-all-enemies objectives but rather
search-and-recovery objectives targeting important computer chips or life-saving
medicines. But rest assured Soldiers of Anarchys fluid combat system ensures
that battles remain a highly satisfying way to move the story forward.
Most
important for modders is the high level of active, enthusiastic support being promised,
featuring a web site to share mods and forthcoming instructions to help novices learn to
design compelling content with the Soldiers of Anarchy toolset. All of this adds up to a
virtually endless series of campaigns and games whose creativity will be limited only by
the ingenuity of the fan base. Start training nowS.O.A. should hit stores in
September of this year.