Original War - Gameplay

Gameplay

Original War is an RTS: The player builds a base, harvests resources, builds vehicles, and destroys the enemy. Its distinguishing feature is the way the game mechanics reflect the backstory's scarcity of resources and isolation.

It is not possible to train new men. Moreover, the same units who fight are needed for resource gathering and the bases' functions. Production facilities, research labs, vehicles and base defenses are all useless unmanned. The local apemen can be drafted to do simple tasks, and with the right research it's possible to use remote control and AIs, but all are generally worse in combat than humans. Losses in personnel are otherwise irreplaceable.

Units do not fight to the end. Critical damage causes humans and apemen to collapse, and vehicles and buildings to eject their occupants and catch fire. They can be saved if they are healed or repaired before they bleed out or explode, respectively. Units give lower priority to incapacitated targets, and the player's units will not attack them unless ordered to. Vehicles without drivers belong to no one, so hijacking is easy and even desirable.

Original War is "almost as much an RPG as a RTS." Each human or apeman unit has its own name and portrait, speed, firepower and defense scores, and experience levels in each of the game's four classes. Humans can change class (or "kit") in seconds by ducking into an appropriate building. Soldiers deal and withstand much more damage, can crawl, and receive huge bonuses while in emplacements. Engineers can haul resources, initiate the construction of new buildings, and repair and dismantle buildings. Mechanics can construct and repair vehicles, and receive equally huge bonuses while driving them. Scientists are researchers, healers, and apeman tamers. Units gain XP and level up in a skill by performing actions associated with the skill. XP gain is faster for units with the associated kit.

The game has three types of resources: Crates, oil and Siberite/Alaskite. Supply crates sent from the future are the foundation of all construction. Small piles of crates appear on the map with a thunderclap at random intervals. Most maps in the game have regions where crates appear the most often. American optoelectronics enable them to pinpoint the exact locations of the crates as they arrive, while the Soviets, who have focused on time-based technology, are able to predict a perimeter where the crates will arrive a few seconds before they materialise.

Oil and the varyingly named mineral power bases and vehicles. Scientists can locate their deposits, and constructing a tower or mine on a deposit generates a steady steam of the resource. This may be the only base function that works automatically. Oil is used mostly early- and midgame as a cheap yet readily available power source. Oil-burning vehicles have fuel meters. They can be refueled at a base or by transporting oil to them, and the driver can get out and push. The mineral allows vehicles to run indefinitely, and opens up several advanced research topics. Solar power is also available. Solar-based fuel reserves are pitiful, but they regenerate.

Original War has an American and a Soviet campaign. The game recommends playing the American one first. Missions on both sides tend to contain scripted events, multiple-choice situations and sidequests. Human units persist between missions, so that each loss is a loss for the rest of the game. Mission design keeps the ranks from becoming too thin or too thick: for instance, the player might be ordered to choose eight men altogether from veterans of previous missions and other members of the side, go defend an outpost, and return after the mission. Units also gain XP for completing missions. The XP gained increases farther into the game, and is affected by the player's success in completing the various demands (often sidequests) in each mission. The player chooses one class for each unit to receive 50% of the xp, and the other three skills gain the remaining 50% between them.