Surprises come in many shapes and sizes but we certainly were not expecting one to resemble a pint-sized Ninja. Having been waiting for months now for any news of IO Interactive’s bald assassin, we sure had our collective eyebrows raised, when instead of Agent 47, IO decided to spring a completely brand new game, Mini Ninjas at us. Shoving away the piano wire quickly in our back-pocket, we set down to see if this undoubtedly kid-friendly looking game would keep us distracted until IO Interactive decided to let the bar-coded assassin loose. And oh-boy, were we distracted or what!

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Remember the time when momma dearest would coo into your ears telling how the apple of her eye is going to re-write history someday? And then there you are, in between drunken binges and bunked classes wondering if you would ever manage to clear the history paper, leave alone re-write it. Well, if you are one of those, then maybe this is your chance to take the easy way out. Come October and all you will have to do is pick up the latest offering by Sierra Entertainment and Massive Entertainment, “World In Conflict”.

Brainchild of game developers who preferred to doze off during the history classes, “World In Conflict” brings to us a game based in an alternate historical scenario where the USSR, driven against the wall, decides to risk it all and invade USA. After having been stopped by NATO forces in Europe, the Soviets decide to bring the war to American soil by landing their troops in Seattle in a massive air and sea action. Caught unaware, it’s time for USA to pull out all stops and go against the invading army, even at the cost of risking a nuclear war. This is where you, as a player, step in.

‘World In Conflict” is a Real Time Strategy game but with a twist. Resource management has been given the boot here. Instead the game lets you start with a fixed amount of credit using which you can build up the army to go head-to-head with the enemy. As and when you loose your battle units, the points spent on those specific units will be returned back to you to bring in more re-enforcements. However, there will be a time limit before which reinforcement can be brought in thus balancing the game. Thus by eliminating resource gathering, the game lets you focus on combat rather then having to worry about where to find that scarce but important resource. You will be spending more time planning out the strategy for the actual battle in this game then worrying about resources.

The game allows you to jump in into the battle after you have decided to either go with the Americans or root for the Soviets. The next decision will be based on which of the four forces, Infantry, Armour, Support or Air Force do you want to commander. Choosing one will unlock all the powerful units while locking out a few from the other three. So if you decide to go with the Infantry, you will get all the fire power that the Infantry can muster but in the bargain you will have to forgo some of the deadlier weapons that the Armour division or the Air Force could have offered you. That doesn’t mean that you won’t have access to the other weapons in the arsenal of the other services. It’s just that they will cost you more credits.

Once on the battle field, you are supposed to capture flags by gaining control over some control points surrounding the flag. This will leave you with the dual task of maintaining control over the points as well as keeping the enemy at bay. The longer you keep the flag under you, the more the Power Bar will tilt in your favour. Victory will be yours as and when you manage to fill it completely in your favour. Aiding you in this will be a special feature called Tactical Assistance (TA). As you take out the enemy units and gain control, you will start accumulating TA points which can be later redeemed for special powers. These powers can range from a simple peek into the enemy positions to some truely destructive show of power as in Napalm strikes or even a Tactical Nuke to deliver a crippling blow.

Any game that gives you a Nuke to play around with is sure to catch our attention. Besides, the chance to re-write history is something that we don’t want to miss out on. After having a taste of a similar setting in IO Interactive’s third person shooter, “Freedom Fighters”, we sure are looking forward to this game this summer.

History will be written again.