7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Unique approach to war
Date of Review: Oct 8, 2002
The Bottom Line: A different appraoch to the real-time strategy genre - worth picking up at current prices.
Conflict Zone is a real-time strategy game allowing you to play as either "peacekeepers" or "terrorist factions". Like other real-time strategy games, the key is the "harvesting" of resources while at the same time conducting your forces in battle. As opposed to other RTS games where you "harvest" some sort of minerals to purchase units, Conflict Zone uses a unique and somewhat more realistic approach - the control of civilian populations. In every battle there two or more towns with civilians - each team collects civilians from the towns by sending out helicopters to collect them. You try to place ground forces in a town to discourage enemy helicopters from passing over, and your enemy tries to dislodge your forces. Each time your helicopter brings back civilians to your base, a local news team reports on your success and you gain "prestige points" - which allow you to purchase more military units.
Most missions are challenging, often requiring a couple of attempts to complete - fortunately, the game does allow to save at any point during a mission (saving you from having to start the mission over again from scratch). While new units are introduced with each mission completed, there aren't dramatic differences in the units on either side - ultimately, many battles are won by whoever can build up the most units the fastest. Strategy is needed, but is rarely successful against a larger force.
Graphics are pretty good, but noy groundbreaking - most pieces "slide" across the terrain rather than drive. The controls can be overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, being able to go from a bird's-eye to a following your troops into battle on ground level is a blast.
