War Rock: We take a closer look at this promising persistent world action game from K2 Network

By Dave VanDyk
Oct. 16, 2006

Upon first inspection, War Rock was a game that left me scratching my head. I looked over the official screenshots and gameplay movies, and couldn’t quite figure out how this game was supposed to be any different from Battlefield 2. Actually, there is quite a lot about War Rock that reminded me strongly of elements from existing popular titles, and yet the developers have still managed to wrap this into an alluring and interesting gameplay experience. In this article, I’ll be setting forth to what makes War Rock so special, and why action gamers may want to set aside some extra hard drive space for the game’s release.

Probably one of the most interesting points behind the hype on this game is that it will be free to play. Any random Joe with a decent connection can come in, download the core game client (once it’s officially released), and be up and running with a minimum of fuss. The only caveat is that the developers are planning to put out premium content over time that players can purchase to enhance their experience - primarily in the form of new weapons and equipment items, alongside other bonuses players can purchase over-the-desk at retail. This seems to be quite an interesting approach for an action-oriented title, and it’ll be fascinating to see how this works out for War Rock in the long run. but will it offer enough of a lucrative gameplay experience to draw gamers in and encourage them to pony up the dollars?

This is something only time will tell, but for now, the game is still in a period of open beta testing to help get the kinks out of the way. My experience with the game has been focused specifically on the latest beta versions, and following a few bumps involving server instability and patching confusion I was on my way. In fact, having just come down from playing the Battlefield 2142 demo, I recruited a couple of my friends to hook up with the beta as well and join me online to help give the game a workout, as given the heavy focus on multi-crewed vehicles and tactical warfare, it made perfect sense to find my own little posse to own with. Unfortunately, some limitations of the beta prevented us from working together in a proper capacity, but I’ll go into this a little more shortly.

To begin with, let me first introduce the server interface. All players have their own unique login which ties into the game’s persistency aspects (primarily, purchased inventory and in-game cash, or “Dinars”, which is primarily obtained by getting kills and completing objectives). After selecting from a number of servers, players can pick the type of match they want to play. “Mission-Based”, which basically turns each round into an exaggerated Counter-Strike match focused on diffusing explosives set by the enemy players - “Infantry”, which focuses on small to medium-scale maps with light vehicle assets for support - or “Vehicle”, which focuses almost exclusively on larger maps with many armor assets in play. After that, a straightforward server browser interface appears where players can create or join matches. It was here that I also found framework in place for joining clan matches, setting up guilds, and viewing other player stats, though I wasn’t able to experiment with these options just yet.

However, one of the game’s major functions in the form of the “Armory” was up and running. From this screen, players will be able to choose what weapons they want to outfit their soldier of fortune with. After choosing from one of five different classics (Engineer, Scout, Medic, Combatant, and Heavy Weapons), the game enables a selection of new weapons and tools to purchase. The interface is pretty straightforward here, but one interesting quirk is that when you purchase a weapon, it’s only as a loan.

You can pay more money to keep a weapon for a longer period of time, but ultimately you’ll need a good cashflow to keep hold of your favorite toys, and I’ve also heard that the inventories are reset every once in awhile (probably a wise idea to help keep balance and encourage players to try new things). A particularly important part of this is that the developers are promising a steady amount of new content and equipment (based especially on player feedback), so I expect there will be strong encouragement on release to keep checking back with the armory to see what’s new. For now, most of the weapons are basic pistols and sub-machine guns, with a few rifles and rocket launchers thrown in for good measure.

Let’s get on to the actual gameplay. One of the most common modes of play I encountered while participating in War Rock’s online battles involved a spin-off of Battlefield 2’s “Conquest” mode. Two teams of players fight to exterminate each other in a given map, and a ticket system keeps track of each team’s points. The first team to hit a ticket count of zero loses, so victory is dependent on both killing enemy players, and not getting shot in the face yourself. Assorted bases are scattered across each map which can be captured and spawned from, and many maps of course also offer a compliment of their own vehicles to choose from, be they boats, tanks, aircraft, Jeeps, and even motorcycles (!). The other mode encountered (and this was primarily during the “Mission” style of play) worked similarly to Counter-Strike’s demolition mode was hinted on previously, where one team is tasked with planting explosives, while the other must put a stop to their fiendish terrorist-like shenanigans. Really, if there was one disappointment I have for the game so far, it’s that the included gameplay modes are mostly variants of those I’ve already played to death in existing games - but I’m hoping this will be offset by War Rock’s promises of easily accessible gameplay, a huge amount of content, and, best of all, the freeware nature of the game.

These elements if done properly could help in making the game very popular, and even already there is a great deal of activity and interest surrounding the game’s open beta from the official forums (this can be observed just from the sheer number of complaints that come up any time the servers go down for maintenance).

One important fact I feel I should mention too is that the developers are promoting a very flexible gameplay engine with generous minimum requirements, so while the game has the capacity to look very pleasing, it can run well on lower-end systems too - so those players who have wanted to join the fun of Battlefield 2 but lacked the rendering muscle to do so might definitely want to check this game out.

Something else I’d like to see out of War Rock is just a much tighter focus on teamwork. I mentioned earlier that I paired off with two of my friends to play online and test out the beta, but this process took a bit more effort than should have been necessary. Upon joining our first server, one player on my personal party ended up being forced onto the enemy team. There was no way to switch during a match that we could find, so he just had to quit and rejoin once the team balance had changed sufficiently to place him on our side. After that, it was rather difficult to co-ordinate our actions in any cohesive manner, simply because there was no easy way to tell where other players were from the spawn menu and form up with them (even using an external voice chat client, there was still mass confusion in the ranks). I won’t argue that perhaps I was just spoiled by my recent experiences with the Battlefield 2142 demo and its Squad / Commander system, but given how the game seems to be emulating many aspects of the Battlefield series so closely, why not carry over the better parts too? In the game’s defense however, I did also see specific (currently locked) options for setting up and joining “Squads” from the spawning menu, so I’m getting the impression this is something the developers will be addressing down the road. So long as the teamplay aspects are properly fleshed out, then the similarities with existing titles probably won’t even matter - the undisputed fact of War Rock’s free-to-play functionality will undoubtedly be a huge bonus to all players.

There’s no doubt that War Rock has a lot of fun potential - the controls are tight and responsive, and it was very satisfying leaning around a corner and laying into an unsuspecting foe with a burst from my P90. The vehicles also add a great deal to the “hilarious fun” element, although the choppers are a menace to control at this point and require a very fine touch (I also had a tricky time setting up any kind of joystick input to handle the flying - and don’t even get me started about the wacky landings I’ve done in my A-10 Warthog). If you’re interested on getting into the action, War Rock is still running through its open beta phase and can be found at www.warrock.net - the game developers are keeping a constant eye towards feedback, so I’m very interested to see how this will shape the final product.