When comparing World in Conflict vs Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, the Slant community recommends World in Conflict for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” World in Conflict is ranked 48th while Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is ranked 149th. The most important reason people chose World in Conflict is:
Taking place during an alternate history 1980's, World in Conflict depicts a world in which the Cold War suddenly turns hot, with the Soviet Union invading Europe and the United States. With a majority of the US military staving off the Russian advance in Europe, a small, retreating force of United States Armed Forces is left charge of repelling the Soviet assault on American soil. The campaign takes the player to the upper west coast of Washington, the mountains of Colorado, lush green fields in France and the snow-covered forests of Russia, each mission telling a story of the world's desperate attempt to stop the Soviet advance.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Engaging story
Taking place during an alternate history 1980's, World in Conflict depicts a world in which the Cold War suddenly turns hot, with the Soviet Union invading Europe and the United States. With a majority of the US military staving off the Russian advance in Europe, a small, retreating force of United States Armed Forces is left charge of repelling the Soviet assault on American soil. The campaign takes the player to the upper west coast of Washington, the mountains of Colorado, lush green fields in France and the snow-covered forests of Russia, each mission telling a story of the world's desperate attempt to stop the Soviet advance.
Pro Balanced battles
Utilizing an enhanced rock, paper, scissors combat system, World in Conflict allows balanced in play, as this intuitive system is something most are familiar with in RTS games and will be easy to grasp.
Pro Customizable AI lets players have fun without friends
In skirmishes, you can set up different personalities for, and customize, the AI. Before matches, you select certain roles for the AI to take: Infantry, Armor, Air, or Support, as well as define their difficulty. If you wish to have the max player capacity (16), you can set up the AI to take over seven positions on your team, leaving you the role you wish to play as for that battle.
Pro LAN battles between friends and AI
World in Conflict features LAN play with up to 16 players, including AI opponents. This is ideal for large-scale battles among friends and the all-but-forgotten LAN parties of old.
Pro Better framerate when ran in DX12
This game is DX12 compatible which allows for a higher frame rate over DX11. DX12 is only able to be taken advantage of on Windows 10, so that is something to consider, but for those that can take advantage, there is a slight gain to be had.
Pro Pleasing graphics
The graphics stand out as polished and make for a really nice looking RTS. This is top of its class in graphics for an RTS in 2016.
Pro Cool mechanic for controlling troops
There is a tool in the game that allows one to "lasso" their units together into an army. By making an army the player can then control that army as they would one troop unit, meaning that all micromanagement for a large group of troops is unnecessary as the game will deal with it in a more intuitive an easy manner. This can be done with as little or as many troops as the player want, which overall makes for an easy way to control the game when in the heat of battle.
Pro Good mix of gameplay modes for any skill level
The game features a single player story mode, a story mode called Ascendancy that will walk the player though how to play the game and multiplayer modes that are ranked as well as custom multiplayer modes. Through the assortment of modes the game allows for any type of player to find gameplay that they may like, whether they are a seasoned RTS player or a newcomer to the genre. Whether playing locally in single player or online with friends or random people, there should be plenty on offer for any skill level.
Pro Focuses on positioning over micromanagement
The maps in this game are large, sometimes taking up as many as 20-30 zones in a single map. What this means is that the player will need to focus a lot more on position of their units over actually micromanaging every aspect of each unit (due to the vast size of maps and the amount of units on them). This allows for gameplay that has a broader scope in strategy, as it forces the player to plan out what is best to protect and the best position to hold of enemy attacks all while still trying to grow their army in order to overpower their enemy.
Pro Easily allows the player to utilize specific info on their enemies
At all times the player can vies on a mini map how much their enemy has expanded and into what areas. There is also a thing called player power rating, which allows the player to know on a point scale what their enemies military and economic power level is. Which means you can get a sense of what fields your enemy is expanding into. Combining these tools allows for a quick way to know where the enemy is expanding and into what fields of tech they are concentrating on. This way the player can adjust their strategy accordingly, making for an even deeper level of strategy overall.
Cons
Con Lack of multiplayer ranks
No ranking system, which are prevalent in most online experiences, is present in World in Conflict, thus inexperienced players can too easily join in on matches with experienced players. Due to this, matches may be lopsided, especially if one team has more experienced players participating on it, or a team that always plays together.
Con Multiplayer taken offline
On October 6, 2015, Online Multiplayer through Massgate was to be terminated, however the server shutoff was postponed due to public outcry. Since that time, the game no longer connects to Massgate servers and requires players whom wish to experience the online Multiplayer component of World in Conflict to download a mod that re-enables multiplayer once more. Because of this, matches are scarce and is all but dead.
Con No challenges to manage
The designers have dumbed down the game to make it easier for new players to learn, however this makes it less rewarding to experienced players who are looking for a challenge.
Con Weak gameplay
Con Physics are unrealistic
Many of the units will pass right through each other, making for units that behave in an unrealistic way and can pull the player out of the immersion of the title. The units also all hover over the ground, which means they have no real weight to their actions, when combined with the unrealistic way they move makes for something that just does not looked polished.
Con Demanding system requirements
The game requires a high end GPU as well as at-least a 4 core processor. This means the game is quite demanding and needs to take advantage of multi-cores in order to play smoothly at high graphical settings. So for those with a mid-range system, the game may play at lower frame-rates, which can be frustrating.
Con Lacking in options for factions and units
There are only two factions available in the game to play with, so makes for limited choice. On top of this each faction has only so many different units, which also shows a lack of choice. Combined, once the game has been experienced and both factions played with there will be little in surprise as to what the game has to offer.