Nearly no one knows of this marvelous RTT, which is a shame (and no surprise, it was a Czech game with little marketing beyond boundaries of our little nation. And the game got really small review scores across the globe, mainly because it was 2d game in 3d age and because it's not what you would expect of RTT. User scores are actually very favourable, everywhere.) So I am here to fix that.

So, what is this Original War I speak of? It is a slowpaced 2D real-time tactical game with unique gampelay mechanics and engaging story with multiple endings.

What is it about? Story-wise, the game is about an artifact called EON uncovered during world war I, which is capable of time-travel. It's fueld by an unique substance, called siberite, which has been later discovered by US in Siberia - substance so potent that it would mean technical dominantion if it were to fall into US hands in sufficient ammounts. And so, US have decided to send a small militaty force 2 million years into the past to find and mine the substance in Siberia, and then transport it to future American territory, so it can be easily reached and mined. You are John McMillan, one of the soldiers sent with the expedition, on a one-way trip to the past. But the moment you arrive, something seems to have gone bad - Russian presence 2 000 000 years in the past doesn't really sound right...

So, why am I telling you all this? Because many of the gameplay mechanics revolve around this. First thing that you will probably notice is that you cannot build new soldiers. You can build bases, vehicles (which need to be manned, but you do get access to remote control technology and AI later on - both much less efficient than those with human driver), research and such as in any other RTS - however you have to distribute availible workforce between soldiers, technicians(drivers as well,) scientists(who double as medics,) and builders.

The more you focus on one field, the more will the other fields suffer - and the game also contains simple "learn by doing" RPG mechanic, so each and every member of your group is good and bad at something. Also, every time someone dies, he doesn't miraculously get ressurrected next missin. He stays dead. This builds an incredible bond with your soldiers, and you will soon learn to value them for their abilities and sometimes even for their characters.

That is not the only original aspect of the game, thou. For instance, your base resource - crates - spawn randomly around map as they are sent from the future by unpredictable EON. This creates additional challenge to get to them before the enemy does and cut him from this resource. So it's not just a personnel management RTT, logistics are also very important, as well as general resource management. There are 4 resources in the game: Crates that you have hunt for, solar power that is very weak, but omnipresent, oil that has to be aquired trough finding deposits and building drills at them, but is limited, and siberit, which is THE ultimate resource.

And is that all? Well of course not. Game has real line of sight - if there's a tree in the way, you will not see past it. Yes, a soldier can hide behind a tree in MP! Every vehicle and soldier leaves tracks in the grass, and if the path is traveled often enough, grass disappears entirely - this way, you can track your opponent and presume his trafic. Every soldier falls uncounscious when his helath bar reaches red and has to be aided by medic or he bleeds out. You can design your own vehicles by selecting engine, hull, and weapon, even combining technologies of multiple nations. And there's more to find out!

Do you think that's all? Nope. Another thing that the game has is it's story. Since you actually play as a single person that has multiple soldiers under his command, it allows for the scipt to give you actual decisions, even branching the campaign into two different set of missions at one point. There's a lot of dialogue, most of soldiers have their own lines when they are bored, scared, or annoyed (another advantage of limited numbers,) and the only thing to complain about is voice acting, which is also probably the worst part of the game. It's also really slow-paced, but speed can be changed by a slider.

td;dr: Get the fucking game. It is worth it.

All right, all right I'm buying it ... geez, no need to throw that wall of text at me....

;-P

I still remember my suprise when i found out that enemy two man patrol left those tracks, cause the grass was stomped down. So i put there several of my soldiers, let them prone and slaugter patrol. Then through his open frontline find his builders with crates and shoot them down. Than disapear in high grass again.

I really love this game :'(

btw - Game has two campains, american and soviet. Also there is unoficial datadisk for third side.

Well it's not really for the impatient, so I thought I just as well might :D

This is a great game. I remember buying it last year thinking it might not be that good and then became obsessed with it.

If I lost a person I would replay the level until everyone that was able to live actually lived through it.

Heh, in MP, I once tracked a great crate deposit my friend has found that way.

This is a great game. And the multiplayer is very fun too. Unless you are Arabian trying to destroy turtling Soviet, that is. :-/

I know what you mean.

One time i get my whole team filled with trained girls. There were only Burlak and 6-7 females. And it was one of those run, then build a chokepoint and fight to the bitter end. So losing someone was very easy. I restarted the whole mission if someone died (i was aiming for those medals :)) and tried it again. It was painfull, but i didn't want to lose my trained soldiers. Also girls :-D

Yeah. I usually hate losing units in rts/rtt games anyway, but this game made it extra hard.

Also, the story of the game was inspired by a magnificent novel by Wolfgang Jeschke: The Last Day of Creation (German original: Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung, Czech: Poslední den stvoření). A must-read for any fan of dystopia-themed science fiction who can get their hands on it.

I bought the game on a whim during the Christmas sale to try out something new RTS-wise - I've been pretty much burnt out by the genre as of seven years ago or so - since it seemed to be something quite unique in the genre and people had very positive impressions of it.

I've actually only played the first few missions, but I definitely liked what I saw there. It certainly is not the same old thing. No mass armies to win the day is a good thing. I also like its slower pace. Not being forced to react with lightning reflexes is a big plus.

I really ought to get back to it soon. I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time as I was merely sampling it, but from what I've seen it's possibly the best RTS available on GOG. I've bought a few others here, but I feel like I may have wasted my money on those as none of them could keep my interest for long.

Edit:
I did notice that the latest version GOG uses is a fan patch, which made me wonder: are people still actively playing this game in multiplayer? This could be good fun, but I suppose I should play through the campaign first so I'm accustomed enough to all the controls/units/mechanics.

Well it runs great via hamachi, say a word and we can get playing any time :-)

Never played MP. I'll gladly try it.

Yes yes, I got it in the GOG Xmas promo, along with so many other games. Am I supposed to play it too, or have I done my part already???

One question though that I always wondered: where does the name of the game come from? Original War? By the title, I was expecting some kind of caveman clubfest.