Original War
Encyclopedia
Original War is a real-time strategy
computer game developed by Altar and released by Virgin Interactive
on June 15, 2001
. It was re-released in the UK under the budget Sold Out label in 2004.
and serve as fuel for an alien artifact. Siberite and the artifact - named EON - are discovered by a U.S. expedition to Russia during World War I
. EON is revealed to be a time machine
capable of sending objects into the past, but by the time of the discovery, Siberite stocks are exhausted and research stops. Then in the new millennium vast deposits of the mineral are found in Siberia
, and Americans are able to extract enough of it for small-scale time-travel.
The U.S. comes up with a plan to send a small force two million years back in time. There it will mine the Siberite and transport it over the Bering Land Bridge to Alaska, into what will one day be American hands. The best troops are selected, briefed, and told that it is a one-way trip back through time.
"Meanwhile," the USSR fumes under American supremacy. Frustration turns to outrage when Soviet scientists find traces of human settlement and Alaskite, the source of U.S. power, in remote Siberia. A Soviet expedition is sent through the EON, here called TAWAR, to repel the American thieves and preserve what is rightfully theirs.
The game story is freely based on the sci-fi novel The Last Day of Creation
(1981) by Wolfgang Jeschke
.
It is not possible to train new men. Moreover, the same units who fight are needed for resource gathering and the bases' functions. Production facilities, research labs, vehicles and base defenses are all useless unmanned. The local apemen can be drafted to do simple tasks, and with the right research it's possible to use remote control and AIs, but all are generally worse in combat than humans. Losses in personnel are otherwise irreplaceable.
Units do not fight to the end. Critical damage causes humans and apemen to collapse, and vehicles and buildings to eject their occupants and catch fire. They can be saved if they are healed or repaired before they bleed out or explode, respectively. Units give lower priority to incapacitated targets, and the player's units will not attack them unless ordered to. Vehicles without drivers belong to no one, so hijacking is easy and even desirable.
Original War is "almost as much an RPG than a RTS." Each human or apeman unit has its own name and portrait, speed, firepower and defense scores, and experience levels
in each of the game's four classes. Humans can change class (or "kit") in seconds by ducking into an appropriate building. Soldiers deal and withstand much more damage, can crawl, and receive huge bonuses while in emplacements. Engineers can haul resources, initiate the construction of new buildings, and repair and dismantle buildings. Mechanics can construct and repair vehicles, and receive equally huge bonuses while driving them. Scientists are researchers, healers, and apeman tamers. Units gain XP and level up in a skill by performing actions associated with the skill. XP gain is faster for units with the associated kit.
The game has three types of resources: Crates, oil and Siberite/Alaskite. Supply crates sent from the future are the foundation of all construction. Small piles of crates appear on the map with a thunderclap at random intervals. Most maps in the game have regions where crates appear the most often. American optoelectronics
enable them to pinpoint the exact locations of the crates as they arrive, while the Soviets, who have focused on time-based technology, are able to predict a perimeter where the crates will arrive a few seconds before they materialise.
Oil and the varyingly named mineral power bases and vehicles. Scientists can locate their deposits, and constructing a tower or mine on a deposit generates a steady steam of the resource. This may be the only base function that works automatically. Oil is used mostly early- and midgame as a cheap yet readily available power source. Oil-burning vehicles have fuel meters. They can be refueled at a base or by transporting oil to them, and the driver can get out and push. The mineral allows vehicles to run indefinitely, and opens up several advanced research topics. Solar power is also available. Solar-based fuel reserves are pitiful, but they regenerate.
Original War has an American and a Soviet campaign. The game recommends playing the American one first. Missions on both sides tend to contain scripted events, multiple-choice situations and sidequests. Human units persist between missions, so that each loss is a loss for the rest of the game. Mission design keeps the ranks from becoming too thin or too thick: for instance, the player might be ordered to choose eight men altogether from veterans of previous missions and other members of the side, go defend an outpost, and return after the mission. Units also gain XP for completing missions. The XP gained increases farther into the game, and is affected by the player's success in completing the various demands (often sidequests) in each mission. The player chooses one class for each unit to receive 50% of the xp, and the other three skills gain the remaining 50% between them.
magazine gave Original War a score of 82% in a two-page review. Reviewer Aleksi Stenberg wrote that the plot and the unusual gameplay made the game "more interesting than a dozen Red Alerts
." He warmed up to Original War at a time when he had grown weary with the genre. He also complimented the interface. He criticized overspecialized character classes, the vehicles' designs, and the voice acting.
The Finnish general computing magazine MikroBITTI
awarded the game 91%. Its review praised the game's playability and mentioned voice acting as the only clearly negative feature.
On January 20, 2006 www.owsupport.com was bought for the site. It was around the time the forum was created that Beta Testers started to help with the patches (Finding bugs, Offering Ideas, etc.). Over the course of 2006 OW has become more and more stable, with bugs removed, exploits removed and features added.
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
computer game developed by Altar and released by Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group...
on June 15, 2001
June 2001
June 2001: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-June 1, 2001:* The popular Bratz, rival to the Barbie doll, debuts....
. It was re-released in the UK under the budget Sold Out label in 2004.
Plot
The game's story revolves around an extraterrestrial mineral, Siberite, that can catalyze cold fusionCold fusion
Cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reaction , refers to the hypothesis that nuclear fusion might explain the results of a group of experiments conducted at ordinary temperatures . Both the experimental results and the hypothesis are disputed...
and serve as fuel for an alien artifact. Siberite and the artifact - named EON - are discovered by a U.S. expedition to Russia during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. EON is revealed to be a time machine
Time Machine
A time machine is a fictional/hypothetical device used to achieve time travel. The term may also refer to:-Novels and films:* The Time Machine, an 1895 novel by H. G...
capable of sending objects into the past, but by the time of the discovery, Siberite stocks are exhausted and research stops. Then in the new millennium vast deposits of the mineral are found in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, and Americans are able to extract enough of it for small-scale time-travel.
The U.S. comes up with a plan to send a small force two million years back in time. There it will mine the Siberite and transport it over the Bering Land Bridge to Alaska, into what will one day be American hands. The best troops are selected, briefed, and told that it is a one-way trip back through time.
"Meanwhile," the USSR fumes under American supremacy. Frustration turns to outrage when Soviet scientists find traces of human settlement and Alaskite, the source of U.S. power, in remote Siberia. A Soviet expedition is sent through the EON, here called TAWAR, to repel the American thieves and preserve what is rightfully theirs.
The game story is freely based on the sci-fi novel The Last Day of Creation
The Last Day of Creation
The Last Day of Creation is a science fiction novel by German writer Wolfgang Jeschke, first published in 1981. The English translation was published in 1982 in the USA and Great Britain...
(1981) by Wolfgang Jeschke
Wolfgang Jeschke
Wolfgang Jeschke is a German sci-fi author and editor, publishing at Heyne publishing house . He lives in Munich.- Novels :* 1981 Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung...
.
Gameplay
Original War is an RTS: The player builds a base, harvests resources, builds vehicles, and destroys the enemy. Its distinguishing feature is the way the game mechanics reflect the backstory's scarcity of resources and isolation.It is not possible to train new men. Moreover, the same units who fight are needed for resource gathering and the bases' functions. Production facilities, research labs, vehicles and base defenses are all useless unmanned. The local apemen can be drafted to do simple tasks, and with the right research it's possible to use remote control and AIs, but all are generally worse in combat than humans. Losses in personnel are otherwise irreplaceable.
Units do not fight to the end. Critical damage causes humans and apemen to collapse, and vehicles and buildings to eject their occupants and catch fire. They can be saved if they are healed or repaired before they bleed out or explode, respectively. Units give lower priority to incapacitated targets, and the player's units will not attack them unless ordered to. Vehicles without drivers belong to no one, so hijacking is easy and even desirable.
Original War is "almost as much an RPG than a RTS." Each human or apeman unit has its own name and portrait, speed, firepower and defense scores, and experience levels
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
in each of the game's four classes. Humans can change class (or "kit") in seconds by ducking into an appropriate building. Soldiers deal and withstand much more damage, can crawl, and receive huge bonuses while in emplacements. Engineers can haul resources, initiate the construction of new buildings, and repair and dismantle buildings. Mechanics can construct and repair vehicles, and receive equally huge bonuses while driving them. Scientists are researchers, healers, and apeman tamers. Units gain XP and level up in a skill by performing actions associated with the skill. XP gain is faster for units with the associated kit.
The game has three types of resources: Crates, oil and Siberite/Alaskite. Supply crates sent from the future are the foundation of all construction. Small piles of crates appear on the map with a thunderclap at random intervals. Most maps in the game have regions where crates appear the most often. American optoelectronics
Optoelectronics
Optoelectronics is the study and application of electronic devices that source, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, light often includes invisible forms of radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared, in addition to visible light...
enable them to pinpoint the exact locations of the crates as they arrive, while the Soviets, who have focused on time-based technology, are able to predict a perimeter where the crates will arrive a few seconds before they materialise.
Oil and the varyingly named mineral power bases and vehicles. Scientists can locate their deposits, and constructing a tower or mine on a deposit generates a steady steam of the resource. This may be the only base function that works automatically. Oil is used mostly early- and midgame as a cheap yet readily available power source. Oil-burning vehicles have fuel meters. They can be refueled at a base or by transporting oil to them, and the driver can get out and push. The mineral allows vehicles to run indefinitely, and opens up several advanced research topics. Solar power is also available. Solar-based fuel reserves are pitiful, but they regenerate.
Original War has an American and a Soviet campaign. The game recommends playing the American one first. Missions on both sides tend to contain scripted events, multiple-choice situations and sidequests. Human units persist between missions, so that each loss is a loss for the rest of the game. Mission design keeps the ranks from becoming too thin or too thick: for instance, the player might be ordered to choose eight men altogether from veterans of previous missions and other members of the side, go defend an outpost, and return after the mission. Units also gain XP for completing missions. The XP gained increases farther into the game, and is affected by the player's success in completing the various demands (often sidequests) in each mission. The player chooses one class for each unit to receive 50% of the xp, and the other three skills gain the remaining 50% between them.
Clanbase
Clanbase is a statistics system for Original War. When users do a ranked game with 1.07 or above the match results are sent to Clanbase where the data is processed and points are awarded to the winning team. Clanbase was created by Yuri Stratov and is maintained by Yuri.Reception
The Finnish PelitPelit
Pelit is a Finnish video games magazine published 11 times a year by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the Sanoma Group. Being by far the largest of its kind in Finland and covering both PCs and consoles, it has for a long time lacked serious competition and is thought by many to be the magazine of...
magazine gave Original War a score of 82% in a two-page review. Reviewer Aleksi Stenberg wrote that the plot and the unusual gameplay made the game "more interesting than a dozen Red Alerts
Command & Conquer: Red Alert series
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a series of real time strategy video games set within the Command & Conquer universe. The series is well known for having some of the most quirky and outlandish units in the genre....
." He warmed up to Original War at a time when he had grown weary with the genre. He also complimented the interface. He criticized overspecialized character classes, the vehicles' designs, and the voice acting.
The Finnish general computing magazine MikroBITTI
MikroBitti
MikroBitti is a Finnish computer magazine, founded in May 1984 and published by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the Sanoma Group. MikroBitti is aimed mainly for beginner to mid-level computer users...
awarded the game 91%. Its review praised the game's playability and mentioned voice acting as the only clearly negative feature.
Support
In January/February 2005, Stuart "Stucuk" Carey asked Altar Interactive (Now known as Altar Games) for permission to maintain Original War and they agreed. In June 2005 work began on the first patch v1.03, which primarily added basic Mod support to Original War. OWS (Original War Support) site was very basic when the first patch was launched in November. In December 2005 a forum was created and then a front end to the site.On January 20, 2006 www.owsupport.com was bought for the site. It was around the time the forum was created that Beta Testers started to help with the patches (Finding bugs, Offering Ideas, etc.). Over the course of 2006 OW has become more and more stable, with bugs removed, exploits removed and features added.