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The game takes place in the year 2161, after Earth has colonized Primus IV to exploit the rich deposits of a new element, called SL18. After some skirmishing with scattered indigenous life forms, the colonists take hold of Primus IV and begin mining SL18. Fast-forward 40 years--the colonists have been consistently used and abused by Earth, as SL18 turns out to be a valuable military-grade material. Using their newfound wealth from controlling the only known supply of SL18 in space, the colonists of Primus IV declare their independence from Earth, hiring an elite mercenary force, the WarMonkeys, for the assault they know will come from Earth. As expected, Earth retaliates by sending a contingent of its veteran Imperial Order division to quell the rebellion. And, after 40 years of breeding, the indigenous Mantai emerge from their subterranean lairs to erase humanity from the face of their home world.

Review

Though it has recently delved into other genres, TalonSoft's bread and butter has always been historical, turn-based war games. In spite of excellent reviews for games such as The Operational Art of War and East Front, none of the company's games have been particularly successful commercially. That might explain why TalonSoft decided to publish Dogs of War, an action-oriented futuristic real-time strategy game first released in Britain. Originally scheduled to be titled in the States as "WarMonkeys," TalonSoft wisely changed the name to something a little grittier. Unfortunately, an even better decision probably would have been to pass altogether on publishing this underachieving and frustrating game.

The story in Dogs of War is no more humdrum than what you'll find in any number of real-time strategy games, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in brevity. Roughly two centuries in the future, Earth has begun colonizing planets to replace its dwindling resources, and things go so smoothly at the very first outpost on Primus IV that it's quickly recognized as the model on which all future colonies should be built. But that was before the appearance of the Mantai, a buglike species that systematically attacked both the colonists and their machinery. Although the Mantai were driven back, Earth pretty much gave up on Primus IV and its inhabitants until a scientist discovered SL-18, one of those all-purpose metals so common in real-time strategy games. The colonists get rich selling the stuff, but they haven't forgotten how the Imperial government back on Earth abandoned them. And when a new Emperor imposes a draconian tax on all off-world colonies, the Primus IV colonists decide they've had enough. They hire a mercenary group called the WarMonkeys to seize control of their planet.

As the game begins, Imperial forces have landed an invasion force to subdue the uprising. In the single-player mode, you can embark on two eight-mission campaigns controlling either the Imperial Alliance or the WarMonkeys, and later on you can play a five-mission Mantai campaign. Like the recent fully 3D real-time strategy game Ground Control, Dogs of War eschews base production and resource management and instead gives you a supply of credits with which to purchase vehicles and troops. Furthermore, your units that survive become more effective as they gain experience. Unit- and 3D-camera control in Dogs of War is also similar to Ground Control, except that you can command individual units, as opposed to squads in Ground Control, and also command units from a behind-the back, third-person perspective.

Dogs of War is supposed to let you buy your units before a given mission. This is a decent idea that the game doesn't use to its advantage very often. Only two of eight Imperial missions let you pick your units, while the WarMonkeys campaign lets you do so three of eight times. The Mantai campaign also provides just two scenarios featuring this option. Eventually, being able to buy units at all just seems like a waste because the feature is used so inconsistently.

Dogs of War is fairly impressive visually, as it has lots of good special effects like smoke trails and brilliant explosions that bring the action to life, while the units themselves look good, if not great. On the other hand, the game's voice acting is grating, boorish, and at times, unnecessarily offensive. You might also be stunned to hear a British accent shouting, "Let's get those f***ers!" in the middle of a tutorial.
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