In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved. After butting heads with the United States for over four decades in proxy wars and crises around the globe, the Communist state had found itself besieged by a mixture of economic stagnation and social unrest, and decided that a brighter future awaited it as a democratic nation.
It was a quiet end to a conflict many had believed for years was going to culminate in a nuclear tempest that would have torn the world asunder. But what if history had gone differently? What if the Soviet Union had refused to go quietly into the night, and made one last ditch attempt to conquer the rest of the world on the eve of its demise? This was the premise of World in Conflict. A real-time strategy game conceived by Swedish developer Massive Entertainment, World in Conflict tasked players with defending the United States and Europe from a surprise Soviet Invasion in 1989.
Compared to the likes of Command & Conquer, which had depicted the Cold War turned Hot with a high degree of fantasy in years prior, Massive’s strategy title offered a largely grounded experience; one that depicted both its combatants and their battlefields with enough realism to make their plights feel genuinely sympathetic. Yet where it truly set itself apart from its competitors was its gameplay, which mixed together tried-and-true real-time strategy mechanics with some of the most distinctive elements of shooters like Battlefield to spectacular effect. So much so, that diehard fans would continue to steadfastly support it well after its creators – and its original online infrastructure – would move on.
This is the history of World in Conflict.
