Realistic cameras add to the tactics
To add to the realism and maintain that gritty, realistic feeling, the camera views have had a lot of effort put into them, not only with the actual mechanic but also as to what views should be available. Unusually for an RTS there’s no over-all satellite view... so you can’t just zoom out and survey the entire field from one God-like vantage point.The reason behind this is twofold; first, the scenario for the game is a technically advanced WW3, so each side will try and blind the other by taking down their satellites as quick as possible... so you have no satellites to rely on. Second, by using closer camera views the player feels far more as if they’re fighting a war and not just moving dots around on a map.
Now, unlike any other RTS, you don’t get a free-moving camera... remember, this a realistic RTS. So what you get instead is a view from either the helmet-cam of your troops or from micro-UAVs. These micro-UAVs are similar to the drones you might have used in GRAW2... they hover over the battlefield, quite close to the ground and give you a wider field of view. You can jump between each UAV or from unit to unit to get an overall view of the battlefield and obviously choppers give you a good view as they’re higher up... but the point is that unless you physically have a unit in the area, you’re blind.
Click for larger imageNow this introduces a nice little tactical extra as the micro-UAVs are the most widespread and effective cameras for any commander... but they’re vulnerable too so an EMP blast can take them down and temporarily blind an opponent.... handy.
Michael also briefly mentioned that this a technologically advanced war, which means that advanced firepower isn’t the only method of attack. You can attempt to hack your enemies systems too, either blinding him or interfering with his communications as well as the more traditional jamming etc.