Parents' Guide to

World in Conflict

By Jeremy Gieske, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Innovative strategy game is gory but rewarding.

Game Xbox 360 , Windows 2007
World in Conflict Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 1 parent review

Infantry121
Infantry121 Parent of 11 and 16-year-old
April 2, 2010
age 8+

Great game

My 12 yr old and my 8 yr old both play it,man my daughter kicks some commie #$@,its full,its great for anyone,my kids have heard worse words than are in there!

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

WORLD IN CONFLICT lets players imagine the \"what ifs\" of the Cold War and then lets them play it out in all of its grittiness. It's 1989, and the Soviets have made a surprise attack on the United States. Seattle is overrun, and it's up to a few rag-tag divisions to try to turn the tide. World War III is in full gear, and it's the player's job to win back the United States.

In one of the biggest breaks from the standard RTS genre, World in Conflict has no resource-gathering. Instead each player is given a pool of reinforcement points, which they can choose to spend on military units: troops, tanks, helicopters, etc. As the player's units are destroyed during the battle, the point values for those units are slowly added back to the player's overall pool of reinforcement points. Players also acquire tactical points when they accomplish certain objectives that can be spent to call in artillery strikes, napalm runs, and even nuclear weapons.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (6 ):

The game's story is told through outstanding cut scenes and in-game narration. World in Conflict spends a lot of time developing character personalities -- the player can identify with the turmoil some of characters are going through. Players get to focus almost entirely on battlefield strategy, rather than micro-managing the collection of gold, wood, oil, etc. As good as the single-player campaign is, the game really shines with its multiplayer options.

Like Battlefield 2 and other recent online war games, the leader board has a whole host of medals, ribbons, and awards for players to win. Teams that work together in multiplayer mode have a huge advantage, since each player only specializes in one area: air, support, infantry, etc.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how this game uses a storyline that presents an "alternate history" -- imagining that something in the past happened differently than it did. Have you read any books or played games that used this method of storytelling? Does it encourage you to discover what really happened?

Game Details

  • Platforms: Xbox 360 , Windows
  • Available online?: Available online
  • Publisher: Sierra
  • Release date: September 18, 2007
  • Genre: Real-Time Strategy (RTS)
  • ESRB rating: T for Blood, Language, Violence
  • Last updated: November 4, 2015

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