Modern Conflict HD

So, take your pick: would you like your simple combat/conquest game in space or on terra firma? If your choice is space, look no further than Galcon Fusion. But, if you're looking to satisfy a combat craving that is more terrestrial in nature, you should give Modern Conflict HD a look.

Perhaps it's unfair to compare two games so closely, but, honestly, Galcon Fusion and Modern Conflict HD have a tremendous amount in common. In both games, winning comes down to numerically overwhelming your opponent's (and any neutral) bases, while building more units at your own. The look and feel of the two games is inherently different, but the core gameplay is surprisingly similar.

Modern Conflict HD starts you off with a fairly lengthy tutorial and simplified maps. These maps limit the number of enemy bases, but also limit the paths that connect each base to another. Unlike Galcon, which, chaotically and gloriously, allows combat between any two planets on the map at any time, some of Galcon's levels limit your ability to travel between bases. This works fairly well, and certainly fits in with the military nature of the game. Later levels open things up a bit and create more ways to come and go from combat.

I was expecting more from the graphics in Modern Conflict HD. Maybe that comes from a completely unfair connection to another wargame - Modern Warfare - but the graphics are still more plain than they ought to be. The game's look is very nondescript and spartan, which fits with the "military strategic command" theme of the game but doesn't exactly make for exciting viewing. The sounds, however, more than make up for this deficit with a variety of clever sound effects and commands/responses via combat radios.

Modern Conflict HD offers the standard array of gameplay modes, but strangely no online multiplayer. This is a game screaming for online competition, and just featuring competitive leaderboards and challenges doesn't seem sufficient. With any luck, the developers will add this feature in an update or perhaps when the inevitable Modern Conflict II comes out.

Modern Conflict HD is a basic game that will surely suit some players' tastes, but taken as a whole it's rather bland. I'd rather be playing Galcon.