Warno

Warno is a new RTS from the veterans at Eugen Systems studio, creators of the Wargame series and the memorable R.U.S.E. This time the developers let us take part in the escalating Cold War, which turns into World War III between the forces of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Game is described as a spiritual heir of the mentioned items.

Plot

Warno presents a fictional story of the end of the 20th century. In 1987, as a result of a coup d'état led by hardened communists, Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (who actually held this position until 1991), was overthrown. This contributed to the ongoing Cold War, with NATO and Warsaw Pact armies deployed in a divided Germany, awaiting the inevitable conflict. This becomes the trigger for the outbreak of World War III.

Game mechanics

The developers thought about both players who enjoy solo play and those who are not afraid of online battles. For the former there are four Army General campaigns, which allow you to lead your troops in "what if" scenarios . The latter group, on the other hand, received an expanded multiplayer mode, offering both 1-on-1 battles and co-op for up to 10 players (i.e. 10-on-10 battles), as well as ranked skirmishes.

Warno lets you control over 600 different ground and air units in real-time - from Spetsnaz conscripts and mobile SAMs, to attack aircraft and helicopters like the Gazelle, SU-25 Frogfoot, and Mil Mi-24, to self-propelled artillery and tanks like the MCV-80, M1A1 Abrams, Leopard, and KPz T-55AM2. Each of them is unique for a given nation and has its own strengths and weaknesses. The player's task is to choose the army in such a way that it is as effective as possible.

Six factions are available in Warno - the NATO-affiliated United States, West Germany, Great Britain and France, and the Warsaw Pact-affiliated Soviet Union and East Germany. Within these factions, you can control such legendary formations as the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (the so-called Blackhorse Regiment) and the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, the Bundeswehr's 5th Armored Division, the Soviet 79th Guards Armored Division and 27th Guards Motorized Rifle Division, or the GDR's 7th Armored Division. Each of these can serve as the parent division of our army, which we manage up to the platoon level.

Technical aspects

Warno runs on the IRIS Zoom Engine, Eugen Systems' proprietary engine already used in the development of R.U.S.E. However, it has been significantly improved to bring the game up to current standards. In order to increase realism, the developers have improved the terrain rendering technology, as well as created new 3D resources, providing more accurate and diverse unit models, among other things. The changes are particularly visible in the damage system - when our troops take damage, individual units lose elements of their equipment; sometimes this even leads to the explosion of an ammunition magazine, which in turn can cause the destruction of a nearby structure.

Vehicle malfunctions are equally detailed - a helicopter can lose its blades, and a plane can lose a wing. Explosions, which leave craters of various sizes, are also impressive. This makes the battlefields not only pleasing to the eyes, but also provides many tactical options - for example, we can use smoke as a natural cover for our troops. We can also make use of hills, small villages, dense forests, meandering rivers, bridges and industrial zones.