Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds is a title used for two 1998 video games published by GT Interactive. The first is a real-time strategy

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

 (RTS) game developed by Rage Software Limited for the PC

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

. The second is
third person shooter developed by Pixelogic for the PlayStation

PlayStation

The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

.

The games are based on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express...

— which is itself based on H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

' novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...

.

Gameplay

The player chooses to play as either the defending Humans or the invading Martians. It was unusual at the time, as instead of having pre-set missions, battles only take place when one sides' forces are sent to a sector occupied by the other. Unit building and the inter-sector movement of forces is done between battles, making the game one of only a few completely non-linear RTS titles ever. In this respect, it is somewhat similar to the computer game North & South

North and South (computer game)

North & South is a combined strategy and action game for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, NES, Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum...

.

The game is set in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and starts in the late 19th century. The map of Britain (the "War map") is divided into approximately 30 sectors. Each sector held by the players forces can be examined in detail in a separate "Battle map". The player can set up unit and structure building tasks and queues here. Time only passes on the War map. Research tasks are set on the War map as well.

Unlike most RTS computer games, units typically consist of multiple vehicles in squadrons of 5, except for highly specialised or utility units which consist of only one vehicle. Neither side uses infantry units. The Martians use large vehicles with powerful weapons, which can take a lot of damage. The Humans have smaller, weaker vehicles, but are capable of larger groups of units, quicker build times and also possess more territory at the beginning of the game. The humans rely mostly on mobile artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

, WWI

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

-style tank

Tank

A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

s and ironclad warship

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

s. Some of the Human vehicles seem advanced for their age, such as submarines, blimps, and tank drills. When playing on the Martian side, the player can expect to be attacked by more than a hundred human vehicles in a single battle, on some occasions. The Humans can build water units, such as Ironclads, which can destroy Martian defenses, while requiring the Martian ground forces to wade out into the ocean to retaliate. The Martians can build a number of extremely specialised vehicles, varying from the mind reading and manipulating Xeno-Telepath, to the Tempest, an extremely powerful machine that carries two heavy Heat-Ray

Heat-Ray

The Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds and its offshoots.- In the novel :...

s and black smoke

Black smoke

The black smoke, or black powder is a fictional poisonous gas in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by the Martians to eliminate groups of humans remotely, especially artillery crews, before they could fire. The rockets from which they explode are fired from a "black...

 canister launcher.

Resource usage is different from the trend of the time. There are no gathering units that manually gather resources, and the resources are not used to build or purchase units. Instead, each sector has three resources (Humans use steel for building structures, oil for unit sustain and coal for unit production whilst the Martians respectively use copper, human blood and heavy elements), in certain levels of abundance. Players can build facilities that will extract these resources at a certain rate. Each unit and manufacturing or repair facility in the game uses certain amounts of the resources depending on the resource type (Martian units need to feed on human blood, for example, while their buildings don't), and the action currently being performed. These resources are drawn from the sector the building or unit is in, and the sectors directly surrounding it. Deficiencies in resources will result in decreased efficiency, and increased time for unit/structure building and repairs.

Although it is single player only, a semi-functional form of multiplayer appears to be accessible, with some registry modification.

Units,Buildings and Defences

Human:
Units

• Armoured Lorry: A light and fast attack vehicle
• Armoured Track Layer: The primary attack vehicle, each carrying two guns to attack.
• Tunneling Track Layer: A modified Track Layer with a drill to dig underground
• Self-Propelled Gun: A fast vehicle that can position heavy guns quickly
• Mobile Anti-Aircraft Array: It is designed to shoot down aerial targets
• Sappers' Lorry: A vehicle that carries engineers that build defences
• Ironclad: A powerful ship that can bombard enemies from the water
• Submersible: A submarine that must surface to attack
• Observation Balloon: A dirigible that can be used to spy on enemies or attack with bombs
• Construction Vehicle: Carries workers around the battlefield to construct buildings
• Mobile Repair Vehicle: Carries field engineers to repair vehicles and emplacements
• Mortar Bike: A vehicle that is used to infiltrate enemy positions, while also being able to attack at short range.

Buildings

• Command Post: Allows construction of buildings in the vicinity
• Repair Workshop: Repairs vehicles brought to it
• Vehicle Factory: Construct their land based vehicles
• Training Centre: A support facility that allows access to specialist units. Allows the construction of the main support units: The Construction Vehicle, Sappers Lorry, Mortar Bike and Mobile Repair Vehicle.
• Ship Yard: Manufactures the Naval forces.
• Aircraft Hangar: Constructs aircraft
• Munitions Factory: Provides specialist weaponry for vehicles. Allows the construction of the Self-Propelled Gun and Mobile Anti-Aircraft Array
• Construction Labs: Allows access to advanced vehicles. Allows the construction of the Tunneling Track Layer and Submersible.
• Steel Refinery: Processes iron
• Coal Mine: Supplies power to facilities
• Oil Refinery: Refines imported oil for vehicles

Defenses:

• Traps: Land mines that damage Martian vehicles
• Blockades: Fences that can be mounted with explosives
• Medium Gun Posts: Light defensive cannon that can be rapidly installed
• Heavy Gun Emplacements: A naval artillery gun
• Anti-Aircraft Array: Designed to combat aerial craft

Martian:
Units

• Scout Machine: A fast attack vehicle with light armor and light Heat-Ray
• Fighting Machine: The main attack unit
• Tempest: A very powerful vehicle with two heavy heat-rays and a Black Smoke
  Black smoke
  The black smoke, or black powder is a fictional poisonous gas in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, used by the Martians to eliminate groups of humans remotely, especially artillery crews, before they could fire. The rockets from which they explode are fired from a "black...
  
   canister launcher
• Bombarding Machine: A vehicle designed for long-range combat with it's canister launcher
• Electric Machine: A close-combat vehicle that attacks with powerful bolts of electricity
• Flying Machine: An agile aerial vehicle with a light heat-ray and poor armor
• Scanning Machine: A specialized vehicle that can detect hidden objects
• Constrictor: This vehicle uses a chemical foam to trap enemy vehicles
• Xeno-Telepath: An advanced vehicle with awesome psychic powers to manipulate its target
• Handling Machine: The Martian's construction vehicle
• Digging Mechanism: It builds the Martian defenses
• Drone: A kamikaze vehicle that deals large amount of damage to anything within the blast radius

Buildings

• Power Plant: Supplies energy to Martian defenses
• Communications Centre: Martian equivalent of a Command Post
• Repair Facility: Repairs the damaged Martian machines.
• Constructor: Manufactures most of the ground forces and specialists
• Energy Weapon Plant: Gives access to vehicles that require high levels of energy. Allows the construction of the Electric Machine and Scanning Machine
• Suspension Field Site: Constructs aerial vehicles and ground defences.
• Telepath Training Centre: Allows access to mind control units
• Biochemical Plant: Produces potent chemicals for vehicles that use them. Allows the construction of the Constrictor
• High Explosive Plant: Provides powerful weaponry for the more advanced vehicles. Allows the construction of the Bombarding Machine, the Drone and the Tempest.
• Human Farm: Processes human blood for the Martians
• Heavy Element Facility: Produces radioactive isotopes to power the vehicles
• Copper Forge: Refines metals needed for facilities

Defenses

• Blockades: Walls of plasma that repel enemy attacks. Requires the Power Plant to work.
• Rapid Heat Ray: A weak defense that can be constructed quickly
• Heat Ray Turret: A permanent defense with good shielding and a formidable heat-ray
• Projectile Launcher: A heavily-shielded canister launcher that bombards enemies from long distances

Music

Jeff Wayne

Jeff Wayne

Jeffry "Jeff" Wayne, born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, is a musician best known for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, his musical version of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds...

 himself produced the musical arrangements for the game, consisting of 45 minutes of material from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds re-scored and remix

Remix

A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

ed in a newer electronica

Electronica

Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...

 style with techno

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

 beats. The game's menu features a music player.

The remixes consist of the following:

• The Eve of the War (two different versions)
• Horsell Common
• The Fighting Machine
• The Red Weed
• The Spirit of Man
• Brave New World
• Dead London (PC version only)

Impact

It was one of the earlier RTS games to use 3D models instead of sprites for units. The game also features 3D terrain, which can be used strategically. The game suffered from significant performance problems initially, mainly due to the sheer number of vehicles on screen (often thanks to the Humans) as well as the fact there is no 3D hardware support. However, modern computers should have no trouble running it.

PlayStation version

A video game company (at the same year) published a third person shooter version of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds but did not get much publicity even though it was published by the same publisher (GT Interactive). The version is a third person shooter where as only the human mission is playable.

Unlike the RTS version, the TPS version has pre-set mission totaling 15 missions and the player will be controlling 20 different WWI style military vehicles with additional abilities to control martian weaponry.

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds (third person shooter version) was only one of three games developed by Pixelogic ltd. the other two being The Italian Job (2001)

The Italian Job (2001 video game)

The Italian Job is a video game based on the original 1969 The Italian Job film. It was first released for PAL-based PlayStation markets in 2001, and in North America for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 2002. The game features a story mode based on the movie and a multiplayer mode where the...

 and Crime Killer (1998).

External links

• Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds official site