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The artificial intelligence for Conflict Zone is superb, as the people over at MASA aren't what you would call your usual game development team. In fact, they didn't set out to make a game at all. They'd been working on an adaptive intelligence software platform for business use when they realized their AI expertise would best be showcased in a game. Game industry-types were hired, and a year and a half later, we now have the pleasure to view some of the best AI ever seen in an RTS game. These aren't the deaf, dumb and blind AI troops all too often seen in RTS games. Soldiers who march blindly from point A to point B, often getting lost and never returning even the most withering fire without specific commands to do so. No, the AI in Conflict Zone not only returns fire when fired upon but, when placed in the appropriate readiness state, will actually pursue and harass the enemy to advance their position. Additionally, generals are able to give specific orders to their troops such as "defend this location" and "build a new base here" and have those orders carried out quickly and intelligently. Service units such as repair trucks and doctors go about their business without any micro-management from the player, and if a tank comes under fire from an attack helicopter, nearby antiaircraft units will step in to lend support. Even wild animals such as camels and sheep react to the player's actions, and give units a wide berth. If a herd of sheep suddenly comes running over a hill, you can bet there's an enemy force not far behind, about to descend on your base. As if this wasn't enough, another novel idea was introduced in Conflict Zone - Commanders. Instead of having to focus your attention in several different areas at once, you can now lessen your burden with commanders under your command. Given only in certain missions, commanders are assigned tasks by you, and perform these in the background such as defending, building and maintaining a base. Each commander has his or her own personality, specialties and weaknesses. Not only can they operate with a minimum of supervision but they actually learn from past mistakes and avoid repeating them. However, if you prefer managing your troops personally, you can always choose the amount of command points and troops to allocate to your commanders.
The user interface panel at the bottom right of the screen is nonobtrusive not to mention very well designed, and rarely will you ever mistakenly click on the menu rather than an individual or a group of units. To its credit, the interface also doesn't take too much figuring out, and can be easily picked up with only the most basic understanding of common RTS commands. If a player does forget which keystroke to use for different commands, the developers have kindly added an in-game keyboard layout. Hitting F1 toggles the list of the keyboard commands.
In a wise move, MASA included online multiplayer support so when the single-player campaigns get old, there's always more action. Despite huge numbers of units and relatively low system specs, the game rarely slowed down in normal play as well as during large conflicts. This is quite an achievement. Media coverage can also either be turned on or off, although in most cases we chose to have it enabled. Skirmishes are also available, and the AI managed to put up a surprisingly good fight.
Conflict Zone also comes with EdLand - A terrain editor that ships with Conflict Zone and is very user-friendly. Using a windows explorer type interface, the editor is relatively easy to use and can create maps in a wide range of environments, from desert to rainforest to arctic.
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