Terminology note

The game starts out in the near future. Throughout this paper, we call the participating nations Americans, Russians and Arabians. In the game itself we could either use actual names (US, Russia, Saudi Arabia) or we could make up more or less altered versions (e.g., North American Union, United Arab States, etc.). The crucial element in the game is the discovery of a new mineral. For now, we will simply call it the "new material" or "new mineral". It is of course going to have a real name in the game. For reasons that will be explained later, it will have one name for the Americans and Arabs (e.g., siberite) and a different one for the Russians (e.g., alaskite).

Story outline

The year is 2010. The Euro fails and the European Union crumbles under the strain of renewed nationalism. The hard-liners in Moscow win a decisive victory when general Prokhorov, the former head of the KGB, is elected president of Russia. He immediately calls into question the independence of the former Soviet republics and East European countries. Western Europe, weaker than ever before, is by no means able to deal with the Russian threat. The seemingly dead-and-buried spectre of European war comes back in full force... 

In a UN effort to ease the Russian economic crisis – and by extension quell Russian nationalism – an American expedition arrives in Central Siberia to assess the oil deposits there. But instead of oil it discovers a deposits of a hitherto unknown mineral. The American scientists find out, however, that this mineral is in fact identical to the substance used to power an extraterrestrial object in possession of the State Department. This object is called EON (Extraterrestrial Object Nexus) and it is a capsule about the size and shape of a telephone booth. It was found in 1919 by the Russian Railway Service Corps – a US military unit that was to ensure transport of US war supplies from the city of Vladivostok to the Eastern front in World War I – near the site of the Tunguska explosion. It was covertly transported to the United States where it underwent scientific examination. Experiments have shown that items placed in the capsule are transported hundreds of thousands of years back in time – to a period when primitive human ancestors walked the Earth. The American scientists were however unable to understand its construction, nor did they manage to synthesise its fuel. Eventually, the machine – classified military secret – was stored for future reference, beside the Ark of the Covenant and other interesting items.

One think however remains certain. The EON fuel is known to be a virtually inexhaustible source of energy. Should is come into hands of comrade general Prokhorov and his crones; the strategic balance would shift irrevocably. The Americans therefore decide to act quickly before the Russians also become aware of the mineral. With the help of EON, they begin to send special units into the past to mine the mineral and transport it to Alaska – at the time it was possible to walk there from Siberia by land. The experiments have also shown that the objects sent to past appear randomly, scattered both in time and in space. They appear over a period of roughly five years and over an area some 30 miles in diameter.

The Arabian governments learn of the scheme and, fearing a crash in oil prices, decide to stop it. They ambush the expedition team, seize the EON and start sending their own men into the past – fanatics, criminals and mercenaries charged with the destruction of the mineral deposit. But the Arabian scientists have no better grasp of the EON working principles than their American counterparts and because of their effort to enlarge EON capacity they inadvertently transport it to the past as well.

In an alternate future where the Americans managed to succeed in their plans, the USA are even more economically influential then today. USSR is a large and poor country, stubbornly refusing to relinquish its dream of communist society – or so it wants to appear to the outsiders. In fact, it is a large and poor country ruled by Communist party and Cheka (KGB), a police state much the same as it was in our branch of reality. But one day the Russians find the remnants of the American and Arabian expeditions in Siberia, along with the lost EON. They surmise what happened and decide to prevent the situation by transporting their men back into the past to a period shortly before the arrival of the first Americans so that they can protect the mineral deposit. The Russian scientists try to understand EON workings but fail just as the American and Arabian ones. They try to increase EON carrying capacity and accidentally destroy it in the process.

Thus, when the game starts, there are three nations fighting for the control of deposits of siberite, each of them with different goal in mind: to mine them, to destroy them or to protect them. In the course of campaign, the player will gradually become aware that siberite is a product of some ancient extra-terrestrial civilization and he will also find various parts of other alien technology. These remains are in sum called “artefacts”. Eventually, the player might be able to find out that the EON is a broken warping device that was built and abandoned billions of years ago and its creators had also built stockpiles of fuel – what are now deposits of siberite. 

The player's story

The complex storyline allows us to create three full-fledged plots, each with several different possible endings. Unlike the majority of other RTS games, the player is not playing for some abstract "side", e.g., Russians or Americans, but for his own character instead. The player's character is actually present in most missions and the player must protect him at all cost because his death spells the end of the game. This scheme gives the player an option of changing loyalties and switching sides during the game. It is up to player whether he chooses to carry out his task until the end or to join the Alliance or the renegade Legion.

Story development

The player starts by choosing his side and is then assigned as a character to the expedition team of the appropriate country. He learns his side's version of the story from the intro and the game starts. None of the three intros gives out the whole story. The player knows only a part of it and has to piece it together from the information gained during missions and the briefings between them. The resulting situation is quite surprising for all sides – the Americans don't expect to encounter any enemies but find two, the Russians and the Arabs know about the Americans but they not about each other. The Russians have the advantage of being first on the scene, yet they have the least materials and equipment because they destroyed the EON relatively early on. Only the Americans are aware of the spatial and temporal dispersion, whereas the other two teams don't realise that they are going to arrive alone, etc.

The three expeditions teams find themselves in the very distant past and none of them is complete (the extraterrestrial object was stolen, sent back into time or destroyed prematurely). Because of the relatively great temporal and spatial dispersion of the different transmissions, both people and equipment arrive gradually in different places and at different times. Moreover, due to the limited volume of the eon, only spare parts and raw materials can be transported, not complete machines. The first and foremost task of all sides is to establish a foothold in the hostile environment filled with wild beasts and primitive human ancestors. Then each side has its specific assigned task – to transport, destroy or protect the mineral deposits. There is also a fourth side in the game – the so-called Apemen, our human ancestors. They are hostile at first, but it is possible to gain their confidence and even train them. Two new sides emerge during the game. The Alliance is formed by those Americans and Russians who decide to solve the situation peacefully and split the mineral deposit. The Legion is created by renegade mercenaries when they learn they have been cheated (the Arabs promised them the possibility of returning to the present). The Legion is on its own and can be a tentative ally of any of the other sides. An important ingredient of the game is also the feeling that, hundreds of thousands years in the past, the present-day quarrels seem remote and the fight for new mineral increasingly unnecessary. These trends lead to internal conflicts on all sides, to the formation of the Alliance, desertions, attempts to start farms and villages or live with the Apemen, to the founding of the Legion, etc.

The player can choose from two campaigns: the American and Russian one. As an American, the player takes on the role of Lt. John Macmillan, assigned to mission Globemine, an attempt to use an extra-terrestrial time-machine to transport US forces two millions years in the past so that they can mine a strange mineral, called siberite, in wastes of Central Siberia, and transport it to Alaska. Siberite, a greenish crystalline mineral, was discovered by US expedition operating under UN mandate in Siberia in 2003. It turns out to be a catalyst of cold fusion and altogether far too powerful to be allowed to fall into Russian hands.

As a Russian, the player's character is Yuri I. "Burlak" Gorky, a mechanic of Soviet Army. But it's slightly different Soviet Army we know – it never fought Hitler, never was purged by Stalin and fights in a world where Siberite is commonplace. Burlak's task is to use a time machine, recently discovered in Central Siberia, along with the two millions years old remnants of US mining machinery, to travel into past and prevent the American usurpers from stealing what rightfully belongs to Russia.

Both of these are just beginnings of complex and twisted story. As the game unfolds, the player learns that not everything is as he was told, and is faced with difficult decisions influencing the course of game and its ultimate outcome.

Beside the captivating storyline, new units, technologies and possibilities opening in front of the player will keep him thrilled. In the course of game the style of game, optimal strategy, the look and feel will change several times.

John run Original War and loaded save from 3:34 this morning. Hell, he'd them on the run, but you have to sleep sometime, haven't you? It's one of the later American missions, the objective is somewhat strange: to develop siberite technologies with the help of Arabian scientists. These God-damned mercenaries – he never trusted them but research went along quite smoothly, so it will be finished soon and hopefully next mission will offer more action. John selects a lab to see the progress of research and checks the state of defences – just in case something goes wrong. Suddenly, the action starts. A sturdy Russian vehicle appears, but soon is picked up by automatic turrets and shred to pieces. But wait! What are those damned scientists up to? They changed their profession to soldiers and started to attack John's units! John hastily selects couple of men in base and sends them to armoury to pick up kit and attack renegade scientists. Now quickly, to the South edge of map, how are Russians doing. This is strange – a massive vehicle with strange hat-like component on top – he never seen likes of it before. It seems to do nothing but what's that strange sparkling on John's turrets? And what's wrong with them anyway? Why don't they shoot? Now a rocket appears but if flies unbearably slowly, like if it was immersed in pool of invisible honey. The Russians suffer no such problems, however, they use their big guns to take out turrets one by one.

Meanwhile the guys within base finished off the Arabs. Corporal Peter Rankin even gained so much experience from it that he advances to next level and his combat skill increases to four. Well done, lads, thinks John and orders them to enter some vehicles he prepared for this occasion. Come on, dickheads, now it won't be that easy. Wait till you run into my laser-link fence! My double lasers will fry you to crisp before you can say "Lenin".

John and Peter are playing in the same team – Blue – against Bob who is on Red team. As he is alone, he has a slight advantage in the amount of material he receives. John and Peter are using SideWinder Game Voice to communicate over Net. (They could use in-game chat as well, but then they would probably use more economic language.)

John: "Peter, I'll take this guy to help me with upgrading the factory"
- Selects one soldier and sends him to factory. Peter can see a yellow arrow above soldier's head denoting that it is selected by another player.
Peter: "OK. I'm going to look for some material."
- Selects three engineers and two soldiers and sends them to the centre of map. John can see a circle of light moving on his minimap.
John: "Be careful, Bob is sure to be there as well."
Peter: "No way can he have vehicles at this time."
John: "The factory is upgraded, I'll start production of vehicles. Shall we go for guns or for trucks?"
Peter: "Start with trucks, we need to collect as much material as we can and it's scattered all over— Oh, shit, what's he doing here?"
- quickly reselects group of engineers and soldiers and sends them back to base.
Peter: "Go for guns, John. Bob's got vehicles all right. He'll be here in no time!"
- John stops production of truck, selects 'Gun' as the vehicle component and starts production.
John: "Don't panic, we have defence bonus in our base. But we must be quick. What do you think – shall we attack with lasers or should we research rockets instead?"

There are three main areas where Original War distinguishes itself from competition:

1. New gaming elements: Unlike other RTS games there is no human-producing facility, no factory to churn out soldiers. At the same time, most buildings and vehicles require men or women to operate. This makes people a valuable and irreplaceable asset. You may gain a new character (he comes through time-machine) but this is very rare and cannot be relied upon.

One of the three resources in game, simply called "material" is sent to the past through time machine (you can imagine it as crates of spare parts, electronics, etc.). It appears randomly all over the map and therefore the area control (as opposed to supply-lines control in other RTS games) is vital.

There are many new types of weapons and technologies – time-shafting and space-shifting grenades, stasis field, double-lasers, Apemen drivers and many more.

2. RPG elements: Each character within game is unique, has his or her own face, name, statistics, background and skills. The characters gain experience as they go along, and increase they skills. The player can carry characters from mission to mission thus building a real attachment to them – they are no longer a faceless grey cannon fodder to him. At the end of mission, the player can divide the experience earned among his characters like he does in common RPGs.

3. Storyline: All missions within games are bound together by single storyline. This is not just a fancy backdrop to the mission, it is really integrated within each mission and influences its progress and objectives. The objectives of missions are more varied than usual in RTS games – the objectives like "kill everybody and destroy all buildings" are rare, objectives as "capture the technology research in lab" or "defend till you authorized to retreat" or even "inflict the greatest possible casualties upon enemy before you surrender" are more common.