Hogs of War

- Platform: PlayStation
- Release Date: July 12, 2000
- Similar Games: General Chaos (Sega Genesis), The Unholy War (PlayStation)
Game Description
Get in there, soldier! With the advancements in technology and lust for territorial gains, six powerful nations have locked forces in a ferocious war. Ranging from German, Japanese and Russian forces to the British, French, and American armies, players must guide their troops to victory by any means necessary. There is one thing, though -- these armies consist of power hungry hogs dressed in sophisticated uniforms.Because the clock is constantly breathing down your neck, you'll need to think of strategies on the fly and make quick and decisive decisions. Are you going to move in and kick some swine butt or play it defensively? Time's up! There is little room for hesitation. As the general, you'll supply your hogs with powerful weapons and useful tools including ripple bombs, accurate sniper rifles, and jetpacks that breathe new life into the age-old adages about 'when pigs fly.'
If you're unable to make your decisions within the allotted time period, you will have left your troops in danger. Once the clock reaches zero, it turns the action over to the opposing force who will then exploit your inability to think quickly. Play smart and try and setup strategies that will leave the opposition in dire straits.
In addition to the various single and multiplayer campaigns, Hogs of War features an exclusive Level Generator that allows players to create and manipulate an endless supply of map territories. There's also a Training scenario that familiarizes players with the turn-based action, flow of gameplay, and controls.
Don't you love the smell of bacon in the morning!? ~ Matthew House, All Game Guide
Roots & Influences
Although Hogs of War is the first turn-based strategy game featuring warring pigs, it takes humor from the pages of David Perry's wacky world of Shiny Entertainment. Because of the outrageous weapons and humor, it resembles the Sega Genesis classic General Chaos with some gameplay elements from The Unholy War. ~ Matthew House, All Game GuideReview: Enjoyment
This game is fun, pure and simple. If you want to enjoy this game to its fullest, try to get at least two of the three bonuses on each of the 20+ missions. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game GuideProduction Credits
DEVELOPMENTSenior Designer: Ade Careless
Programmer: Andrew Fox
Artists: Berni, Izzy Stewart
Lead Programmer: Jacob Habgood
Artist: John Guerin
Producer: Matthew White
Programmer: Paul Tapper, Simon Nicholass
FMV Artist: Darren Mills
Physics Programmer: Ben Wilson
Studio Manager: Carl Cavers
FMV Artist: Darren Mills
Physics Programmer: Dr. Ian Badcoe
FMV Artist: Gavin Whelan
Executive Producer: Mark Glossop
Additional Programmer: Phil Rankin
FMV Artist: Richard Simmons
Localization: Sarah Bennet
FMV Artist: John Hackleton
QA Manager: Phil Eckford
QA Supervisor: Julia Sturman
Lead Analyst: Asad Habib
Analysts: Jody Hindle, Carrie Hobson, Rob Taylor, Barrie Tingle, James Salt, Matt Tuckett, Mick Sanderson, Dominic Hartley, Jay Hartley, Stephan Woodward, Dan Webster, Martin Berridge, Nick Herring
Studio Marketing: Larry Sparks
Marketing Manager: Cindy Church
Product Manager: Richard Iggo
Studio Production: Morgan O'Rahilly, Ivan Davies
Producer: Tony Buckley
Design Consultant: Sean Millard
Executive Vice-President, Production & Publishing: Jean-Phillippe Agati
Head of Label-Infogrames Motion: Olivier Goulay
Manual Author: Steve Owen
INFOGRAMES ENTERTAINMENT SA
Product Development: Kurt Busch
Product Marketing: David Riley, Fredrick Balay
Creative Services: Sheryl Knowles
Documentation Localization: W.D. Robinson
Public Relations: Meridith Braun, Wiebke Vallentin
Online Marketing: Kiana Tran
Online Marketing: Jason Stokke
SQA Manager: Tom MacDevitt
SQA Supervisor: Donny Clay
Lead Tester: Ted Tomasko
Ass't Lead Tester: Eric Alberson
Tester: Chris Plep, P. Tseren Sodbinow, Kinh Williams ~ Keith Adams, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
Like the Worms series for the PC and PlayStation, Hogs of War puts you in control of five military troops and throws you into various environments around a Hog-like version of the world. Human soldiers are replaced by pigs that come armed with a variety of weapons and are divided into teams. Each "team" is basically the same, save for the nationalist jokes and voices (China, USA, Russia and Germany are some of the nations spoofed in the game).The single-player missions consist of dropping five of your Hog grunts into a battlefield and disposing of the opposing team in a quick, precise fashion, all while keeping members of your squad alive. The environments you are dropped into are large enough to sport different types of strategy based on enemy placement of barracks and stationary guns as well as rough terrain and water.
Gameplay is almost identical to Worms, as each opposing team (or nation) takes a turn maneuvering a member of their team into position before choosing a weapon and attacking. Each pig has a certain amount of hit points to be depleted. As you advance and dispatch of your enemies through each mission, you are given bonuses for keeping all of your team members alive, completing the mission, as well as "secret" bonuses that vary from mission to mission. It is at this point that Hogs of War begins to take on a life of its own and separates itself from its 2D counterpart in terms of gameplay.
All of your soldiers initially have three grenades, a rifle and a knife at their disposal, but this changes with the bonuses awarded at the end of each level. Each bonus earns you a token that can be allocated to a member of your team as an upgrade. Initially all of your hogs start out as grunts, but the first upgrade will set each individual on unique career paths, including Medic, Engineer, Heavy Weapons and Espionage.
Once a career path is started on a certain hog, it cannot be reversed, and each additional upgrade will not only give you more HP, but additional weapons and tools to wreak havoc and destruction upon your enemy. For example, upgrading a Grunt to the first Espionage level will turn your hog into a Scout, arming him with a knife, a rifle, a poison gas bomb and the ability to pickpocket weapons.
Upgrading a second level turns your Scout into a Sniper, giving you a knife, sniper rifle, poison gas, suicide explosion, two pickpocket turns, and the hide function. Each character class also has automatic attributes specific to each class (Espionage class hogs cannot be detected on radar and Engineers can detect minefields with ease), and can pick up and use items scattered along the battlefield.
This offers a great variety of customization suited to many different types of gameplay styles. If you're a demolitions expert and thirsty for mass destruction and carnage, make a few of your characters Heavy Weapons and start causing huge explosions that can affect multiple troops on the battlefield at once. If you're in a stealthy mood, you might want to concentrate on having a few hogs in the Espionage environment, which allows you several modes of strategy in itself; do you hide far away from the enemy and pick away at them with sniper rifles, or infiltrate their base and strip their best troops of their weapons, making them all but useless? The choice is yours, and the continual upgrading motivates you to keep pushing through the game as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
Each move has to be extremely calculated and executed, all within a time constraint for each hog's turn. Sloppy mistakes can often account for casualties of your own troops as well as those of the enemy. As in the game Worms, each pig explodes when it dies, which can damage (and kill) anything close to it. So if you decide to finish off that enemy trooper with a quick snipe to the head, make sure it isn't standing next to one of your own, or it could send one of your troopers sliding down a hill and into a dangerous lake (which rapidly depletes hog health as if it were lava) or flying into a minefield.
Many may be turned off by Hogs of War's simplistic graphics, and while they are devoid of fancy textures and large numbers of polygons, you can clearly see across the battlefield. The voices are humorous, and each "nation" has their own quips before an attack. The two-player game adds to the fun, strengthening the replay value that comic strategy buffs saw in the Worms series. It's also important in the single-player mode to try to get at least two out of every three bonuses in order to upgrade. Doing so will not only make the game more enjoyable, but extend the longevity of the game considerably.
There are very few games that can make you throw down the controller in frustration and then run back and play again a half hour later. Hogs of War is one of those games, and fans of strategy games (especially the Worms series) should seek out this fun PlayStation gem. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide



