While taking a number of freedoms with the subject matter, the Desert Operations game brings the real time strategy genre up to date.

What this game does that’s so interesting really isn’t quite so daring, it’s simply something that people just plain do not do anymore. Where other real time strategy games have been built on the formulas set forth by the Civilization games, Desert Operations takes its ideas from real life, from the headlines of today’s newspapers.

The result is a game that, while taking fantastical liberties, delivers a setting that is actually relevant to the world the player lives in. Where Evony is based in Arthurian fantasy, Starcraft in science fiction, the online mmo browser game Desert Operations is rooted in current technology, contemporary international politics and modern warfare.

Many RTS games are still focused on the notions of politics and war put forth in Civ II, which were, honestly, dated by the time that game was even released. Desert Operations discards that template and looks to the news, and you’ll find many campaigns within the game reminding you of stories you’ve read recently on Israel, Iran and Afghanistan.

Casting the player as the leader of a fictional country defending against hostile takeover, you are empowered to make alliances with some countries while declaring war on others, resulting in a game with a thousand possible outcomes.