Okay, normally war is a bad thing, but it does make for some rather entertaining games. However, don’t let the title deceive you. World War is not another, tired WWII game. In fact it is more like a virtual WWIII that is being waged amidst the scorching plains of Facebook.

World War is an RPG, and as such it utilizes familiar features such as energy, missions, cash, etc. While this seems standard, there is a very curious aspect to this game that is truly ambitious: the developers have released it in localized versions, pulling together audiences from all over the world. Is the title starting to make sense?

Yes, that’s right, you aren’t just battling against local users, but collectively against users all over the world. There is a new country characteristic now that allows players to ally with their own, or any other country for that matter, and dominate the rest of the world.

Furthermore, the game has both micro and macro-management aspects. Obviously, you still do missions, recruit allies, and so on to level your own character (more on this in a second), but you also contribute to your country as a whole, and doing so benefits your armies as well. For example, once you reach level 20, you can start contributing to a Research and Development building. As this building levels up, the attack level of all the armies within your country will be increased.

There is also a bit of strategy involved in the management of the game. As you do missions and level up, you can purchase new units to balance out your armies. However, you can only command so many units so you have to carefully decide what is best for you to purchase. These units needed in order to complete various missions (as well as adding friends as allies), but also to attack enemy players. If you do not build a well balanced army, then you will most likely be wiped out, which is a slight hindrance to your goals of world domination.

Lastly, there is an interesting concept of a President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense. This adds a unique reward that allows top players to broadcast messages of “profound” importance to their countrymen. Granted, it isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it is still a nice bonus.

World War definitely takes a fresh approach to the Facebook RPG genre, and games of this scale are rare. However, that rarity is what makes it refreshing. Competition has always been a driving force in any social game, but with such a grandiose approach, that feeling is compounded ten-fold. The best part is, the way this game is set up, there are dozens of cool features that could be added. Imagine a world-wide game of Risk mixed with the popular Facebook RPG elements the space is familiar with. Now that would be pretty impressive.