Hogs of War

About Hogs of War

Hogs of War (2000) is Infogrames Sheffield House's comic 3D turn-based tactics game in which squads of anthropomorphic pigs fight a First World War-style conflict, voiced by Rik Mayall.

Hogs of War in Depth

Teams of five pigs, loosely based on First World War nations, take turns in battle, much as in the Worms series. On each turn the player controls a single hog in third person, moving around the 3D map, jumping over terrain and swimming across water, but can only attack while standing still. Squad members can be given a class with its own weapons and abilities: heavy gunners with long-range weapons such as mortars, bazookas and rocket launchers; engineers who specialise in explosives such as grenades, land mines and TNT; espionage hogs who stay off the mini-map and use sniper rifles and camouflage; and medics who heal others at close or long range.

Beyond their inventories, hogs can use military vehicles such as tanks, turrets such as heavy artillery and pillboxes, and buildings such as bunkers and hospital tents. Modes include a standard deathmatch, single-player or multiplayer, and a single-player campaign. British comic actors Rik Mayall and Marc Silk voice the game, and its comedy was widely praised: IGN's Scott Steinberg enjoyed its "goofy sense of humour and endearing antics", and GameSpot's Frank Provo called it "drop-dead funny".

Making Hogs of War

Development began at Gremlin Interactive in 1997 and took three years, lengthened by Infogrames' purchase of Gremlin in 1999, with two teams working on different versions. Infogrames published it for the PlayStation and Windows in 2000. It received "mixed or average" reviews on Metacritic and many comparisons with Worms Armageddon, but is considered a cult classic by some critics and has since inspired board and card games.