Full Spectrum Warrior
Score: 69% ESRB: Mature Publisher: THQ Developer: Pandemic Studios Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Squad-Based/ Action/ Online
Graphics & Sound: Full Spectrum Warrior is definitely not the prettiest gal on the block. Similarities between it and Battlefront quickly become apparent, due mostly to the fact that both games are made by the same developer. However, Battlefront has a distinctly cleaner look to it. Full Spectrum Warrior has the same blurred lighting effect, which is great, but the rag-doll physics are the cause of a great many problems. Items on the ground like barrels and debris fly off and ricochet whenever you move your troops through them. Clipping problems run rampant, and the game has an extreme gritty feel to it which, despite its location in South East Asia, doesn’t convey a great sense of realism. The sound also suffers from many problems. Musical tracks, while hard-hitting and intense, constantly restart a few seconds into starting. Voice acting is good, but for some reason the camera angle relative to where the voice is coming from determines how loud it is. This means that if the voice is behind the camera, it is almost inaudible. Other sound effects lack the same type of technical attention. Buildings collapsing and explosions sometimes don’t register through the speakers at all, adding up to an experience that had good intentions to begin with, but were executed in the poorest manner.
Gameplay: Full Spectrum Warrior is a squad-based tactical game. In it, you don’t actually control any one individual soldier. Instead, you are given command of two squads of four soldiers each, issuing each different orders and letting the A.I. for each squad carry them out. At first, the game seems more like a training sim for the army. This is probably because that is what Full Spectrum Warrior is based on. However, upon closer examination, you’ll realize why the government has a disclaimer on the box saying it is not endorsing nor is it sponsoring the game in any manner. A basic level goes something like this: follow a beacon on your map and kill everything along the way. Though the situation at the beacon is different for each mission, the killing bit stays fundamentally the same throughout. Full Spectrum Warrior is based on firing and flanking, much like Brothers in Arms. All you really have to do to achieve victory is fire at the enemy with one of your squads and move the other squad through a conveniently located alleyway to flank the pinned enemy. Both your troops and the enemy do not respond all that well in certain situations. Rarely will enemy troops try to get to better ground, and they never try to outflank you. Your troops, on the other hand, must be given very specific orders when it comes to shooting people. If they are waiting without any orders and an enemy runs in front of them, they gladly get shot up without reacting at all. The addition of a Multiplayer mode is a small consolation for putting up with the rest of the game. Multiplayer essentially cuts your job in half when you go online, giving you control of one squad and your teammate control of the other. Since both squads are exactly the same, the tasks don’t have to be delineated based on who is controlling which soldiers. One guy picks where he wants to go and the other backs him up any way he can. Needless to say, the Multiplayer experience is even less rewarding than the Single-Player one.
Difficulty: Full Spectrum Warrior is a relatively easy game to get the hang of. The tutorial covers all aspects of the game well. It also clearly teaches you the basic flanking technique that you use 90% of the game. Controlling your squads is also easy, as most commands can be issued via the hitting of three or fewer buttons. The only occasional difficult part arises when you walk into an ambush of sorts, meaning you forgot to check all of your angles and you missed the guy on the roof behind you.
Game Mechanics: There are only three things involved in keeping your men alive and accomplishing the mission: cover, firepower, and mobility. Cover is anything you can hide behind, and in most cases this is cars, walls, or sandbags. However, cover comes in other, less suitable forms as well. Wooden crates are a good example, as this type of cover can be eroded by enemy firepower. Stand behind it for too long and you’ll soon be out in the open again. Static cover is in effect when you see little shields hovering over your troops’ heads. This basically means you can’t be killed, and this goes for the enemy as well. What this usually leads to are two enemies unloading all the weapons they have on each other without anyone dying because cover means you are invincible... well, mostly invincible. The game says that cover doesn’t always stop enemy fire, and it seems like bullets get through to your guys randomly while the enemy can hang out behind a wall and never die. Firepower is almost as important as cover. In order to move around the battlefield, you need to either kill or suppress your enemies. You can issue suppressing fire, use smoke grenades, or engage a target to keep them from shooting your other squad that is trying to move around them. You also have regular grenades and a grenade launcher at your disposal, but what you’ll mostly be relying on is good old assault rifle fire. This system would have been perfect had it not been for the occasional missed order. Telling your guys to fire on an enemy out in the open sometimes has them stand up, take aim, and then sit back down again; an irritating bug that would have boosted the fun if it didn’t exist. Mobility is just as important as the other two aspects of Full Spectrum Warrior. In order to kill an enemy, you need to get around to one of their sides that isn’t covered. Usually this means looking at your GPS and finding the one alleyway that leads to their flank. This tactic is thrilling in the beginning of the game, but loses its enjoyment quickly. This is basically what all the missions amount to, and there is little variety to alleviate this overused gimmick. Full Spectrum Warrior would have made a better demo than full-fledged game. The combination of a boring story, feeble attempts at drama, obscure mission goals, and a shoddy response system, not to mention some dreadful graphical and sound glitches, results in something that is less than the sum of the parts. While military nuts may get a kick out of it initially, most people will want to stay away from this game and go with something a bit more entertaining like Brothers in Arms.
-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications AKA Andrew Horwitz
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