Conflict: Desert Storm

"The best shooter for the Cube so far"

When I first rented Desert Storm, my expectations weren't really high. I have read many bad reviews aout this game, but I still wanted to give it a try. But when I played it, I was hooked. Don't pay attention to the junk ratings! This is a great game. You will have fun with this for a very long time.

Story 10/10
Desert Storm takes place during 1990 in the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein has taken control of Kuwait, and the United States and Britain are sent in to help. What makes the story so good is that Desert Storm actually happened and it follows the events in the war very closely.

Graphics 7/10
This is the reason why DS got a low rating. The graphics are pretty bad compared to the games of today. The bullets look like yellow streaks, and the enviroment sometimes looks flat. But othe rthan that, everything is really good. The smoke, buildings, vehicles, and character animation are really good. If you are a person who doesn't care about awesome graphics (me), then this won't bother you at all.

Sound 10/10
The sound in this game is amazing. You can hear bullets whiz past your head, explosions, doors opening, radio chatter, gunshots, car alarms echoing, sirens, and much more. Everything sound realistic. The music is also very good.

Gameplay 10/10
Desert Storm is a 3rd person squad based shooter ( You can also switch to 1st person, but I only use it for aiming). In the game, you command a squad of 4 soldiers: a rifleman, sniper, heavy weapons, and demolitions. In the beginning, youc an choose to play as 2 teams: The US Delta Force or the British SAS. Each team has different skills than the other. You can only control 1 soldier at once, but you can give orders to the other 3 and switch betweeen any soldier at any time. It may seem hard at first, but you'll get used to commanding your squad. Your squad mates are very helpful. You can issue orders such as fire at will, hit the dirt, advance, follow, and more. There are a total of 15 missions, taking place in the Desert, Kuwait, Baghdad, and other locations. The misisons vary, such as hostage rescuing, destruction, infiltrating, stealth, and more. Missions take place in day and night. The enemy AI in this game is impressive. Once an enemy soldier spots you, he will run around looking for you, even going to the spot where he last saw you. The enemies you face will be armed with assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, and many other weapons. Enemy armor is also a threat, but this makes the game more exciting. As for your team, you can use many different weapons such as the M-16, the Barret Light Fifty, the SAW, MP-5, Remmington, LAW 80 and a lot more. Enemy weapons can also be picked up in missions. At the end of each mission, you can be awarded with medals and experience points. Each character has certain skills, and it is represented with stars (example: SNIPER ****). 4 stars is the highest. You can build each soldier's stats and improve your team (for instance, if your team has a high experience level, then they will have better aim, last longer, detect enemies faster, etc...). You get medals by killing a certain amount of enemies or by not dying so much in the mission. The more medals you get, the better your character will be in his skills.

Multiplayer 10/10
Here's the part where Desert Storm is the best. Up to 4 people can play the entire campaign cooperatively! There is no deathmatch mode, but who cares (I like co-op games better than deathmatch). When you play with 2 people, each player will command 2 soldiers (Player 1: rifleman and heavy weapons, Player 2: sniper and demolitions). The screen is split, and everything is the same. When 3 peple play, a screen is split into half and the other emains the same. Player 1 controls 2 soldiers, while Player 2 and 3 control 1. When 4 people play, each player controls 1 soldier. Some missions are cut out, because a few are meant for only 2 or 3 players. Playing together is awesome. You can tell your friends to back you up, or you can all attack at once. It's really cool and fun. The only problem is that when you play it with 3 or 4 people, the game will sometimes lag. But most of the time it doesn't, and that doesn't limit the gameplay experience.

I recommend buying this game. For those of you who like shooting games, cooperative multiplayer, and a lot of gunfights, then Desert Storm is for you. Right now it's only $25, which is a great deal for such a good game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/24/03