Full Spectrum Warrior

"Here's a Good Reason to Join the Airforce"

Full Spectrum Warrior is by far the best Army game you can find out there. Compared to all of the war games I have played Full Spectrum Warrior gives you a realistic tactical game that other war games built around entertainment just cannot provide. Even compared to the FPS America's Army series you do not get a better game that gives you the feel of actually learning something about military tactics than Full Spectrum Warrior. Of course Full Spectrum Warrior is not without its flaws and this series was very short lived with the sequel Ten Hammers, but you get what you expect from this game. Full Spectrum Warrior gives you command of two fireteams that must work together to flank and outmaneuver enemies. Set in the fictional Middle Eastern world of Zekistan your team will set off to take objectives and find the perpetrator of the war that you find yourself in.

Story

The story is more simulation than actual plot. You are quickly introduced to the circumstances surrounding your patrol and then you wind up being ambushed and must fight your way to the end of the game to make it through. Where the story makes up is in the development of the eight soldiers you control. These eight soldiers are all introduced to you in the beginning and if they reflect a certain type of soldier that you would encounter in the military from the stiff reservist who is a city cop to the quiet riot that shocked his parents and enlisted early on and of course the knuckle head high school drop out that had nowhere else to go and whose cynicism acts as the comic relief of the game. The characters are introduced to you individually so you will know who they are and if they take a hit you will be more inclined to haul them back to a emergency station. Your two teams will move through the city as you uncover evidence of a dictator's wrath against his people and pursue objectives as they come up. From the start of the ambush your fireteams will be in for a long day and will earn their pay.

Game Play

What really sets this game apart from all the rest are the training exercises you must complete before entering the campaign. The controls are very complex and you will have to learn to quickly switch between teams as well as know how to counter attack and maneuver in certain situations. Your team consists of the points as well as support so you will have to conserve ammo and know when to lay down fire, when to take out enemies, and when to move to cover. You do not play as any soldier but you control all of their actions whether individually or as a team and you will have to use both teams as well as some special teams you run into to effectively take care of the bad guys. I really enjoyed this type of game play because you cannot find such anywhere else. Any other game has you running and gunning, but in Full Spectrum Warrior you might have to trade gunfire with enemies for a few minutes before being able to take them out. If you even try to run when you are being shot at then your team will take immediate casualties. Even though it sounds challenging you can easily figure things out since the game is pretty much start to finish and not as open ended. You will have to make good use of maps to take care of enemies but it is fairly easy to find your way around. The odd parts are finding ammo and medic stations in the middle of the battlefield where enemies are holed up so in the sacrifice of realism you at least do not have to haul back a casualty to a distant start point to be able to move on.

The game play is very challenging and the closest I could compare is the Brothers in Arms series which uses the same kind of concept in a WW2 environment. It is just like what General George Patton said in that famous speech "We fight as a team...all that individual nonsense is a bunch of..." well anyway you get the idea. In this case though the use of teams gives you the best realistic urban war strategy experience and sets all of the FPS games on the shelf no matter how good the graphics get.

Sound/Graphics

The sound effects are captured well for the gunfire and explosions. It is fun to toss or shoot the grenade launcher in this game. The effects are probably the best and adds a lot more to the realism. Your soldiers will also provide plenty of colorful commentary as you continue on through the game and encounter a lot of situations.

The graphics are also commendable especially for the Xbox. This is about as true to the character models as you can get I guess. However there are some graphical glitches in which the characters will get stuck or be slow to respond. You also have limited movements for the characters which make them appear somewhat robotic than real.

Replay Value

Full Spectrum Warrior is pretty much a straight through one time game. The Xbox Live ability allows you to play cooperative with a friend so you control one team and the other player has the second team. That adds to the experience a little bit better than controlling both teams. Other than that you can try playing on harder difficulties but you won't find much reason to go back and replay the game. The variety is interesting in regards as to what you run into and this is a very good problem solving game that makes you think or at least plan moves before acting. While the game play remains variable the missions are not very long and do not stand out as something you would want to go back and replay.

Final Recommendation

For a game that has its problems it still is a good strategy game that no game on any later console can match except for the Brothers in Arms games. The Rainbow Six Vegas games do not even compare with the tactical aspects of Full Spectrum Warrior. Full Spectrum Warrior is a game that requires some patience as well and you have to be of a particular audience to like this game. It is a problem solving game that requires planning and allocation so if you like to run in and blast everything visible this is probably not a game that will hold your attention. I do not recommend the sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers, because the control problems along with the advanced AI are really tough to deal with than they are with the original. So if you are into Army approved games then I rate this game as the best of them all and you should try it if you haven't. Otherwise this is not really a game that everybody should play because it is directed for a specific audience and is not a game that has much entertainment value.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/08

Game Release: Full Spectrum Warrior (US, 06/01/04)