Conflict: Desert Storm

"Fun in the Sun with Conflict: Desert Storm"

BACKGROUND:I ignored this game for a while, based on the terrible review for it at Gamespot. About 2 weeks ago, my buddy lent me several of his Xbox demo discs, and one of them had Desert Storm II on it. I fired up the demo of II, finished the mission, and decided right there that I would try and snag the first one, as it was bound to be more ''affordable''...meaning I *might* be able to scrape up a few bucks after the gas company, the IRS, and the 12 other entities that seem happy to take my hard eared money every month has had there way with me. Oh, did I mention Christmas presents?

I'm happy to report that I managed to snag this title for $10.80 due to a ''buy one, get the second one for 40% off'' sale a local game trade in store was having. It's great to get a bad game for $10; it's very gratifying indeed to get one as good as Conflict: Desert Storm. Without further foolishness, on to the review.

PRESENTATION: There is the requisite opening movie here, nothing spectacular, but it sets the appropriate mood. I was a little worried that the loading screen has no sound accompanying the picture of the Chinook helicopter...something that had me looking at the stereo, the remote, and eying the cat very suspiciously, trying to figure out what happened to the sound. As soon as the next screen loaded, however, everything was ok.

Each mission has a briefing movie, telling you what you going to be doing, and where. Once again, nothing to write home about, but at least you have an inkling about what's in store.

After action reports are pretty cool...here you find out who got promoted, leveled up, and awarded medals.
SCORE: 7/10

GRAPHICS: The graphics are ok...I've seen worse on the Xbox, and I've definitely seen better. They're certainly adequate; I never died because I couldn't find the folks shooting at me. Character animations are pretty good; I really like how the Iraqi guards come tumbling out of the guard towers after you pick them off with the sniper rifle. There a couple of good death animations, and the characters move in a fairly realistic manner.
SCORE: 7/10

SOUND: Excellent sound; I don't remember if it's 5.1 or not, but the dispersion is first rate. There's something VERY refreshing about hearing Connors open up with a burst from the machine gun over your left shoulder, and then say ''target down'' as if to reassure you. I find the sound positioning in this game to be much better than Ghost Recon, for example.

The music is pretty mundane, and since I usually turn game music off the first chance I get, I can't really talk too much about it here.

Gun sounds are appropriately different; you can tell what's being shot without having to look. The AK sounds different than the M-16, and the different sniper rifles have their own sound as well.
SCORE: 9/10

CONTROL: Ok, there's been some controversy over this, and I can't figure out why. If you have fully functional opposable thumbs in good working order, you should have NO problem mastering the controls in this game. It's pretty intuitive to me, despite what some reviewers have said; but to me, if you can play Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox, you shouldn't have any trouble with this. My only real gripe is that the right trigger sometimes gets squirrely; more than once I've taken some rounds because the soldier I was controlling didn't fire when I pulled the trigger. I play a lot on either burst or single fire mode, so not firing when I want does make a difference. This doesn't happen all the time, and doesn't happen on full auto fire.

Issuing command to your other troops is essential to complete the various missions, and the way it's implemented here is pretty good. Pull the left trigger, and you get and arrow...you can very quickly issue commands to your guys, such as to follow you individually or in a group; change stance, or even go to a certain spot and face a certain direction. There are buttons to tell all squad members to follow you, or change stance...so you can have everyone hit the dirt quickly...and you will need to!

Now, it IS sometimes a pain to try and find and use the med kit when you're taking fire, but in real life you'd have to drop/sling your weapon to access other items as well, so I don't think it's particularly unrealistic or unwieldy...you access the inventory with the Y button, then you can scroll through the items using the D pad. You can actually accomplish everything you need to do without letting go of the buttons. For example, you can open your inventory, scroll to the med kit, select it, use it, then re-equip your weapon or a grenade in a fairly fluid motion once you get the hang of it. When next to another soldier you can heal him, or give him items from your inventory.

You can switch from 3rd person perspective to first person by pressing in on the right thumbstick; pressing in on the left zooms the scope/binoculars, if so equipped. Interestingly, the auto aim found if 3rd person view goes off in 1st person, where you have to aim manually. The system works pretty well; if you are not reall good at moving the thumbstick precisely under stress, you can choose to use the 3rd person view when you want, and vice versa.

Some folks have complained that the characters don't side step very fast...well, you put an 80lb pack on your back and see how well YOU sidestep. Besides, this is easily remedied by angling slightly forward while you run, instead of plain side stepping. Once again, I've got no problem with it, and it certainly didn't effect game play for me.
SCORE: 8/10

GAMEPLAY: The crux of the biscuit, as Frank says. You will take your squad through a series of missions. You start out with only one guy, and have to rescue one of your guys on the first mission. You meet up with you other guys over the next 2 missions until your 4 man squad is complete.

Each soldier has a specialty...command, heavy weapons, sniper, and demolitions. You can control any one you like, whenever you want, and issue commands to the other soldiers from the one you control at any given time.

The missions seem fairly varied in scope, from busting your squadmate out of jail to hunting for scuds in the desert. You will start out with a certain weapons load out, and that can be supplemented by the stuff you scrounge in the field, although you can't just pick up stuff from dead Iraqis; missions will have stuff in certain locations that you have to find, and this usually coincides with the story line. When you find an RPG, for example, you can pretty much bet you're going to encounter some armor before too long.

You are allowed 2 saves per mission, and this seems to strike a pretty good play balance...you have to develop a pretty good sense of when to save in the mission. While some missions have defined goals which are represented by blue circles on the map, others don't, like the ''find the scud launcher'' missions.

Mission difficulty appears about on par with Ghost Recon...you can't just go running around capping everyone in sight...you have to use a fair amount of planning, especially as your outnumbered all the time. Proper placement of your soldiers, and well thought out fire lanes can help a lot. It's VERY satisfying to catch the bad guys in a crossfire between Connors on the machine gun, and Foley with the sniper rifle, as someone else lobs a few frag grenades into the fray, just to liven things up a bit.
SCORE: 9/10

MULTIPLAYER: Co-Operative multiplayer for up to 4 people...what's not to like? I've only played it 2 player, and that was very fun. No slowdown due to the split screen that I saw, and it's pretty cool to be able to plan and implement your strategy between 2 or more people, much as we do when I play Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six on LAN.
SCORE: 9/10

OVERALL: There's a lot to like in this title, and I think that anyone who takes the time to learn the controls will have a lot of fun with it. I can only think that the guy from Gamespot who gave this a 4.8 ingests a fair amount of hallucinogens. Judging by all the 7s, 8s, 9s, and 10s, other folks here feel the same way. And if you have a buddy or two who likes this kind of game, you can do the entire game co-op.

While this is not as deep as Ghost Recon, for instance, that's not really a bad thing...Conflict Desert Storm is a little more of an arcade style game, but it's a little more accessible as well. Even my buddy who doesn't play too many games like this on consoles felt right at home with the controls, so it's not so overwhelming that casual gamers can't enjoy it.

All in all, if you can pick this little gem up for a good price, you won't regret it. Based on what I paid for it, it's a downright steal.
SCORE: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/23/03