Full Spectrum Warrior

"First private Ryan, then Black Hawk down, and now this"

To be honest I don't exactly remember when I first heard about Full Spectrum Warrior (FSW). I know on Gamefaqs I heard a few bits here and there on some of the Xbox forums about the game, it came out the same week as chronicles of Riddick so it didn't get as much press or hype that it deserved, and it wasn't exactly a first person shooter so most wouldn't be likely to run out and buy/play it.

The week after Full spectrum warrior came out I went to my local EB and with nothing remotely interesting I decided to pick up FSW and I was not disappointed.

Game Play:
The Game play is based on several army missions that have different objectives in an urban combat area. Your brigade is “Charlie 90” divided in to two teams (Alpha and Bravo), each team has four members (A team leader, an auto rifleman, a grenadier, and a rifleman). Everyone on the team has a job and you must use the skills of each to bypass different parts of the campaign. Everything on the game is objective based; sometimes it may involve solely moving your teams to a certain area, other times it may be to rescue a fallen soldier, VIP, or other persons, and the most fun objectives are taking out targets. Sometimes that involves heavy armor, RPGs (rocket propelled grenade launches), and other times it maybe just getting close enough to “paint” a target and call in the apache helicopters to level them with an air strike.
Most of the game play is based on strategy, you can ‘t just stand and shoot or run and gun, you must think on your feet and move to cover, sometimes engage an enemy in a firefight with one team so that the other team may move around and flank them from behind for the kill.
I feel a lot of effort went in to the game play design from the levels, to the weapons, to the game play (fight) mechanics. I really couldn't find a flaw in my opinion.
10 of 10

Story:
This was loosely based on the 1991 and current dessert storm campaign in Iraq, and Afghanistan. There's a dictator in the Middle East (Al Afad ) who has caused uprising against western commodities, and an invasion of a small country Zekkistan The UN decides to invade to country and free the oppressed people and destroy the regime of Al Afad.
8 of 10

Graphics:
The Graphics of this game IMO are absolutely Phenomenal!!
The character animation is top notch, the fog of war and zoom in (moving motion) is superb, the dust kickback from explosions is really well done. You truly feel like your watching a well done war movie (al-la private Ryan and black hawk down).
9 of 10

Audio:
Audio isn't anything to sneeze at but isn't anything exceptional either, you have your standard yells, grunts, gunfire, explosions ect, and the voice acting is done pretty well, my only complaint is there really isn't any real depth in the actors (but take in to consideration that they really would sound like that in the military).
This game does win a extra points for some of the hilarious (R-rated) comments, I can't really mention any, but if you're old enough to play the game you'll catch some of the off comments that are made, and find them to be entertaining.
8 of 10

Controls :
The controls are highly responsive and well placed. A little hard to get used to in the beginning but game play becomes second nature very shortly, sometimes your character's will move further/shorter than you want (a big pain) sometimes resulting in failed campaigns or death.
8 of 10

(Extras)

Fun factor
"AS always" In a word “WWWWWHHHOOOO WWAAAAHH!!” (YES!)
10 of 10

Re-playability
Aside from the multi play on Xbox live this is the type of game you can pick up and play when bored or just to zone out and have fun, it is a little short (only 11 missions) but it's fun to redo missions and Live play is just icing.
8 of 10

Good/Bad/Ugly

-Good: Great fun game for war buffs
-Bad: Going up against a mortar tank
-ugly: Some of the language used in the ad-libs (LOL)

Buy/Rent
Not everyone is a strategy game fan, and some may confuse this game for a first person shooter. So I would recommend a rental first.

Overall
This is a solid, original game that has live play as an additional option.
I personally don't see too many down sides to it (aside from game length witch is offset by replay ability).
It may not make it as a legendary game but is definitely worth checking out
8 of 10 (8.5)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/04