Full Spectrum Warrior

"FSW sets a high standard for all military games."

When I first heard about the game, I thought that it was going to be a 3rd person shooter game. Furthermore, the fact that a similar version of Full Spectrum Warrior was used in the military and all the hype about it made me eager to get the game. The first the I played the game I was like, "What the..." because that was the first time I had actually played a game of that sort of genre. However, the game is pretty decent till the end and everyone should at least try this game once.

Graphics:
What can I say? The graphics is just utterly amazing. It probably one of the games with the best graphics on the XBox. Graphics is a vital component for games to me and it was one of the few reasons that kept me playing the game will the end. The character models look great and the environment looks even better. The explosions too were nicely detailed with bits of the ground and dust soaring into the air. I cannot stress more on how beautiful the graphics are.

Sound:
When you're playing a war game, sound is important in creating the atmosphere and the people at Pandemic Studios do not disappoint. The explosions and mortar strikes sound good and realistic. The characters too have great voices wth each voice very unique to each character. However, they have a very limited vocabulary and after 20 minutes into the game, you'd pretty much have heard all that the characters are capable of saying.

Controls:
When you read the about the controls in the manual, it will sound extremely confusing but luckily there's a tutorial at the start of the game, which will initially seem weird but it no time you'll master the controls with ease.

Gameplay:
This is probably where Full Spectrum Warrior falls a little short of expectations. The length of the game is short, about 10-12 hours and once you finish the game the first round, it'd be unlikely that you'd replay the game anytime soon because after playing the game, you would know exactly where the enemies are and the excitement value significantly drops. It may be quite tedious too when you need to flank an enemy with one team and keep firing at him with the other. There's a lot of wastage of bullets just to eliminate a single enemy. Furthermore, action loving gamers who bought this game thinking that it was a first or third person shooter will probably not like this game as much as others because you cannot actually aim at enemies. You just tell your team where to shoot and they will automatically aim and shoot. Sometimes, the camera can be kind of a hindrance although you can actually control it. Occasionally, you cannot see properly what's happening when you navigate your men from corner to corner, especially narrow alleys.

<Overall:
Overall, Full Spectrum Warrior is a very unique game with superb graphics, great sound and controls, and not too bad gameplay. All XBbox owners should at least rent this game to see whether it's to your liking or not. This game definitely sets the standards for future real-time strategy games coming out and the bar it sets is sure a high one.

Score:
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/21/04