Full Spectrum Warrior

"An excellent URBAN warfare simulator"

One of the best, if not the greatest URBAN warfare simulator out there.

Story: 10/10
It follows the current events. The year is 2004. After the American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the fleeing militia finds refuge in a Zekistan, a nation ran by dictator named Al Afad. His country becomes the basis for training and promoting of terrorist activities. You are team Alpha and Bravo, they are send to Zekistan in UN's efforts to stop the mad man.

Graphics: 10/10
From the look of some of the trailers and the game play intro video, one can assume that the graphics are terrible. Foggy backgrounds, darkness, it's hard to see anything. This however does not hold true if you play the game. Graphics are nice and polished, you really feel like you are in the Middle East. You can practically feel the scorching heat of the sun right through the TV box. It is actually hard to tell whether you are watching a movie or playing a game. The graphical engine is excellent. I haven't encounter one graphical glitch.

Sound: 10/10
Sound is brilliant. You can hear the wind and constantly Arabic music plays in the background making you feel like you are there. The sounds effects of explosions, bullets striking a container, or a brick wall are true to their sound. Like I said before it is a warfare simulator, so it was very important for the developers to duplicate the real sounds of war. Also a nice feature is the soldiers chatter. These guys say the craziest things, many of which can be quote materials.

Game-play: 10/10
It is an 3rd person shooter with limited control. What I mean by limited is that you direct the two and on occasions three teams to a certain spot. It is urban warfare so you basically point to a cover spot, click and they move. During movement they can be aware of what's going or run straight through. You basically deploy all the military strategies during the game-play, such as movement, covering, suppression fire, fire-zones coverage, grenade throwing. You alternate those actions between the teams by switching from one to the other. Since this is a warfare simulator you have to follow the rules of the combat, which can be a chore for some people. You have to be very patient, and extremely careful. To me this was the most nerve wrecking, yet most rewarding game experience ever. One mistake and you are done for, and casualties are not allowed. So when your teammate goes down, one of the soldiers have to carry him to the nearest medical point. There also you can pickup additional ammo. This game uses a check point system, which is fairly frequent. If you rush through it, you cannot beat this game. If a slow careful game play bothers you then you will not like this game. At the point of writing this review two levels for download are available. Now they are FREE, but they are insanely hard. Especially the second one, so if you get a chance play those two as well. This game was written initially for the US Army, and therefore there is a US Army mode available. This can be compared to Halo's Legendary. Extremely hard. If you factor in the two levels that you can download it is a lengthy games, without them some consider this game short, as 11+ hours is enough to beat it if you good. On average it takes 13+ hours.

Multi-player: 6/10
The only multi-player available for this game is through LIVE, and it is a co-op. SO those without LIVE cannot enjoy multi-player, so being so one sided I took 4 points off.
Another thing at this point in time the lobbies for this game are practically empty, so getting a multi-player game on LIVE is very, very hard.

Final Impression
It is an excellent WAR simulator, truly worth $49.99. Currently it sells for $29.99, which is a steal.
I'll give it 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04