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Pandemic Studios is everywhere! Who could have thought that the developer of Army Men RTS would become such a hot developer? Besides Full Spectrum Warrior, the company is currently working on Destroy All Humans!, Mercenaries and Star Wars Battlefront, all pretty big titles. Back on topic, Full Spectrum Warrior is actually the consumer version of a defense project that Pandemic Studios worked on for the US Army. What does this mean for you? You’re going to find a legitimate army title for a change.
In Full Spectrum Warrior, you have to help NATO forces to remove a dictatorial ruler from the imaginary country of Zekistan. The leader is killing people solely because of their ethnic background and spreading anti-Western thoughts to the people. Obviously, NATO isn’t particularly fond of these actions.
Although the numerous screenshots show this game as a Rainbow Six 3-like squad-based shooter, Full Spectrum Warrior behaves more like a real time strategy title. In the game, you issue orders to two teams (Alpha and Bravo). Both of these teams have two riflemen each with an M4, although one serves as the team leader. Another team member has an M249, which is an automatic rifle, while another controls the big grenade launcher. The thing about the game is that you don’t actually pull off these actions; you just hope that the orders you gave were good enough to prevent your men’s death.
You may think that you have played this game before but Full Spectrum is quite different, actually. The game is extensively authentic and requires a lot of thought to successfully complete it. While the mouse-based interface is intuitive and simple to use (although not quite as natural as the Xbox version) ; you can’t simply order a move to a different location as there will be consequences. This means that you’ll need to find areas you can hide behind for cover. This also means that you’ll need to position your team so that they cover each other at all times, just in case the enemy has something sneaky planned. That doesn’t mean that your team members are dumb, though, as they will form accurate formations to maximize cover and their offensive advantage.
If there is a mission that you find too difficult, or simply want to play with someone else, you can play the missions cooperatively online. Unfortunately, the talk commonly found in the Xbox Live version is gone, but you can still communicate via the keyboard.
The Xbox version of the game included the version Pandemic Studios shipped to the US Army. While that version is aurally and visually less appealing than the consumer retail version, it was a nice touch. The game does include a few additional missions in the main campaign to make up for that fact. Additionally, Pandemic Studios added a rudimentary replay feature that lets you capture video from your mission.
Visually, Full Spectrum Warrior is quite a looker. The game’s various urban settings are very realistic, further adding to the authentic nature of the game. The texture work is quite good and shows in detail the various deprived and underprivileged Middle Eastern cities that the game mimics. The assortment of characters is decent, nothing spectacular but their animation is excellent. The formations and movement seems very natural, a must in this genre. The lighting system is pretty with great lighting in every scene in the game; it really makes you feel like you’re going through the cities. Adding to the lighting system is the particle system which is awesome, particularly when stuff (cars, crates) is blowing up (which you’ll see quite a bit off since the game uses Havoc physics).
The music is also very fitting. The soundtrack is appropriate, and the various sound effects are excellent. You’ll hear everything that is going on-screen. The voice acting is strong, also.
Full Spectrum Warrior is a different and satisfying take on the squad-based gameplay formula that is so popular nowadays. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 8, 2004
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