Summary

When it was released "Full Spectrum Warrior" got lavish praise from the professional gaming magazines and websites. But many players soon found a lot of flaws in the game so I thought it best to pick it up when the price had dropped quite a bit.

I'm glad I did. FSW has an interesting concept, but too many gameplay problems (below). If you are set on playing the game, well, you can undoubtedly find it on the shelves at the Geek Store for under 20 dollars. But with titles like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter also selling at a discount, and displaying superior gameplay, you might be better off passing on FSW as a failed experiment in crafting a 'realistic' tactical shooter.

Strength

Graphics are quite nice, and the urban setting in a hellhole of a central Asian nation is ideal for a tactical wargame of this type. The rusted car bodies, piles of trash, rubble from demolished houses, and furtive turban-clad figures all gives that authentic "Foreign Intervention" feel.

Sounds are well done, from gun noises to explosions to the buzzing of the flies in the Zakistan heat.

The tutorial is extensive and provides the player with the instructions they need to get into the game. The manual is also well done, no complaints there.

Weakness

As other reviewers have pointed out, the gameplay does not involve control of the movement, or firing, of individual soldiers, but instead relies on setting waypoints. All firing, targeting, and movement are rendered as animations that you passively watch from your commander's perch.

Obviously your camera has to be well designed to allow for the necessary fields of vision during these maneuvers. The camera has some degree of freedom during these functions but still, too many times I found myself having to ignore the action, while I frustratedly wrestled with the thumbsticks in an effort to see what was going on.

Control is also a problem; the various actions are often simply too unwieldy in terms of button assignments. The use of both quick-presses, and sustained presses, of the same set of keys can cause real frustration when the action you want gets replaced by an action you didn't want and your unit gets cleaned out, forcing a checkpoint reload.

And while the graphics are nice, they tend to lack the resolution necessary to identify enemy troops. Unlike GRAW, opfors in FSW are not given a helpful red outline so you often must grind thru several restarts of a level in order to memorize the appearance of the enemy so you can eliminate them as needed.

The game relies on a checkpoint save system. This is a major mistake. On the more extended levels having to restart and replay a significant chunk of the mission just drains the enjoyment from the game. And why make the checkpoint save so laborious - having to move your unit into a reticle until a Save icon appears, and then hit the white button ? It's symptomatic of the dev teams' confusion - making a game 'authentic' doesn't mean that even the simplest actions have to be garnished with all kinds of button-mashing overload.

Unless you are really intent on getting involved with the peculiar gameplay of FSW, I suggest you'll get a similar experience, but quite a bit more fun, out of GR 2 or GRAW.

Summary

Full Spectrum Warrior is easily one of the best games of the year. Devloped for U.S. Light Infantry Training for the Army, it stands out in realism to what occurs today. The game takes you to Ziekastan or something in the Middle East. Your missions it to tack down and capture a rebel infantry general named Al Afaud or close to. For anyone wanting to know what it is like to be a commander out on the field in combat, I highly recomend this game.

Sound

The sound is amazing. If you have a great sround sound system and you have it turned up high enough, the people next door may think theres a real war inside your house.

Gameplay

Although the entire game is scripted, the gameplay comes out amazing. You are given two four man squads, Alpha and Bravo and sometimes you are give a Charlie squad which will be a M4 gunmen or a 2 man delta sniper squad. This is a war game where you, yourself, don't shoot. May sound stupid, but it offers great gaming experience. Instead of shooting and walking around, you use your left thumbstick to help order your squads to move, and to fire you just press two buttons as you tell the troops where to aim. In the game, cover and tatics are a must to win by useing one entrenched squad to cover another as you move up,down, or across a street to flank a Opfor, etc. In this game, you will learn the value of human life, for one of your soldiers die is a mission over. After awhile, this game will become repeative for you are doing the same thing over and over.

Summary

If ur looking forward to a new shoot em up shooter that takes no skill and u only need one hand u dont want thins game. Things are really different when all u do is order ur squad and not control them. Unlike games like ghost recon rainbow six conflict desert storm ect. all u do in full spectrum warrior (fsw) order the teams to do stuff. Example, there is an enemy around a corner. I order alpha squad to open fire by giving them i fire sector over the enemy. So they open fire and the enemy ducks behind cover. I cant take him out so using bravo i cirle around and kill him that way. Cover is very important, if uv every played kill switch (which i suggest u do) then ul know that cover is very important well its the same in fsw. The wall command in fsw is like the shadow in splinter cell. open terrain is ur worst enemy.

Sound

Sound is great RPGs sound real nice and fluid.I never felt that the sound lacked at all. Weapons sound realistic and surpessive fire is fluid and logical belive me iv heard three M16s on full auto and it sound almost exatly like it does in the game. But maybe its just my 12 speaker surround sound system.

Gameplay

Very well mapped but i have some gripes. I wish that u had a sniper to make the longer shots or could make a manual shot at and entrenched enemy. There is so many times that if i were shooting i could hit them but the computer cant. But that would take away from the games thing. Its also annoying that when u reach a corner and order the team to shoot around it two of ur teams members need to lean out (commander and auto weapons man). Its also kinda dumb that u cant specialize ur teams kit ti the level at hand. So if ur in a level with lotsa long rang shots u could swap the SAW (squad automatic weapons) man for say a sniper. And the four guys in a squad all carry the same thing execpt the SAWs man and demo guy who has and M203 under barrel mounted to his M16 witch they all should. Thats the only thing that is really bad about this game. Its cool the way u can have one team suppress while the other fanks or grenades. P.S. If u dont like swear word then this is not the game for u ur team swears all the time its hialrious.

Summary

WARNING!!! This game is NOT another Conflict Desert Storm. If you were looking for a fun squad-based game to play go rent Conflict Desert Storm II:Back to Bagdad! You've read the other reviews above mine already and no one really slammed this game properly. It's just plain weak! Another pro-US military action propaganda game but without the fun! Might as well come with a leaflet or something.

Sound

It's cool. You can hear everything gingling around in their pockets as they run from place to place. The explosions sound realistic as well; well, about as real as the ones I've heard in movies anyway...

Gameplay

Let's begin. First of all you don't get to move the characters anywhere you want. In order to move the soldiers you have to move the left analog stick until you see this orange cone with circles underneath it (these circles represent where each member of the unit will reside once you press the "a" button to select where you want the soldiers to go). So, when you see that guy over there manning the machine gun behind a sandbag wall you have to use one squad to create suppressing fire while the other (whole squad) moves around somewhere else to take a shot. Too make a long story short, it takes 10 minutes to complete a remedial task like taking out one intrenched guy that could be done in seconds if you could control one or two guys independently. This game seems like a cross between Final Fantasy and Conflict Desert Storm, heavy on the Final Fantasy! You don't shoot people you order them to shoot, you don't move the guys around, you order them around. Also, while controlling one squad the other just sits there doing whatever they were last instructed to do which usually results in them getting wasted by some guy running by with no shirt and an AK-47. This game is LAME!!

Summary

If you like a war games then you would like Full Spectrum Warrior. This game is about a ten hour game. There are about 11 levels. Some levels are short and some are long. This game is a good game but if your expecting a shooter you probably dont wanna check out this game. In this game you can NOT fire one single shot, but if you were waiting for this game you might wanna give it a shot at playing.

Sound

This is the highest rated categorie in the game. The sound of you running to each corner is amazing. You can hear the footsteps and the gear moving from the soldiers clearly. The guns sounds are relistic giving you a more relistic feeling. Also the soldiers dialogue gives it more relistic feel. The soldiers use strong language but it is a war so what do you expect them to say, so in some parts its ok for the language.

Gameplay

The gameplay is good but they could of improved on alot of stuff. The gameplay is simply repeatitive. All you do is shoot, hide, and move to the next checkpoints. There is no variety in missions. Also the AI in the game is pretty bad. The AI just shoots at you and hides. Also the AI can be smart at some times and run away if you through a frag or shoot a RPG at them. If your Alpha team and Bravo team are shooting at the same enemy they will run away and hide so you can not kill them. Overall the gameplay is unique but nothing special.

Summary

I agree with the previous reviewer on all points made. Very addicting and fun game, even more so on online co-op.

Sound

Sound is superb, and the background music is very fitting.

Gameplay

The interface and control has a learning curve, but it becomes pretty intuitive once learned. Giving two sets of orders to two different squads during the heat of an intense battle can be quite a challenge. I've not yet tried the harder difficulty level, but the AI appears to be a mix of average to very good. Your CPU-controlled teams are pretty consistant and predictable in their behavior. In-game saves are available at convenient places. Only thing I would have added would have been the ability to order your men to hit the dirt during a surprise ambush when caught without nearby cover; sometimes the soldiers will do it automatically but at other times they just stand there to take their hits.

Summary

This game was orginally designed as a training tool for the US military. Its also apparent that the game was designed to train Generals and Sergeants and not Privates. The game will teach you military tactics and strategys. The second thing i MUST say about FSW is this... Its not like anything you`ve ever played before and its actually hard to describe what genre this game falls under. but if I had to choose a genre i would say its a new genre called, 3rd person real-time strategy game. you don`t control your men directly and you never pull the trigger yourself in this game. but thats the beauty of this game. the design of this game forces you to use teamwork and it makes you think. If it was anything other than this it would be just another arcade shooter. Actually i lied about one thing, FSW is very similar to another RTS game called CLOSE COMBAT for the PC. I`m not sure how many console gamers have played CC but quite a few PC gamers have and if you like CC, you`ll 'LOVE' this game! Its very similar to it only its much more in your face combat than CC is! on a side note, i also play a game called Squad Assualt. It was made by one of the designers of CC. SA is like CC in 3D. if you like FSW, I highly recommend that you atleast download the PC demo of SA. Its very similar to FSW and its tons of fun! but getting back to FSW. In so many words- its an amazing game. But its not for everyone. you need to have some desire to want to use strategy and not just run-N-gun like in your average shooter. if you`re looking for a run-n-gun shooter this is NOT it! FSW is much more strategic than games like that.

Sound

good sound. it makes me feel like a battle is going on. again i like GAMEPLAY a little more.

Gameplay

Basicly, you are the field General in this game and well, you control 2 squads (sometimes 3) of 4 men each and each squad has a name, Alpha and Bravo. your goal is to get through different missions without getting your men killed. Obviously the way the US military judges who`s winning the war is by how many kills you get and by how many soliders survive. I say this because in this game if you lose 2 men the mission is over. I guess the military DOES NOT want to lose soldiers! So far i`ve only played this game on easy difficulty so if i`m not mistaken, on the hard level you can only lose one man and the mission is over. Now it may seem simplistic to only control 2 squads of 4 men each but its not. You have to use cover all the time and you have to use flanking manuvers, suppression fire, smoke grenades, regular grenades and rocket propelled grenades, or in some situations you can overwhelm your enemy with firepower etc...etc.. if you have any knowledge of military tactics you will understand what the above means but if not, you might be asking yourself, what are smoke grenades? and whats suppression fire? Don`t worry the game`s training missions will teach you all of this. each weapon has a certain purpose. and you must use them wisely to complete the mission because you can run out of ammo in this game. you can also call in for airstrikes, or mortar fire to take out tough enemy defenses. well the meat of the game is ofcourse using tactics to defeat your enemy. however, like most games there are a few things i don`t like about it. The save points kind of rub me the wrong way. you have to get BOTH squads into a check point before you can save the game and often, they`re far apart and you have to wait until the other squad can catch up. whats up with that? I suppose the game needs to save the stats for both squads but it is annoying. and i think Rocket grenades are too effective. i can wipe out enemys too easily with them! but i still like using them! lol! maybe on the hardest level there not so effective or you get fewer rocket greneades? also I don`t like dealing with wounded soldiers. in this game, if one of your soldiers get wounded you have to take him to a medic during the game and it just takes too much time. but all this will make you disciplined thats for sure. another thing, you can get a little disoriented when you play this because when you switch squads the camera angle always seems to be facing in an odd direction so you`re not quite sure which way to go. also training is not very exciting. But i don`t think its supposed to be because you`re just learning the game. and ofcourse my last complaint is the low number of hits it takes to kill your soldier. I know its supposed to be the most realistic combat sim ever, but wow... its frustrating when one or two men die and you have to restart the mission. but atleast the save points are plentiful so its not too bad. thats about it.. FSW is a fantastic and VERY addictive game! also included in the game is the full ARMY version. I haven`t played it yet. you have to put in a code to activate it, but its in there. overall- if you have any desire to play a srategy game thats also got plenty of action in it or if you like Tactical RTS games like CLOSE COMBAT or SHOGUN:Totalwar, etc...etc.. then you will like this game ALOT! but if you`re looking for a run around and shoot everything kind of game this is not it. now thats not to say FSW doesn`t have a shoot`em up feel to it cuz it definitely does however FSW is much more of a thinking man`s game. at the end of the day you will feel like you accomplished something in this game and you will feel much more rewarded for executing the proper strategy. You just don`t get this feeling with shoot`em up games. FSW-- I salute you!