Full Spectrum Warrior

Everything I know about the military, I owe to my Tom Clancy book collection. But even the adventures of Ding Chavez, John Clark and co didn’t reveal to me just how fun urban combat is. I needed Full Spectrum Warrior for that. Here we have a game that manages to take the serious business of urban, squad based combat and manage to make it utterly authentic, utterly addictive and utterly enjoyable. And that’s a lot of ‘utterly’ for your entrance fee.

First the basics. Havoc engine for realistic in-game physics? Check. Dolby Digital sound so you can tell some weasel is sniping your ass? Check. Absolutely humongazoid, insane graphics? Hell yeah! The visual quality of Full Spectrum Warrior is the first thing that hits you, and it hammers you like a tonne of bricks. The urban landscapes look very middle-eastern in appearance, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that most combat game fans have now seen more north African bazaar/marketplaces than the staff of Conde Nast Traveller. That said, this is the way you want your combat games to look. Your squad members are easily recogniseable due to their different weapons and minor distinguishable features, and the effects are a tribute to the graphics team at Pandemic. Thankfully the storytelling is kept to a bare minimum in favour of a true military approach – less dramatic backstory, more “get in there soldier” type stuff. This isn’t a game requiring an elaborate plot.



Now if you have read any of the company line, you may be wondering just where Pandemic and THQ get off claiming this is a military simulator. It’s a long and winding road, but the answer is: they have every right. The US Army funded Institute of Creative Technologies (based out of the University of Southern California) had a brief to bring combat and tactical training techniques into the 21st century. The ICT in turn entered into a relationship with Pandemic Studios to use the game maker’s technology to create a interactive shell to the training methods they had developed. The end result, currently being evaluated by the US Army, is not too different to what you’ll be playing at home, except that the audience may be a little fitter and less temperamental than the average online gamer. Even if you wouldn’t trust them with your prisoners of war.

In a weird fashion, you will experience a momentary letdown as you realise that you don’t have the kind of control over your squads that you may expect. Instead you have a kind of real-time tactical input – you use a cursor to highlight their destination, and then send them on their way.

In a lesser game this might seem like a recipe for zzz’s, because people are conditioned to expect full control over a soldier. But in FSW it works because it’s constantly reinforced that you aren’t just one player, you are two teams of people. This also prevents players from engaging in solo heroics and acting contrary to the tactical sim nature of the game. It requires a bit of a perspective shift, but there’s always plenty to do, even in the excellent tutorial mode.

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