To put it lightly … DAMN! I think we’re going to need to create a new genre pigeonhole for Full Spectrum Warrior. The best thing I’ve been able to come up with is Eye-Level Real-Time Strategy. I call it that because even though the action is viewed from a first-person perspective, the player does not get to actually shot at anything (as in a first-person shooter) nor does he command his units from on high like the typical RTS. The player is on the ground with his troops and must make decisions from their perspective and issue orders quickly to succeed in his mission and bring his men home alive. This gets intense!
As most gamers who have been following the development of Full Spectrum Warrior know, the game was originally commissioned by the US Army from Pandemic Studios as a training aid for infantry squad leaders. The game was to be a cheap way for sergeants to practice command of their two fireteams without expending ammo, individual training time or lives. (I understand the Army is very pleased with what it got.) As the project progressed, Pandemic realized they had an almost complete consumer product that they could add a bit to and then release to the public as a new gaming experience. This may be the first time the US Government has paid the bulk of the R&D expenses for a consumer video game.
Full Spectrum Warrior takes place in the fictional country of Zekistan, a sandy hellhole ruled by a strongman named Mohammad Jabbour Al Afad. Al Afad has been acting a fool and pissing off the western powers so the UN mounts an invasion to oust him. Guess what – you and your squad end up right in the middle of this fur ball.
Your troops are a dismounted light infantry squad. That means you won’t be riding into combat in the back of a nice, armored Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, you have only the basic infantry weapons, you got only GROPOs (GROund POunders) to command, and there are only, counting you, nine of you in a sea of baddies trying to kill you. But your men are well trained and follow orders expertly, instantly and exactly as you tell them. That means if someone gets killed – you did it.
Learning to command the Alpha and Bravo fireteams of your squad takes a bit of an investment. The tutorial is a little over an hour long. Once you do finish the tutorial and the short supplemental info at the end of it, the game really does not throw anything new at you. From there you simply use the tools you have at hand to accomplish your objectives … but there is nothing simple about it.
At the heart of Full Spectrum Warrior is the movement system. Knowing when, where and how to move is key to bringing all your men back alive. Finding and using cover, terrain features that will keep bullets off your men, is most important. The player must use the two teams cooperatively to advance into hostile territory. The most basic strategy is one team watching for enemies while the other moves forward to the next spot they can use for cover and then the watching squad moves forward while the team that moved first takes its turn to watch for the bad guys. Of course if an enemy location is discovered, one team can pin the enemy with fire while the other team maneuvers for his flanks by moving from one piece of cover to another until they can get a good shot at where the enemy is hiding. The whole system has to be experienced to truly appreciate the vast number of permutations possible in a given situation.
Fire direction is second only to movement in importance. Your teams each have three rifles of the M-16 family, one M249 light machinegun, one M203 grenade launcher, and thrown fragmentation and smoke grenades. (What were you expecting, an intercontinental ballistic missile?) Generally the team fires their rifles and machine guns when given the point fire or suppression fire orders. Point fire is fire directed at a specific target with the hope of destroying it. Suppression fire is fire directed at an area with the goal of keeping the enemy’s head down, which gives the other team a chance to flank and destroy the enemy. All fire eats up the limited ammo supply, but suppression fire doubles the expenditure of ordinance. If an enemy is particularly well covered and flanking is not an option, it’s time to use the very limited supply of grenades the team carries. The M203 grenade launcher has light armor piercing capabilities and longer range than a thrown grenade. Thrown fragmentation grenades pack a nice explosive power and kill radius but don’t go very far. Either will dig out a pesky enemy that has gotten a little too cozy behind a solid piece of cover. Smoke grenades are used as temporary cover when your squad finds it necessary to cross open ground that has no natural cover. It won’t stop a bullet, but what the enemy can’t see he can’t shoot.
Fire and maneuver makes up the bulk of the game, but there are a couple more things to do. The player has a Global Positioning Satellite unit that serves as the map. The GPS unit is updated at intervals with new intelligence and objectives. The radio allows your squad to keep in contact with its lieutenant platoon leader. He is the man with the info. In many missions the player may also call for additional aerial reconnaissance to spot enemy positions and for indirect fire from off-screen mortars or air strikes to reduce a particularly troublesome strongpoint or vehicle.
Missions are a lot of what you’d expect: attack, defend, secure, rescue, etc. In addition to having to complete the assigned objectives, the player must not lose any men. There are no “acceptable losses.” If one of your men gets wounded, he must be given first aid and carried back to a casualty evacuation point. These CASEVACs are also where your squad can fill up on ammo. The wounded man will be patched up and returned to his team.
Full Spectrum Warrior is Xbox Live enabled. In addition to the standard downloadable content, two players can individually command the two teams and cooperate to complete the missions. I’m disappointed that there is no system link ability in the game. This would have been great to play cooperatively in the same room with two Xbox consoles or even competitively with two opposing squads.
