Latest Game Reviews

Full Spectrum Warrior Review - PS2

5th May 2005 by
60%
Full Spectrum Warrior was released on the Xbox nigh on a year ago, delivering a twist on the standard shooters already out there with strategy-based gameplay centred upon modern warfare. The PlayStation 2 port of the game has only just been released - despite its age, can the game still stand its ground? Put simply, no.

Full Spectrum Warrior’s storyline revolves around the attempt by a special forces unit to cripple the regime of a tyrannical dictator and his legion of terrorists in Zekistan - a fictional country - the locales and events portrayed proving very similar to those that have occurred in Iraq recently.

Gameplay

While appearing to bear the standard gameplay structure of a third-person shooter, Full Spectrum Warrior, as mentioned above, focuses on strategy and entirely that. From a third-person view, your job is to issue your team - or teams, on occasions - of four soldiers, each equipped with a different weapon and function, the Rifleman and Team Leader being two examples.

Commanding your squad about the largely urban locations is easy, requiring you to - put simply - point and click, with various combinations and uses of the X and Square buttons allowing for more precise and detailed maneuvers such as the bounding move and laying down suppressive fire. Taking down enemies is made easy by the ability to place a large circular cursor over the enemy or enemies and ordering a fire sector. This will see your team efficiently and accurately take down the enemies within the reticule.

As you may have guessed, though, getting through the game’s lengthy campaign mode is not as simple as running and shooting. Being a strategy game, you’ll need to make use of cover at all times – be that the corner of a building or a discarded lounge which will deteriorate with enemy fire thanks to the implementation of the Havoc engine – as well as suppressive fire. Once you’ve got your enemy pinned down, it’s a good idea to open up your handy GPS in order to note a suitable flanking route as hitting your enemy from the front becomes impossible if they are at all behind cover due to the game’s strategic nature.

The GPS provides a detailed yet small map of the immediate area, as well as enemy, objective and med-evac – which allows you to heal injured soldiers on your team – positions. It proves very useful, as mentioned above, for determining the best and most efficient flanking route to help you destroy enemies behind cover while suppressed and for acquiring the fastest – but least dangerous – route to your objective.

As with firing upon enemies, using grenades and grenade launchers is easy. Holding the Square button brings up an animated line that indicates the path the grenade will take, the left control stick moving it around and allowing you to position it optimally. The ease of use that the game’s weapons provide keep the game from becoming too frustrating as (continued next page)
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