Modern Warfare

By J.N. Cobb

Full Spectrum Warrior™ didn’t start out as a game, but as a tool. The U.S. Army had a highly advanced combat simulation program, designed to train its young officers in the demands of leadership. It put officers in charge of a virtual unit and let them take their troops through dangerous urban battlefields.

Developer Pandemic and Publisher THQ worked closely with the U.S. Army to adapt this high-tech military simulator to the Xbox®, with an eye toward creating the most realistic and intense squad-based tactical strategy game ever. The result is an extremely challenging and rewarding console game that has action and multiplayer fun to spare.

Fire Teams ready to go.

Full Spectrum Warrior is not a shooter in the sense of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® 3 — in fact, you won’t have direct access to any weapons or take part in any direct combat. Instead, you command two four-member fire teams, Alpha and Bravo, and must assess the given situation and give orders that will both accomplish the squad’s objectives and keep all its members alive.

Each team consists of a Team Leader, a Rifleman, an Automatic Rifleman, and a Grenadier. These soldiers are equipped with reliable modern weapons like the semi-automatic M4 Carbine (for the Team Leader and Rifleman), the M249 Automatic (for the Auto Rifleman), and the M203 Grenade Launcher (for the Grenadier). Ammo is extremely limited, and you can’t rely on health power-ups, so you don’t have your troops just charge into a situation with guns blazing. As the man in charge, you’ll have to make do with the soldiers and the equipment you have.

Follow the cursor to cover.

You control one fire team at a time, with each member of the team responding to your orders. The cursor interface is simple and elegant; simply move it to the desired location and hit A. Full Spectrum Warrior also has an excellent GPS map display feature, which gives you a clear view of the terrain and some enemy positions. But, just like in real war, the enemy will be mobile, so you can’t always expect them to be where intelligence says they are. You can (and in fact must) check in with your own superiors during the mission. You can even call for a helicopter fly-by for some recon to see what’s ahead.

Since this game was designed as a military training tool, you have access to a large, detailed, and surprisingly intuitive list of commands that real officers give to real soldiers every day. You can order your squads to move, fire on a specific location, lay down suppressing fire, or move with weapons ready, in case someone attacks them halfway. If trouble starts after the orders are issued, you can cancel them by hitting B, which will usually drop all your squad members to the ground in a defensive position, while they wait for new orders.

Gritty urban warfare.

As a video game, Full Spectrum Warrior for the Xbox has different demands than the U.S. Army training tool. Thankfully, THQ and Pandemic have expertly tweaked the entire game, so that it makes the most of the Xbox video game system’s graphical punch, delivering an exciting game experience without sacrificing any of the strategic elements or realism that makes the game so gripping. As you move through deserted cities and bombed-out villages, you’ll guide your teams through search-and-rescue, search-and-destroy, infiltration, and recon missions. You can even play co-op on Xbox Live™ with one player guiding Alpha Team and the other guiding Bravo, staying in close contact via the Xbox Live Communicator headset.

Full Spectrum Warrior is a unique and exciting entry into the tactical squad-based combat genre. With its high degree of realism, demanding strategic and tactical requirements, and the gripping immediacy of its urban skirmishes, gamers will soon see just how real wars are won—by superior leadership and perfect execution.

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