Men of War

THQ®, a publisher primarily known for licensed properties (e.g. Scooby-Doo™! Unmasked and The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer) came out of nowhere to launch a stunning assault on the real-time strategy genre in 2004.

Full Spectrum Warrior™, the company's premier military-minded effort for the Xbox®, positively wowed fans and critics alike with its spirited design, which essentially fused real-time tactical game mechanics with a first-person shooter-style audiovisual engine.

Back to the Battle

Now that the title's had a while to simmer at the top of the charts, it's finally getting a sequel in the form of Full Spectrum Warrior™: Ten Hammers, which offers even more addictive squad-level action. This long-awaited follow-up delivers fresh weapons, new equipment, and more than a dozen original armed engagements that challenge even the most stalwart armchair general.

Locked and loaded.

The game is set in the fictional Middle-Eastern country of Zekistan. Following your previous exploits in the region—chronicled in the original game—instability has come to the land. Rebel factions fight for control of the territory, local warlords nurse blood feuds, and hostilities have reached the boiling point.

That's where you come in, as the commander of a unified front of U.S. Army and UN Coalition troops. Using strategic savvy as well as surgically applied force, it's up to you to restore peace to the area.

Should you send a couple scouts ahead
or keep your squad together and concentrate
its forces in case of a surprise ambush?

Doing so isn't as straightforward as you might be led to think from screenshots alone. Despite the close-quarters, third-person view from which much of the game takes place, you don't have direct control over your commandos. Using a series of stick, D-pad, and button-based commands, you instead issue orders which allies follow.

Your artificially intelligent units—which include light infantry squads, Bradley tanks, and armored humvees—are all inspired by real-world armed forces. They're also smart enough to recognize when to take cover or fall into position once you issue a directive.

Command the Fire Teams

By and large, it's your brainpower they rely on to successfully survive featured campaign missions (unless, of course, a friend joins in courtesy of the title's built-in co-op mode). Whatever the case, you can now call the shots for as many as four fire teams, designated as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.

Jump between squads on the fly, or issue buddy teams orders via an intuitive control scheme. However you slice it, learning when to lay down covering fire and how to approach enemy installations from multiple angles is crucial.

Their lives are in your hands.

You don't so much engage in pitched battles spread across dusty, shell-shocked urban environments as control their general flow. Mission objectives serve as markers which guide you through each encounter, though accomplishing all goals requires a mix of brains and brawn.

For example, it's not enough to flank entrenched gunmen from both sides of a hovel standing between you and their position. You have to decide whether to keep them pinned down, snipe at their heads, or throw a grenade in their midst and then rush in and mop up any survivors.

The Fog of War

Facing do-or-die choices like these at every turn becomes even more nerve-wracking when you take into account your newfound ability to split teams into smaller groupings. Should you send a couple scouts ahead or keep your squad together and concentrate its forces in case of a surprise ambush? Only you can answer such questions in the heat of battle.

Be ready to abandon approaches on the fly, too. If a tactic isn't working, you'll know within seconds, as troops fall quickly when caught in an enemy's sights. Expect to face serious challenges here—based on a simulation initially designed for military training purposes before it was adapted for commercial use by developer Pandemic, this series isn't known for its forgiving nature.

Nevertheless, if anyone's got the guts and glory to successfully pull off such a difficult operation without driving gamers completely bonkers, it's the same team behind blockbuster outing Destroy All Humans!™.

New armored vehicles add excitement.

Due for release this February, hopes are high for Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers. Accessible enough so that beginners can jump right in, yet tricky to the point that it takes weeks to master, the title is sure to give aspiring recruits a run for their money. Count on hearing more about the game, including a critique of its robust online head-to-head multiplayer options, soon; this is one battle well worth fighting.

Article by Chris Zimmerman