Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Escobar

Just like any good Tom Clancy novel, Tom Clancy’s End War (TCEW) lays the foundation right away with a very complex plot set in the not-too-distant future.  World War II shooting games have their Nazis to fight, and modern warfare games have their terrorists to deal with.  This time, those nutty terrorists have managed to detonate a nuclear weapon in the middle of Saudi Arabia, effectively eliminating the world’s oil supply.  What the terrorists were trying to accomplish by this is not really clear, perhaps it was the Sierra Club behind it all…

Soon afterwards, the US and the European Union create a worldwide missile defense system that ends the threat of nuclear missiles.  The game’s story picks up in the year 2027 when the US is approaching completion of their military “freedom” station in space.  The Soviet Union has banded back together and returned to superpower status, and the Europeans have done the same.  This sets the table for the traditional RTS formula of having three balanced sides, each one just plain not liking the other two.  With the pending completion of the US space station and the military advantage it would provide, the other two sides are going to do all they can to keep it from being finished.

When it comes to eye candy, TCEW really delivers.  The attention to detail is just amazing, and shows up throughout gameplay.  When you zoom in on a squad of your infantryman attacking enemy tanks, you can see some soldiers going prone and firing, while others shoot from behind trees or structures.  Viewing a clash between two sets of helicopters, you’re treated to rockets zooming back and forth, flares popping out, and plenty of satisfying explosions.

The game maps are also very well done, providing beautiful detail throughout the scenery.  Whether it’s an urban battle or a showdown at a factory somewhere in the countryside, detail level and sheer believability of the environments is excellent.  While the battlegrounds are not totally destructible, there is plenty of wreckage left behind any major clash to show that the site saw action.  Buildings reduced to rubble, smoking vehicles, and craters are just some of the evidence left behind.  Combine this with the camera zooming back and forth across the battlefield smoothly when you switch focus from unit to unit, and it presents a very pleasing picture indeed.

TCEW does very well when it comes to audio; the gunfire, explosions, and rockets are very realistic sounding and have a sufficient amount of variety.  In no time at all you’ll be able to tell by sound whether you have units taking incoming fire from artillery or if it’s just rockets from transports.

The soundtrack for the game does a good job of helping set the mood for each mission, but stays in the background and doesn’t overpower the action.  The voice acting is solid throughout the game.  Mission briefings are delivered in terse, no-nonsense military jargon, and news broadcasts set the scene by showing the state of world affairs.

The absolute high point of this game is the control scheme.  When I first set up my headset to use voice commands, I expected it to be of limited use and more of a selling gimmick than anything else.  Boy was I wrong.  The voice commands work flawlessly – never once during gameplay did I ever have to repeat a command, or have a command misinterpreted.  This added a whole new dimension to the game, maintaining the fast pace and excitement of every mission.  The one minor drawback is that there are a lot of voice commands.  A whole lot.  Eventually it gets to the point where you’re trying to remember what keyword TCEW is looking for to accomplish what you want.  The user interface handles this brilliantly, letting you fall back on the button controls to not only remind you the correct keywords, but also execute your commands immediately instead of making you repeat them.

For the most part, unit control is a blast, seamlessly zipping across the battlefield from unit to unit.  Whenever you switch from one unit to another, you can change to the viewpoint of that unit.  This causes the camera to slide over to your new focus, giving you a bird’s eye view of what that unit is seeing.  You can then use the directional sticks to pan around and zoom in and out.  The one minor complaint I have here is that the camera is “leashed” to the unit that you are focused on.  Instead of being able to just scroll across the terrain, you have to select a new unit, even if that unit is right next to you.  This takes a bit of getting used to, but is not a major issue.

Every command in the game can be executed via voice, but the game constantly prompts you with the button controls also.  This gives you the flexibility of using either command style, or mixing the two however you like.  The interface does an excellent job of staying out of your way and letting you enjoy the game.

If the story setup sounds complicated, don’t worry, TCEW is just getting started.  Just like every Tom Clancy novel, the political landscape is incredibly convoluted.  For those interested in diving into the motivations and backgrounds of the differing sides, the mission briefings really shine, providing you with realistic goals that make sense in the game world.  There are no wasted missions here; each one advances the plot and builds the dramatic tension, letting you know that each mission is of great importance.

Prelude to War kicks off the set of training missions, laying out the back story of the game and getting you familiar with the control scheme and gameplay.  During these missions, you move from faction to faction, advancing the story arc as you progress.  For people who just enjoy the gameplay, they can ignore the pre-mission briefings for the window dressing that they are, and jump right in for some good old-fashioned mayhem.  But for those folks that want to be immersed in the story, you have to pay very strict attention to the names, factions, and places that are being used in each mission.

A major problem with the title is the limited number of units you can choose.  With only nine units available, the strategic depth becomes very limited.  And this is 9 separate units in the game, not nine per faction!  For the most part, the only difference between the sides is the accent they use when acknowledging your commands, the differences are mostly cosmetic.  When choosing what faction you want to play, the different sides are characterized by the Europeans being more technologically advanced, the Russians being the low-tech brute force, and the US being an evolution of the Marines, an elite professional cadre.  As in any traditional RTS, your forces fall into the usual rock/paper/scissors setup where everyone has someone they are strong against and someone they are weak against.  For example, your transports are great at shooting down helicopters but are weak against tanks, and the helicopters can mop up tanks with ease.  This turns the gameplay into a scramble to make sure you have advantageous matchups as often as possible.

In addition, all of the units are persistent and can be promoted after sufficient experience, becoming tougher and in some cases gaining new abilities.  Unfortunately, advancement only occurs between missions, no battlefield promotions here!  Unit upgrades fall into four major categories; attack upgrades, defense upgrades, mobility upgrades, and ability upgrades.  The first three are self-explanatory, with the ability upgrades providing useful bonuses such as being able to capture control points faster.

A high point of gameplay is the way Weapons of Mass Destruction, or WMDs, are handled.  WMDs are the big hammer of the game, causing massive damage and disruption to your enemy and can very quickly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  The twist with WMDs is that they cannot be deployed until certain conditions have been met.  The match first has to reach Defcon 1, which means that one side is very close to winning.  Defcon 1 only allows the team that’s on the losing side to use a WMD.  The person that is about to achieve victory can only deploy a WMD in response to the other team doing so.  As you can tell, this can make for some exciting finishes to games, and some last minute upset wins (or losses).

WMDs and their use become more strategic with online play, which supports up to 4 players.  The ability to wipe out a lot of your enemy’s units in a last ditch stand can turn the tide quickly.  Just be aware that if you deploy your own WMDs, you’ve opened yourself to the possibility of the other guy’s big strike.  TCEW adds in leaderboards and a serviceable matchmaking client, so finding opponents of your skill level online is not a problem.

The single player campaign, consisting of more than 40 missions will provide around 25 hours of gameplay, but the real value here is the online multiplayer.  With up to four players in a match, multiplayer games are always full of surprises.  Just when you think you have the game locked up, someone deploys their WMDs and the lead changes just like that.  Multiplayer requires quick thinking and a good awareness of the battlefield for you to be successful at it, but is well worth the time spent.

There are four kinds of online battles: siege, raid, assault, and conquest. Sieges require you to secure the uplink (control point placed on the map) and hold it for a period of time before the enemy gets reinforcements. Raid requires you to destroy over half of the critical structures in the map before time runs out. In assault mode, you have to kill all the enemies on the map. Last but not least is conquest mode, where you have to hold more than half of the uplinks on the map for five minutes to succeed. The twist with conquest mode is once one side captures more than half the uplinks it will trigger DEFCON 1, allowing the losing side to deploy a WMD. Once the losing side has deployed a WMD, everyone is then able to use their own weapons of mass destruction as well.

With the exception of the voice interface, there’s nothing new here of note.  While online play is solid, the limited number of units per side hurts the game in the long run.  For a developer that has a reputation for deep strategy in their games, TCEW comes off as RTS-lite, and this definitely hurts the replay value of the title.  Demanding 5 GB of precious hard drive space and a load time of 10-15 minutes doesn’t help either.  The well executed multiplayer design is the main attraction of this title.  Tom Clancy’s End War is much like a supermodel; pretty and fun to play with, but ultimately lacking substance.

Gaming Trend Score

85

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 90
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 80
5. Value/Replay: 80
6. OVERALL:85