Gameplay - 8Graphics - 8
Sound - 8
Story - 8
Overall - 8
Tom Clancy is known for great games such as Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and Ghost Recon. Well, they've done it again with End War. This is the first game of it's kind that I've played. The voice input feature is great, although it CAN get a little tiresome. Depending on your playing style, you may either want to do everything using voice commands, or you may not use it at all. I must say, voice command makes you feel like you are really commanding troops, not just computer generated images. But enough praise for the headset, on to the game!
(And no, this review does NOT include a headset. That is for game purchases only :P )
The setting of the game is right before WWIII. It's 2013, America and Europe have signed a treaty which makes nuclear war a thing of the past, with missiles being shot down in the outer atmosphere. For a whole year, countries enjoy peace. But all is not well. Climbing oil prices and low supplies of it cause conflict between nations. Alliances are formed, and the US and Europe enter a space arms race. The US announces its plan to have a space station in orbit by 2020. This causes tension worlwide, as the station would also house 3 companies of marines able to deploy anywhere in the world in under 90 minutes. Modules of the space station ascend into orbit. Then, on the day that the final module is to be launched, multiple attacks take place across nations from a terrorist group known as the 'Forgotten Army.' All attacks are repelled, but the damage has been done. When the module launches, a virus implanted by the terrorists registers the unit as a ICBM and it is shot down by a European defense satellite. The US sees this as an act of war, and thus is the beginning of WWIII.
End War has a compelling and somewhat in-depth story, depending on how much of it you pay attention to. The fights between nations gets pretty intense. Your first two missions are fairly easy. After that, you need to strategize. Every unit has strengths and weaknesses, there is no power in numbers. Multiple units of one type can easily be taken down by a single superior unit. Pay attention to each unit's strengths and weaknesses.
End War graphics are pretty good. You shouldn't expect to be stunned by anything, but they are definitely up to par with other games in the genre. If you have played Command & Conquer or Red Alert, you'll see an improvement here. The landscapes are nice, units could use a little bit of work, buildings are okay. The only leniency I'll give is to take into account the amount of units that can potentially be on a map at any given time. You want to keep a high frame rate. Overall, the graphics are nice. Tanks blow up, soldiers bleed, buildings collapse, etc.
Gameplay is not entirely new, but your strategy will be. The voice command brings a new level of reaction to each event. Using the voice command, I can command several different units to do several different things in a space of about 7 seconds, whereas using buttons it would take close to a minute. Theres a nice map overview if you'd rather see things from a commander's viewpoint, but I personally rather stay on the battlefield and watch the action. Once again, the voice command factor is purely how much you like that kind of thing. Some people would rather the traditional button system. Luckily, you don't have to pick one. Both systems are in effect all the time. There's no pausing and switching over.
The campaign is turn based, in a way. Similar to Risk, you choose different territories to attack next turn. You then play through the battle for that territory. While there is no proof of this, it is believed that the better you do in your personal attacks, the better your nation will do overall in the campaign. That may be obvious, but what I mean to say is that while you may attack 3 territories in one turn, you only actually fight one battle. The other two outcomes are left to simulation. Supposedly, if you win your battle, your nation will also win the simulated battles for that round. I won't argue over this, if you want to find out if it works, try it yourself.
While there isn't much to elaborate on sound-wise, it's still very nice. Explosions, bullets firing, buildings collapsing, and other favorite wargame sounds make this an immersive game. Although the exploding tanks and humvees might not knock your socks completely off, they'll certainly have them hanging from your toes.
It all comes down to this: If you like Tom Clancy games, get End War. If you like having every word you speak obeyed, get End War. If you like war games in general, get End War.
The End
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