Xbox

Full Spectrum Warrior

The realities of urban warfare are up-close and personal in what is arguably the best military strategy game to date. For a moment, forget about the reasons why the United States sent its troops into a foreign country. When you?re knee deep in the engrossing gameplay of Full Spectrum Warrior, your job as a solider is not to ponder why you?re in an unfamiliar place. As you constantly exchange gunfire with neighborhood militia while leading a squad of infantrymen through mean mazelike streets, your tasks are to keep your men alive and complete objectives using military precision and decisiveness.

There's no denying that in the post-September 11 United States, the videogame landscape has, like it or not, embraced military games. The Tom Clancy series has had a lot to do with the general growth of squad-based first-person shooters, but let's just say that that fateful day in our history was the straw that broke the camel's back. Pandemic Studios, known for its earlier work with Activision on Battlezone II and Dark Reign and more recently, on games such as Army Men RTS and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is now creating its unique insignia in the military arena with the ingenious and entirely original Full Spectrum Warrior (check the full video review here).

A truely amazing and well accomplished game that has made a successful transition from Army simulator to a thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience. By providing a realistic setting and game dynamics you are able to fully engage and associate with the game, making Full Spectrum Warrior a title that should definitely be in the collection of most Xbox owners.

Mais s'il faut retenir une chose de Full Spectrum Warrior, c'est qu'il marque véritablement un nouveau pas dans le genre tactique. Les contrôles de déplacements sont simples, ingénieux et novateurs. Tout ce que l'on peut espérer, c'est qu'ils soient repris dans d'autres titres d'action-tactique à venir, et pourquoi pas dans un Full Spectrum Warrior 2.

The U.S. Army doesn't mess around with its tools -- just ask any ultra-rich defense contractor how seriously the Pentagon takes its multimillion dollar projects. In this increasingly absurd world, game developer Pandemic could be qualified as a defense contractor; its product is Full Spectrum Warrior. With foundations as a training aid for the U.S. Army, Full Spectrum Warrior is a serious, demanding, and detail-rich game whose roots are immediately evident. Just as in real life, playing the game stupidly and lazily will get you shot. By the same token, you'll find that thinking on your feet and taking conservative risks are usually rewarding.

Als Pandemic Software den Auftrag erhielt, für die US Armee einen Trainingssimulator zu programmieren, hätte wahrscheinlich niemand gedacht, dass dies auch interessant für normale Spieler sein könnte. In Zeiten, in denen sich nur Action-Shooter verkaufen lassen oder Taktik aus der Sicht von oben anerkannt wird, wagen die Entwickler mit Full Spectrum Warrior eine andere Herangehensweise. Sie funktioniert, ein spannender und manchmal nervenaufreibender Simulator ist entstanden, der die Zeit im Flug vergehen lässt.

This adaptation of the real life Army training simulation can be fun, but may tick players off first, rather than bring them joy while playing. It requires a lot of skill to beat, but it can be done. You may want to buy Full Spectrum Warrior at a cheap price if you have Live, but there are better games out there that you may want to look at.

If you dig military tactics, this is a must-buy, although sometimes the missions are a bit too similar.

N'empêche que malgré quelques défauts, FSW est un trés bon jeu, encore un de plus pour la Xbox me direz vous. L'air de rien ce jeu sera probablement le premier d'une grande ligné que d'autres éditeurs n'hésiteront pas à copier, pourquoi pas ? Tant qu'ils sont bons, je suis preneur. J'allais partir en oubliant de vous dire que ce jeu est compatible avec le Xbox live, par le biais de ce dernier, deux joueurs peuvent s'entraider, ce test fut réaliser sur une version US, je ne vous garanti pas qu'il en sera de même pour la version Pal. Voici un jeu ambitieux en novateur qui j'espére ne manquera pas de faire partie de vos prochains achats car il le mérite bien.

I'd imagine that to the well-trained soldier, there are few situations you believe you can't get out of. What can't be solved with a few bullets or a handy battlefield maneuver? Full Spectrum Warrior's background as a U.S. Army training simulation both helps and hampers the game. It's a very refreshing title to play, even if it puts blinders on to the new possibilities it opens up for a very tired genre.

Full Spectrum Warrior is an innovation and a breath of fresh air for any gamer's library. There simply isn't another game which delivers the same type of action, at the same level. Beware it's not a shooter, but a wonderful experience of what the troops go through in todays conflicts.

Games often affect us in strange ways. Tetris changed the way we organised things in our car boots, Gotham left us veering dangerously close to parked cars for fear of losing Kudos, and, today, Full Spectrum Warrior has us throwing ourselves up against the corners of walls, and judging everybody we meet based on how much cover they have [I still got a headshot -Ed]. It's just as well we don't buy into the whole gang culture thing that's quite prevalent down our way, or we might be writing this review from a hospital.

Full Spectrum Warrior is very good overall, and deserves credit for being something other than just another military-themed shooter or strategy game. Full Spectrum Warrior started out as a military training simulation commissioned by the US Army, and only later did publisher THQ and developer Pandemic Studios decide to turn it into a video game about modern squad tactics--but you'd never know that from playing the game. Full Spectrum Warrior features an innovative design and an effective control scheme, and it convincingly delivers the sights and sounds of modern squad combat in the war-torn Middle East.

On pensait que Full Spectrum Warrior serait une révolution du genre tactique par son approche, son réalisme et sa diversité. Ce n'est pas le cas. Si le titre de Pandemic offre une réelle innovation avec son système de commandes et son gameplay entre shooter et STR (pas loin d'un Hidden & Dangerous en fait par moments), il se montre trop simple en n'offrant qu'une voie, qu'une solution facilement trouvée dans un level design trop linéaire. Toutefois son immersion très soignée, sa réalisation et son originalité en font un titre accrocheur et qui vaut le détour.

Full Spectrum Warrior is a very solid combat simulator, quite possibly the best on the Xbox. However, action is on the slow side and the extent of strategy you will use doesn’t go beyond finding a way to attack your enemies from the side. If you have an Xbox Live connection the game is a bit more enjoyable, but unless you’re willing to sacrifice entertainment for repetitive and systematic combat, Full Spectrum Warrior might not float your boat.

There are a few technical issues as well. When positioning your men with the formation cursor, the cursor often gets lost in the scenery. Although you can refer to an overhead map, it's still extremely easy to become disoriented. And as I mentioned before, FSW is very unforgiving. Still, you have to judge a game for what it is, and Full Spectrum Warrior really does apply proper military tactics to realistic scenarios. In my opinion however, this is more work than fun. Bump up the grade by one letter if strategic simulations are your thing.