Full Spectrum Warrior, for the PlayStation 2, is a real-time squad-based strategy game. You take control of two fireteams both consisting of four men, and have to rid the fictional nation of Zekistan of terrorists. The entire game is supposed to be based on exercises that where actually used to be performed by the U.S. Military. And I liked it very much.

The Graphics

Oh-hoo-hoo… That does not look pretty. The characters and the environments are blurry, the textures are very low-rendered, and the movement animations are a little sloppy. Full Spectrum Warrior is also not a very clean game in terms of bugs and glitches. Don’t tell me how I did it, but I got one of my men stuck in the inside of a building. Just, completely out of nowhere. Seriously, my guy just walked straight through a wall, for some reason, and was just stuck there for the rest of the mission. Darn it. So, the graphics aren’t that great, even though a lot of official review sites apparently praise Full Spectrum Warrior for them. Maybe it’s an acquired taste? Well, I think it looks ugly.

The Sound

The sound is nothing to be proud of, either. The gunshots sound muffled, most of the people in both fireteams blabber out annoying army jargon and the action music takes a while to kick in when the action starts, but if you play the battles smart, firefights will be over shortly after they even started, cutting out the action music in a somewhat amateurish way. Also, I think they could’ve gone a little further in voicing the terrorists. You’ll hear them quite often in the levels, so hearing only three different fragments of dialogue mindlessly pasted after another becomes annoying very quickly. No, I was not drawn to this game by its presentation.

The Addictiveness

Visual and audial presentation aside, I enjoyed the heck out of Full Spectrum Warrior. The levels are varied, and even though the urban environments are large, when you have to cut through the alleys you’ll find you and your two fireteams in tense, claustrophobic situations as you need both fireteams to look out for each other, never knowing what awaits you at the end of the narrow alley. Tactical thinking and positioning your fireteams on strategic places feels satisfying as it all pays off at the end of the mission. Tense stuff. And I love it.

The Story

Well, the game really doesn’t have much of a plot. It’s more like a realistic scenario. Terrorists attacks are sweeping through Asia and Europe, and the U.S.A. has discovered the source of the terrorist group, coming from the fictional country, Zekistan. And now it’s up to the U.S. Army to save the day! Well, that’s it, really.

The Depth

There’s a reason Full Spectrum Warrior is still my favourite authentic war simulator out there. You don’t take direct control of your characters, instead you place orders for your two fireteams. You first go through a series of training exercises, all of decent length, which explain you about all you need to know to keep your teams alive in combat. Even though the game doesn’t really need to do it, the game does a decent job of making the people in your actual individuals with personalities, even if you may not find all of them likable. Like I said, the level environments are quite varied. The enemy AI leaves some to be desired, but it’s not like they’re stupid.

The Difficulty

Full Spectrum Warrior provides a fair challenge for newcomers and strategy veterans alike. The men in your fireteams aren’t stronger than the people you’re fighting, when one of your men gets shot once, they’ll bleed out and become incapable of doing anything, and the rest of the fireteam has to get the wounded man to a safepoint in time. Meanwhile, the other fireteam still fit for action needs to make sure the fireteam has a chance to get away. This is just one example of hectic situations in which you need to think and act fast. That would make this a really challenging game, but the dumb, inconsistent enemy AI greatly takes away from the challenge sometimes.

Full Spectrum Warrior is sure to please fans of war simulators, real-time strategy games, and squad-based shooters. The game looked ugly at first glance. But frankly, I stopped caring after a while, when I carefully navigated my two fireteams through the large varied levels, making them work together to reach our goal. Make sure you take a look at this one. It’s really fun.

Pros:

-          Quite realistic game mechanics

-          Large, varied urban environments

-          Smart use of tactics is rewarded

Cons:

-          Save feature holds your hand too much

-          The game looks butt-ugly at first