Tom Clancy's EndWar
Review
Unit nine attack hostile three!
by Chris Davis
reviewed on X360
The Tools to do the Job
The Tom Clancy name signifies a franchise that is very distinctive in the realm of video games. EndWar is no different from the other series in this regard, as it shares several distinct features with new-age RTSes like World in Conflict. The game attempts to give an alternate take on how real time strategy games should be played and, surprisingly, it does quite well. The first thing players will notice is the way the game’s camera system works. Rather than sticking to the traditional “god eye” system, EndWar places the camera on the ground with the units you are commanding, limiting your movement to within a small distance from your unit. Since the game does not incorporate a “fog of war” mechanic (though there are draw distance limitations) you have to play the game different from any other RTS on the market. By placing your camera next to the units you command you get more drawn into the action and desperation of the moment.
Instead of employing traditional resource-gathering gameplay that you would find in roughly nine out of every ten RTS titles, EndWar goes a very different direction. The game chooses to utilize what are known as Command Points, which are constantly earned over time but can be given bumps by meeting certain objectives. Command Points can be used to call in off-map support such as air strikes and electromagnetic pulse strikes. Force Recon, this reviewer’s personal favorite support option, calls in off-map army units to a designated location and, once powered up, can rival that of all your units combined. The majority of the points however will be spent on the deployment of units. As players are put in command of an entire battalion, the player can deploy a set amount of units, depending on their Command Point value. Players can command up to twelve units at one time and you are not limited on having a set number of the same unit type.
One of the more interesting aspects of the game is how the units operate. Using a rock-paper-scissors rule set, EndWar makes the deployment of your men to the battlefield more a strategic necessity than anything else. Transports will trump choppers, choppers trump tanks, and tanks trump transports. The list goes on and on, and with a variety of seven different units the player has to think carefully as to who to deploy and in what order they wish to do it in. Each unit also has secondary and sometimes tertiary functions, though most involve a quick blast of firepower that affects the enemy unit is health directly. Engineers, for example, are arguably one of the most powerful units in your arsenal, are pretty much vulnerable to most of the units on the battlefield until they get into cover, at which time they can slaughter most mechanized units and are dreadfully unstoppable when facing down gun ships. They can also deploy minefields and even restore the shield of other units.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Console RTS titles are still an adventurous type of game to create for developers that doesn’t guarantee success. Only in the past couple of years have we begun to see the potential of such a genre finally coming into its own on a platform that doesn’t involve a mouse and keyboard. And while most of the other titles on the market, while being developed for simultaneous release on multiple systems, at the end of the day the resulting console product is not as good as the PC version. This is not the case with EndWar.
This fact cannot be any more obvious when you examine the game’s control scheme. EndWar is very ambitious in this regard as almost the entire game can (and is recommended to) be played via voice command. Using a console specific headset (for this review both the generic Xbox 360 headset as well as the official wireless headset were used) all a player has to do to issue a command to his unit is pull the trigger on your controller, say it, and release the trigger; it is that simple. The list of commands that can be given, seemingly taking a few notes on the SOCOM: US Navy SEALs own command system, partitions your orders in a certain order, having you name a unit, give them an action command, and then giving them a destination or target to do said action to. While such a feature has been tested and tried in other games EndWar is extremely successful in this regard. Roughly 90% of the commands you issue will work out as planned with only a few small caveats here and there. The list of commands is made intentionally small and therefore is easy to remember. Once you have the list memorized you will find yourself issuing commands faster than you could possibly have done so with your controller. Plus, there’s very little else that’s as satisfying as barking orders at your troops.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
