Tom Clancy's EndWar
Review
Unit nine attack hostile three!
by Chris Davis
reviewed on X360
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (cntd)
Tom Clancy’s EndWar consists of three different modes of play: singleplayer, skirmish, and the Theatre of War. Beginning with the singleplayer, EndWar has two concurrent campaigns to fight through. The first, Prelude to War, has you jumping around between the three different factions and, as the title implies, playing out the various terrorist battles that eventually lead to the full-on realization of World War III. Once the second campaign has become available players choose a faction as well as a battalion to use which I will get to in a minute. What’s interesting to note is that the World War III campaign is entirely non-linear and changes based on your progress. While players cannot choose battles to initiate as the war is far bigger in scope than just you and your men, there is a set list of battles occurring within the turn you are playing you can participate in. After the conclusion of your battle the entire theatre for the turn is calculated and, in various regions, your front is pushed forward or back. Your battles will determine the course of the war eventually and to win the player must either conquer either the majority of the map or all three capitols. The singleplayer can last a very long time depending on your actions and is the longest one this reviewer has ever seen in a RTS title. The endings for each faction are lackluster but the overall effect of the singleplayer is very entertaining.
Ubisoft knew what they were doing when they were considering long term play with EndWar. The Theatre of War, the main multiplayer component for the game, is nothing short of being very entertaining. Similar to the singleplayer in scope, the Theatre of War is a persistent online campaign being fought by thousands of players across the three factions and is entirely shaped by the player’s actions. A set amount of battles occur each day and, at the end of said day, the total results for each one is calculated and the overall winning faction wins that battle. The map changes every day and will only conclude when one side conquers most of the map or all three capitols. Once a faction has won the campaign is reset and, theoretically, different conditions to win are set the change up the pace. Obviously facing a human opponent is much more difficult than any AI could be but it is still rather fun to play. I can only imagine the variety of downloadable content Ubisoft could be bringing us.
An interesting aspect to take note of is the battalion you command. While the units you command are at the end of the day no different from one another their status as veterans is something of relevance to the gameplay. Your battalion is entirely persistent and units that survive your battles and kill enemies will earn increasing veteran status. When outside of a mission players can go into an upgrade shop and upgrade the various units in their battalion, giving them secondary abilities, offensive and defensive upgrades, and even allowing you to purchase upgrades to off-map support. Units that are killed lose their veteran status and therefore all the upgrades you’ve purchased but once the new unit begins to climb the ladder again they automatically unlock those upgrades. The only catch players might take offense to is that, while the credit is earned from both the singleplayer and multiplayer will transfer between the two the battalions can’t be.
DEFCON ONE
Tom Clancy’s EndWar is a true example of how to effectively create a console RTS without having to worry about a button layout. While the integrated storyline will have some players troubled about where the other Clancy series will go, Ubisoft’s goal of uniting them all for one massive war game sometime in the future EndWar clearly depicts a prosperous future for the entire franchise. For RTS fans out there looking for something different this is definitely the title to get.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
