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Wow, an ADDICTIVE, refreshingly ORIGINAL game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When it first appeared, Full Spectrum Warrior was a fresh alternative to the current first-person shooter craze. FSW offered a third-person POV of two four-man fire teams - Alpha and Bravo - on a campaign in the fictional country of Zekistan (which is a suspicious blend of a Russian breakaway, Afghanistan and Iraq). You controlled each fire team as they made their way through the cities toward their ultimate goal - to call in an airstrike on Al-Afad, leader of the terrorist forces in Zekistan. In this sequel you again control two fire teams (and sometimes more) in a sweep through the Tien-Hamir (translation, Ten Hammers) region of northern Zekistan, where loyalists of Al-Afad are battling followers of Mullah Quari Ra'id who want to break away from Zekistan.

Most of the complaints I've seen aimed at this game have been about the so-called lack of action. While it's true, FSW and FSW:10H are not wall-to-wall shoot-em-ups, they certainly aren't lacking in tension or excitement, either. The games, first and foremost, are about cover, flanking and strategy, and deserve a proper place as an alternative to first-person shooters. Those that are dismissing the game based on a lack of action are completely missing the point - Ten Hammers (and it's predecessor) were built to make you think before moving your men or pulling the trigger on someone that may be a civilian.

As far as gameplay goes, it's fairly simple and straightforward. Your two fires teams consist of four men each - a Team Leader, a Grenadier, an Automatic Rifleman and a Rifleman. Your POV is over the shoulders of your two fire teams as they make their way through the Ten Hammers region. You move the two teams by the Movement Cursor - place the Cursor where you want to go, hit A and the team moves to the spot you selected. You can keep your two fire teams together or separate them to work opposite sides of the same mission in a flanking movement. There are several options in the way your team moves, such as the Tight Move in which your men simply move from one spot to another, or the Hot Move, in which your team keeps low and engages as they move. You can also designate a Fall Back Point, a place to which your team will retreat to automatically if things get too dicey.

On their way to their locations, you use the Fire Cursor to designate areas for your fire teams to shoot in. The Fire Cursor is a glowing, animated laser circle that you can move over the landscape in order to control areas of fire. Move the Cursor, hit a button, and you team will fire at any enemies within the area. You're also able to toss Smoke and Fragmentation Grenades, and best of all, call in airstrikes on selected targets by lasing them from afar.

FSW: Ten Hammers also features some great little tweaks and upgrades, too numerous to list, however I'll talk a little about a few of my favorites here:

1) Probably the most useful new feature to Ten Hammers is the ability now to break your fire teams themselves into two two-person "buddy teams', which comes in VERY handy in a sticky situation where flanking is required and your other fire team is pinned down or otherwise occupied. You're also able to use this feature with the Fire Cursor when the fire team is together in order to designate two fire areas.

2) Another useful feature is the Precision Fire feature. During battle you may now take individual command of each soldier in your fire team by selecting them and pulling the right trigger (previously the Fog of War feature, which has been eliminated for Ten Hammers) of your controller, which will give you an over-the-shoulder POV in which to take aim at the enemy with your respective soldier's weapon. This feature is a lot of fun, and gives you some really great options during battle.

3) In some chapters of the game, you can now control vehicles the same way you do your fire teams - simply move the cursor and select an area to move to, or pull your trigger to fire. I can't describe how wonderfully satisfying it is to be able to pound the enemy with machine gun and canon fire after your teams have been attacked with RPGs.

Perhaps my only complaint would be that the chapters within the game are a bit too linear. While there is plenty of room to roam around and I appreciated being able to enter buildings, I felt at times a bit too restricted by the invisible walls that kept me inside the game. It's a small complaint, but I would prefer to have a bit more breathing room in the next game (on the Xbox 360, I hope!).

With Full Spectrum Warrior and the sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers, the people at Pandemic have invented a thrilling new genre of game. It takes some getting used to, but once you're familiar with the concept, the commands and their corresponding controls, FSW:10H moves very quickly and provides some real nail-biting tension. I enjoyed this game every bit as much as I enjoyed the first one. Full Spectrum Warriors: Ten Hammers delivers all the action and excitement that you could want in a military strategy game and I highly recommend it.

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