2004 was 19 years ago. Back then, some developers over at Pandemic Studios were working on a game called Full Spectrum Warrior. I was fresh still in high school, and it seemed as though the world was not yet something I had identified as an oppressive place.
Video games were full of wonder, amusement, joy. Full Spectrum Warrior gives you the view that this is definitely not the case; with it being truly a story of war; and the atmospheres of war.
I said in the title that this was a game of intersections; and this means that you'll be exploring a lot of urban warfare environments, tight corners; and intersecting decisions about who lives or dies, all based upon your actions.
You control two squads of four men; and complete missions with varying objectives. Save some people; control some ground, typical army-style stuff.
Tactics are paramount here; as is managing your ammunition levels, limited grenades, and casualties. Ideally, you want no casualties. In reality - well, that's just war.
Full Spectrum Warrior is more simulation than it is game. You must lay down covering fire for each squad; moving forward methodically and carefully. You will flank enemies, or destroy them with limited grenades. You will check a GPS, get a recon, interpret the environment, and importantly, be confident, careful and measured.
It makes killing clinical. It makes for an interesting insight into the mechanics of warfare where each and every infantry man is a child of a mother, a father; or an otherwise very much "face-ful" (as opposed to faceless) solider that you must care for.
There is one thing that all this adds up to in 2023, 19 years beyond the release of Full Spectrum Warrior. There's a great game full of tactics hidden below these things, but it is marred by its age. Visuals are acceptable, and serve to let you know what is happening; but the control feels disconnected from what you're doing.
While you've got a fully 3D environment to do watch your tactics play out in, and it's real time to boot (with the ability to pause) animations feel stiff, soldiers are slow to respond to orders, and it just isn't exciting. The game's soundstage is flat; and music seems to be present just for the sake of it being there.
The clattering of shells, the flapping of bird's wings, and other ambient sounds would be far more impactful should the developers have focused on these as the primary soundscape.
I can tell that Full Spectrum Warrior was a lovingly crafted, complex tactical game (which could also be referred to as a straight up puzzle game, with soldiers and enemies) - but nearly twenty years of history have made it obselete.
I wonder if the "Ten Hammers" game (I'm not sure if it is a sequel, or an expansion) - does anything to improve the mechanics, but if it does not, I anticipate that my review of it will be extremely brief.
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