Gameplay
This guy is t3h l33t. | At first glance, Full Spectrum Warrior looks as if it is a first-person shooter, but it is really a strategy game. Instead of pointing a gun or controlling a single character to lay down doom upon enemy insurgents, the player gives orders to two squads (Alpha and Bravo) of four soldiers each, traversing a fictional war-torn country of Zekistan (which is really Iraq spelled backwards̢?́ ). Full Spectrum Warrior is designed like a book; it actually has characters instead of just normal grunt soldiers. These soldiers consist of a NYPD police officer, a l33t-speaking Hawaiian gamer, an aspiring actor, and other soldiers with backgrounds. Knowing these characters is not really important, but they are the people you are constantly going to hear throughout the game giving orders, answering radio calls, and complaining. In fact, you might as well get to know them, as the eight main characters are the only people you control throughout the game (other than a few temporary pick-ups during a mission).Arrival. |
Ready, aim, fire! | The game has 11 chapters. The chapters progress like a story, in which you must go through different locations in Zekistan to hunt Al Afad, a dictator in Zekistan who has committed genocide. To help you throughout the hunt for Al Afad, two squads will both have a Team Leader, an Automatic Rifleman, a Grenadier, and a M4 Rifleman. This is really just two soldiers with normal M4s, another with an M4 with a grenade launcher attachment, and a soldier with a M249. In addition to this weaponry, you are equipped with secondaries such as frag grenades, smoke grenades, and for some missions, the ability to call in air strikes on designated locations.
Squad, form up! | Full Spectrum Warrior is designed to be a game where tactics is key. The game is strictly urban combat. In fact, you really never leave the city you are in. Throughout the city players will run into insurgents armed with AK-47s, RPGs, machine guns, and even BMPs. Often times you will run into entrenched enemy â?? they are fortified behind sandbags, hiding around corners, or hiding up in sniper positions in a building. To effectively eliminate the enemy, the player must flank â?? or sneak around to the side or behind an enemy, catching them off-guard. Upfront tactics, such as charging straight at the enemy, simply will not work. There is no room for Rambo in this war. The aforementioned smoke grenades will help you get through many tough firefights, but with the limited supply you must think of other tactics and cannot always put up a wall of smoke for cover.
To order your men around, you must tell them to move from point to point. However, you do not always just tell them to run to a location. You can tell your team to bound (sending two men RPG! | to the destination while the other two cover) or tell them to move along a wall like a SWAT team. Furthermore, the reason why you have two squads is to have one cover while one moves, a la leapfrogging. Should one team need to cross an open area that is covered by the enemy, the other team can lay down suppression fire, forcing the enemy to take cover and clearing the way for the first team to flank. To accomplish missions, players need to learn to operate the two squads cohesively. If you suspect an ambush, you can organize a squad to set up a zone to keep watch on, and if any baddies (who are not behind cover) appear, they will be fired upon.
Throughout any war, there are casualties â?? no army is invincible. In the case that one of the soldiers in your squad goes down, you can instruct your squad to pick him up, and carry him to a CASEVAC â?? basically a place where a medic will magically touch the neck of the fallen soldier and revive him. A CASEVAC is also a place where you can replenish your ammo (though you never seem to run out of bullets, only secondaries). If you choose to leave an incapacitated soldier behind, there is a chance he could die. In addition, having two incapacitated soldiers will result in a mission failed. Luckily, there are savepoints called SITREPs. At these designated locations, the player has their team leader radio in for a situation report, and the game is saved at the checkpoint.
A SITREP savepoint. |
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