Tactical shooters have been a large part of the gaming market for a while now. From the SOCOM series on the to the Tom Clancy Approved Rainbow Six series it seems people love being tacticians armed to the teeth against all those who threaten American freedoms. Well with no end in sight everyone wants to get their own viewpoint on squad based strategy in. The Conflict series has already taken gamers to Vietnam and the sandy dunes of Desert Storm. Looking for a new target ripped straight out of day to day headlines; the targeting reticule of the folks over at Pivotal Games has moved to turbans. Well folks if you’ve ever called someone a towel head, or wished for the day where you could lay the hurt down on Osama, join the military. If that choice really doesn’t appeal to you or hasn’t curbed your appetite then I have a game that will make you go "Hey terrorists! Terrorize this!"
Conflict: Global Terror, the fourth game in the conflict series has arrived at local game stores everywhere.
"A meaty fourteen mission campaign takes your team from frozen wastelands to desert compounds and has you fight every single freedom fighter that can possibly fit on the screen."
|
You control a squad of four American commandos each with their own specialty. You will have your sniper, you will have your heavy gunner, you will have your explosives expert, and you will also have someone who can make a mean bean burrito. A meaty fourteen mission campaign takes your team from frozen wastelands to desert compounds and has you fight every single freedom fighter that can possibly fit on the screen. America, **** Yeah!
This is where Conflict shows one of its main flaws, really crappy A.I. It’s quantity over quality here folks. Enemies will pop out at you from every corner and crevice and for all the special training your team has they really can’t react quickly enough to a flank. This is where the switch team member button comes in real handy. With a quick press of a button you can scroll through your team at a moments notice to use whoever is more equipped for the situation at hand; for my money this was almost always the heavy gunner. More often than not you will find that your teammate has wasted away their ammo supply in the middle of a battle and then quickly turns to their pistol and grenades making for a very unpredictable and potentially explosive situation.
The enemies thankfully are right on the same level in terms of intelligence and will opt to run at you all guns blazing most times instead of running for cover. So if you sit in a corner, guns ready, your prey will come to you. I suppose this is what happens when military training for your average terrorist grunt basically just involves making sure the gun is pointed AWAY from the user, still some people prefer a bit more of a challenge.
To even out the difficulty, the ability to save has been limited and auto saving at checkpoints has been eliminated. This adds a level of difficulty to the game and also a level of frustration to the gamer when you find your saves used up in the beginning of a level and your staring down a whole legion of troops before the stage ends. Smart saving is a must here. However something worth noting is that military health packs will heal you fully no matter what has harmed you. So save those health packs and even if you get shot by a tank at point blank range you’ll be as good as new after a few seconds of R&R (And you thought military health care sucked!).
Graphically the game is pretty decent. Facial animations are fairly detailed and environments are pleasing to the eye. As mentioned earlier the locales take you all around the eastern world. Excessive use of fog in each stage really hinders the fun of sniping in the game. The pre-rendered cut scenes are well done but honestly there is nothing here that really stands out.
Audio in this game is absolutely terrible. Gunfire seems like it is going through a tunnel and even with the controller rumbling it still feels too quiet and ineffective. On Xbox music is present only in the main menu, however it is so cheesy that I wish it wasn’t. During the stages ambient noise is dull and muted which really deadens the atmosphere. This is really unacceptable; I’ve never played a game that didn’t have music or that if it didn’t have music, there was something that more than made up for it.
Control is where this game really suffers in my opinion. Tactical games like this normally shine because the player gets the best part of first person shooters and team strategy. Playing this game however, you get a feeling that the conflict series hasn’t left the slimy marshes of Vietnam.
"Controls are unnecessarily complicated in some areas "
|
Everything feels thick and soupy. Controls are unnecessarily complicated in some areas (weapon changing) yet refreshingly simple in others (team changing). It seems too many controls are linked to the shoulder buttons. I think if the game survives to a 5th iteration in the series, controls definitively need to be somewhat simplified.
Well when you think of multiplayer tactical shooters, you think the heart of a game, right? Well, here you’re wrong. On the bright side for those with friends, Conflict offers up co-op split screen action. This solves many of the AI considering your teammates are now human, or not depending on who takes their place. If you want to replace your opponents as well you can join together with fellow strategists on the net where you can not only play cooperatively but competitively too.
"The amount of modes and options online here are notably lacking which is about par for the course."
|
The amount of modes and options online here are notably lacking which is about par for the course.
Honestly, I couldn’t stand this game; there is too much wrong here that bothers me. However some people love tactical shooters, to the point where they will play anything and everything they can get their hands on. So if you enjoy the single player, which is extensive, the multiplayer will give you something that will keep you busy for months. Remember, only your itchy trigger finger can keep America safe!
