Videogaming is a form of entertainment (gold star for the genius there! - Ed). Unlike drugs, booze and schizophrenia, gaming is amongst the healthiest modern forms of escapism. Worried about credit card bills piling up? Play some Tekken and pretend Eddie Gordo is the debt collector. Fearful of the way the Government runs things? Have a blast through LocoRoco, where the only things that rule are charming minimalist landscapes and yellow blobs. Just like delving into a good book or film, you can flee the troubles of life for a few moments and just lose yourself.
It can be seen as ironic then, that some videogames (just like films or books) can focus on real-life situations – terrorism, war… erm, tennis…But ultimately it is the inclusion of these types of games and media that also aid as escapist tools. You can easily distance yourself from reality in a war game like Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers as you can with Super Mario Bros. Just, in different ways.
(Is this an philosophy essay or a review? You gonna get to the point? - Ed).
Alright, calm down, I was getting to it. The point is that you can’t seem to talk about a game, film or book about war these days without someone commenting on the obvious recent events involving the Middle East; comments usually delivered with a sneer and an aside about how entertainment based on modern warfare is value-less and little more than brainless bandwagon jumping. You know the kind of person we are talking about. You may actually be him, or her.
It would be all too easy to direct the same off-the-shelf critique at Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers before even playing it, particularly if – like this reviewer – your gaming preference doesn’t lie with war games. What doesn’t help is that the story is a little bit on the Keith Chegwin side of cheese: you control a team of US and Coalition forces in the fictional state of Zekistan in an attempt to stabilise the country after deposing a terrorist regime. Sound familiar? The story is documented by an American journalist who records the plight of the US forces. Then, quite suddenly, after the first cut-scene, you’re thrown into the action.
And ‘thrown’ certainly seems like the word, as every single button on your PS2 pad has some sort of functionality in this game. It is all pretty well explained during the tutorial-style first mission, but it’s very easy to forget, unless you study the manual like the Highway Code for the first hour or two of play. Each team you control consists of four men – a Team Leader (sounds like a position at Argos) a Grenadier, a Rifleman and a dude with an Automatic (yep, definitely a job at Argos!).
Control of the team is not direct – as in 2D strategy games like Command and Conquer, you select the position where your men move to, press X and they run towards that mark. The face buttons control shooting, moving, cancelling commands and switching between Alpha/Bravo teams – the use of more than one team is necessary for peace of mind – and the triggers can arrange zooms, split your team in two, set your chosen man’s sights and other options. Once you get the hang of the controls (or remember most of them, if you’ve had a short break of a day or two between sessions) you can move your men around the towns and buildings, looking for cover at every point.
You can get a good idea of how your men will form when hiding behind a pillar, car or other piece of cover available, by a handy icon in the corner of the screen. Each of the men at your disposal has a specific attribute that you can use in the heat of battle – a Team Leader can do a pretty spiffy snipe-shot, Automatic Riflemen can spray bullets towards enemies to distract them while you leg it like a coward (or get a better position) and Grenadiers can launch explosives in the face of others. Mwahaha!
As you gather around a corner of a building, for instance, your men will line up against the wall. The annoying thing is in some cover formations, you cannot use the special abilities of your teammates – when around a corner, you can’t try and launch a missile with the Grenadier because he won’t move to the edge of the corner to fire. Leaving you only with the possibility of grenade-ing the wall you’re facing and killing yourself. Which just isn’t on, really.
