Full Spectrum Warrior is good for a number of reasons, the biggest of which are polish and presentation. From a superficial perspective, a view that I'm intimately familiar with, FSW has a nice face and lovely body. It isn't going to stand toe to toe with any of the giants like DOOM 3 or the upcoming Half-Life 2, but it's impossible to say this game looks bad. You can kinda tell that the game was built with the Xbox in mind, but it transfers well, thanks in part to the lighting bloom effect that's become so popular as of late. It definitely adds a quality to the light that makes the area look a tiny bit more realistic.
Animations for all characters in the game are phenomenal though. They're smooth, they transfer between positions well, and create a sense of realism that FSW needed to be successful. Giving orders to squads sets off a string of detailed animations that look quite lifelike and are a pleasure to watch.
Not only are the visuals of the actual game very nice, but the way the experience is presented is also well worthy of note. All mission loading screens begin with a nice satellite transmission that zooms in and in and in past atmosphere and into city level and finally on top of your men. This little tidbit sets the scene pretty well and gives players their first glance at the area in which they'll be fighting.
The soldiers in each of the squad also make the game more worth being a part of. They've each got their own personalities and are presented well at the beginning of the campaign. This short intro makes us realize that these are supposed to be like real people to you. You're supposed to want to take care of them and be pissed and upset when they get shot. Personality doesn't take a position over gameplay, but it most definitely adds to the fun. Hearing quibbles and fun little discussions between the soldiers is a great touch that lightens the mood and makes things more intense. When you hear the same guy that just cracked a joke cussing and scared, you'll be more inclined to want to help them out of whatever sticky situation you've gotten them into.
Diving past skin deep takes us a little farther into a game particularly good at handling the squad as a functioning and cooperative group. Obviously, these kinds of fire teams are what make our Army and Marine men and women so effective in combat. As a player, you'll be in command of two marine squads, Alpha and Beta (along with the occasional extras), running various missions in a fictional country called Zekistan. Controlling these groups in tandem is quite easy and made easier by the inclusion of the mouse over the Xbox controller.
While the controller wasn't really bad, using the mouse is just a lot easier for pinpointing where you'd like your troops to go. The entire game uses a few keystrokes and a lot of mouse, making the experience something that almost any gamer will be able to play. The only problem is that it's still difficult to always get your guys going exactly where you'd like them to go. If you're on one side of a car and you'd like your guys to go on the other side of the car, it's pretty difficult to do that thanks because of the limitation of only being able to move to a place directly in the group you're trying to move's line of sight. The car is there. I know there's another side. Why can't I move there?
It's not like that deficiency detracts in a gigantic way from the gameplay, but occasionally you'll find yourself wondering why there wasn't an easy way to do that as your men get shot for being on the wrong side of cover.
All of these controls are taught through an extensive tutorial session that I know some editors here found almost too extensive, but manages to teach pretty much everything that you'll need to know in the course of the game. Everything from setting suppressive fire and cover to how to move around the world and set firing positions is explained in detail. It's a great tutorial that really does an amazing job getting players prepared to face any and all of the missions introduced during the single player campaign.
If fact, it does such a good job that there's really nothing else to learn during the rest of the game. While you might get in there and figure out a new tactic or two during a particularly difficult part, it's really just about putting all of the pieces of the training together in new situations. Well, not all new either. Many situations are ones that you'll encounter several times leading you down a path towards the end of the game where you can't help but feel a particular sense of deja vu. Yes, missions get tougher, but in practice, you'll still be solving the same sorts of tactical puzzles that you were in the first level.
Still, the feel that you get while running your troops around can be an intense one. Because there's so much movement and coordination happening between the squads, you really do get the sense that you're in a battle. Laying down suppression is very necessary as is leap frogging along from cover to cover while this happens.
And while the game bases itself in realism for the most part, there are some things that players will have to set aside because they aren't necessarily believable, such as the fact that soldiers will be behind cover no matter what, even if they're sticking out from behind a wall. They'll pretty much be impossible to hit.
This strange luxury does do some things that are beneficial to the gameplay. Not only does it make your soldiers seem extremely competent and give players time to formulate some sort of plan, which is fun, but it also makes movement and flanking absolutely necessary. Players will not be able to win the game by directly assaulting most situations. They'll absolutely have to learn to flank and jump from place to place to get the best shot at the enemy they can. And in situations where the enemy is firmly entrenched with no flanking opportunities, grenades, mortar strikes, and air strikes all become a very important option.
But for the most part, strategy is limited to these several options and more often than not, you'll know the solution you need to take almost immediately on seeing the situation whereas many strategy titles won't give such an easy way out. There's not a lot of room for abstract thought or ideas, which are a couple of the main reasons that strategy games are such a blast to play.
