Full Spectrum Warrior

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Full Spectrum Warrior
Developer(s)	Pandemic Studios
Publisher(s)	THQ
Engine	Proprietary U.S. Army engine
Release date(s)	Xbox June 1, 2004 June 25, 2004 September 30, 2004 PC September 21, 2004 October 1, 2004 November 18, 2004 Playstation 2 March 23, 2005 April 1, 2005 June 29, 2006
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics Simulation
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M)
Platform(s)	Xbox, Windows, PS2, Mobile
Media	Xbox DVD, PC CD-ROM, PS2 DVD
System requirements	Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, 1 GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 350 MB hard disk space, 64 MB GPU
Input	Keyboard and mouse (PC}, Joystick (Xbox)

Full Spectrum Warrior is a video game classified as a real-time tactics action/war game. It was developed by Pandemic Studios and published by THQ. It was released on June 1, 2004 for the Xbox, September 21, 2004 for Windows and on March 23, 2005 for the PlayStation 2.

The name Full Spectrum Warrior relates to the Army's program of training soldiers to be flexible and adaptable to a broad range of operational scenarios. The game was originally developed by Pandemic as a serious game training aid for the United States Army. The US Army also developed Full Spectrum Command with the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) as a more strategy-oriented serious game intended for higher ranking military officers. FSC has not been officially released to the public.

The game uses the Havok 2 physics engine, featuring realistic manipulation of objects in the game environment (such as knocking over crates) and ragdoll physics.

Pandemic released a sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers, on March 27, 2006 in North America and June 23 in Europe, but reviews on the game have been mixed and were considered to be technically inferior to this game due to bugs and glitches.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Multiplayer 2 Storyline 3 Reception 4 Controversy 5 Glitches 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Full Spectrum Warrior is essentially a squad-based game in which the player issues commands to two fireteams, Alpha and Bravo of the 159th Light Infantry. Each fireteam has a Team Leader (Sergeant Mendez for Alpha, Sgt. Williams for Bravo) who is equipped with an M4 Carbine. The Team Leaders also carry the team GPS, which can be used to locate mission objectives and enemy locations, and a radio for communication with HQ. The second team member is the Automatic Rifleman (Corporal Devreux for Alpha, Cpl. Picoli for Bravo) who is equipped with an M249 SAW machine gun, used to lay a large volume of fire on the enemy to suppress it. The third team member is the Grenadier (Private First Class Silverman for Alpha, PFC Shimenski for Bravo), who is equipped with an M4 mounted with an M203 grenade launcher, which is used as a team weapon, the most powerful. The last team member is the Rifleman (Private Shehadi for Alpha, Pvt. Ota for Bravo), equipped with a single M4 Carbine. If a member of the team gets hit by the enemy, the Rifleman will be the one assigned to pick up and carry the wounded team member (unless the Rifleman himself is the one down). Lieutenant Phillips is the team commander and the player will usually find him with the CASEVACs (healing and ammunition points). Each of the teams has a limited amount of hand grenades (frags and smoke grenades), in addition to the M203 grenades — which can be fired directly at the enemy position from further distances, exploding on impact.

Throughout the game, the player does not directly control any of the fireteam members; instead, orders are given using a cursor that projects onto the terrain, letting the player tell his/her soldiers to hold a corner or wall and set a specific zone to cover with fire. It is also possible to order them to lay down suppression fire on a given zone to cover the second squad's movement, or to simply cut back on incoming fire.

However, the game does feature some restrictions due to its coding, resulting in some unrealistic actions. For example, the game is heavily based on the concept of cover and suppression, so a team member or enemy standing behind a solid object is considered "behind cover" and is generally invulnerable to small arms fire. The game does not precisely distinguish between how much cover a target is protected by; an enemy rifleman with only a leg concealed is almost as protected as a soldier crouching behind a car, forcing the player to perform flanking maneuvers that should not be necessary. Another example is that the M203 grenade launcher lacks its real-life parabolic trajectory and instead has straight-line, rocket-like physics, making it almost possible to snipe with it.

The basic gameplay mechanics remain the same for the retail version of Full Spectrum Warrior, which was released on both the Xbox, Sony and Microsoft Windows platforms. All versions are very realistic, although the retail version places much more emphasis on aesthetics — it possesses substantially improved graphics and sound, and while the story is fictional in both versions, the retail version greatly resembles a war movie. Fleshed-out cinematics and high-quality voice acting are also characteristics that distinguish the retail version from the military version. The original military version of the game can also be unlocked within the retail Xbox version only.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Multiplayer

Full Spectrum Warrior includes a cooperative mode that was designed to take advantage of Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service through the use of voice communication. In co-op mode, two players are in command of their own fireteam and must work together to accomplish the goals of the level.

[edit] Storyline

The story starts at MOUT (if the player chooses to play the tutorial) in Fort Benning, as Fireteam Alpha and Bravo goes through the training for each scenario. After training, Fireteam Alpha and Bravo of the 159th Light Infantry from Fort Benning, Georgia were deployed to Zekistan as part of the NATO Invasion force sent to invade Zekistan. Fireteam Alpha and Bravo's objective is to help secure the airfield, the main airport in the city.

[edit] Reception

At the Game Critics Awards of E3 2003, Full Spectrum Warrior was awarded "Best Original Game" and "Best Simulation Game."

Full Spectrum Warrior was received positively by many magazines and websites. Official Xbox Magazine praised it for "redefining both the war and strategy genres" and it's "original, innovative gameplay," but complained the 20-30 minute training was "painfully long."^[4] Gamespot criticized the game's artificial intelligence for being "too stupid," and not "[presenting] an interesting challenge."^[3] The game's graphics were called "superb" by GameSpot^[3] and the "best looking Pandemic game yet." by IGN.^[1]

[edit] Controversy

Full Spectrum Warrior became the subject of some controversy shortly after it was released. The two primary complaints aired in this controversy were that the Army was not using their training version of the game because it was not "realistic enough".^[5] Secondly, the Army had been short-changed.^[6] There was some discussion in the press regarding whether the government had either wasted money on the project, or if they had been taken advantage of by Pandemic Studios, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, their partner on the project.

[edit] Glitches

Some time after the Xbox version game is released, Pandemic released two downloadable epilogue missions available through Xbox Live. While the first epilogue mission had no problems whatsoever, the second epilogue mission was known to freeze up at a certain point when the player plays it on the "Sergeant Major" and "Authentic" (the level being completable only on "Sergeant") difficulties particularly in the very last portion of the stage. No attempts were made to fix this problem

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Perry, Douglass C. "Full Spectrum Warrior Review." IGN. May 31, 2004. Retrieved on April 1, 2007.
2. ^ Lopez, Miguel. "Full Spectrum Warrior Review." GameSpy. September 23, 2004. Retrieved on April 1, 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Kasavin, Greg. "Full Spectrum Warrior Review." Gamespot. June 2, 2004. Retrieved on April 1, 2007.
4. ^ ^{a b} McCaffrey, Ryan. "Full Spectrum Warrior." Official Xbox Magazine. August 2004: 74-75.
5. ^ The Economist. December 4-10, 2004.
6. ^ Adair, Bill (February 20, 2005). "Did the Army get Out-Gamed?". St. Petersburg Times. 

[edit] External links

• Full Spectrum Warrior — Official Site
• Full Spectrum Warrior at MobyGames