Last year, EndWar was only viewable as a CG trailer. After more then three years in development, the game was shown off during the Ubiday conference. Ironically, the onstage presentation was set in Paris, of all places. However, despite the ambitious setup, the presentation was as smooth as could be. The next day, we got a chance to get our hands and mouths on the game.
Before we explain that last phrase, we’re informed that the story is set in the near future. World War III has begun and the world has essentially been split up into three factions: The US, Russians and European Alliance. That’s all we know for the moment, but we’re told that you’ll be able to play through the entire campaign as each of the different factions, with differing dynamics along the way. It is claimed that no two campaign play throughs will be exactly the same.
Taking the first steps towards world domination.
So what we mean hands and mouth on is that the entire game can be controlled with voice commands, with the controller only really needed for camera control. As ambitious as this may sound, it’s a concept that actually worked extremely well. We were told not to expect too much, as the noisy environment may have interfered, but our entire play through went without a hitch. The only issues were by our own fault.
Basically, you hold down a trigger on the the controller and speak the commands as they are shown on screen. Initially, you’ll be shown one menu, and as you pick from that menu, another appears, and so forth until the command is executed. So for example, if you spoke “Unit 1 attack hostile 2”, your unit would attack that enemy. If you spoke “Unit 1, move to A”, you’d move to point A on the map. And if you spoke “Unit 2, camera”, you’d switch camera to another unit. The command would execute once you had finished speaking and let go of the trigger.
Of course, there are more commands but these were the basics that we needed to get us through. It was hard at first but very easy to get a grip of, and very soon we didn’t even need to look at the menus. It also helped that our (proper) voice commands were almost flawlessly recognised. Still, even if you don’t like the concept of speaking into a mic or the missus is asleep, you can always simply revert to using the controller. Instead of speaking the command, you’d press a button to activate and get through menus. It works but isn’t as engaging.
WAIT! We're still in there!.
The gameplay was fairly simple from what we saw initially. All we had to do was eliminate all enemies in the map. There were three different kinds of units: tanks, gunships and transporters. There was a rock-paper-scissors element to these units, where tanks beat transporters, transporters beat gunships and gunships beat tanks. With modes such as raid, siege, conquest and assault promised, we’re expecting things to get more complicated as we play.
The first run through in the campaign is expected to take around 15 hours. However, the developers are really pushing the multiplayer as the sticking point. A MMO feel is being pushed, as you not only pick your factions and upgrade your squad in several ways, but there will be persistent evolution in the multiplayer campaigns. One day you may be fighting to capture certain cities, while the next day you then may be required to defend them. Furthermore, features such as checking the war objective over the Internet on any PC seem like committed additions.
EndWar is one of the first Tom Clancy games to mix across series. For example, there will be spy units (re: Splinter Cell), as well as units from Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and jet fighters from HAWX that will make an appearance. Players who already have headsets for either their Xbox 360 or PS3 won’t have to worry but for those who don’t, a pack is going to be available at launch. A PC version is planed for release at a later date, and even though it will likely be from another developer, the feature will remain the same.
Many famous landmarks will end up being levelled.
Graphically, we were impressed by the destructive nature of the environments, as just about everything that was on a map could be levelled to the ground. However, this seems to have come slightly at the expense of in game details. It doesn’t look like the game will be a visual marvel. The camera won’t be from an isometric perspective, but will be fixed to a unit as you use the analog sticks to adjust the view.
Tom Clancy’s EndWar really surprised with how well the voice commands worked. We even saw it work well with thick foreign accents, so no one should be disadvantaged. So long as the game doesn’t become one noted in its strategies, and the multiplayer features work out as planned, players will not only have a unique strategy game at their disposal, but a very good one.
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