Consolation Prize

Based in the near future, Tom Clancy’s EndWar is the recounts the desperate struggle for resources between the superpowers of the US, the EF (European Federation), and Russia in the year 2020. Unsurprisingly, the events leading up-to this “clash of the titans” doesn’t feel that unbelievable, and as with all the best fiction it contains some contemporary truths woven into the fabric of the story line.

But enough about the setting, what you all want to know is if this real-time-strategy game is any good or not, and is it worth keeping an eye on? Well, yes. I found it entertaining enough to play and it managed to burn a good hour or two of my time without me even realising.

Of most interest to gamers will be the voice control interface. Indeed I must admit to being a bit dubious about the actual practicality of such an interface, but once the voice configuration is complete, and the dialog and structure of the possible commands learned, then in practice it turns out to be surprisingly good and easy to use. Only on the odd occasion did it not understand my commands - even when I tried to catch it out by speaking faster than normal.

Learning the “lingo” is the key to using the voice command interface, but the game doesn’t hang on this alone. If you so prefer you can issue commands using the controller, skipping through the available options manually until your order is “built”. Orders usually take the form of [unit][number][action], and thus you can move units to positions by saying “unit one move to foxtrot”, or order a unit to attack by saying “unit one attack hostile two”. Conveniently as you speak each element of an order an on screen menu will show you the next available commands, acting not only as a reminder but also as a well placed learning tool. Within no time at all I found I was issuing orders on multiple fronts and zooming between camera views to assess the battlefield situation.

The combat itself takes the quite now classic “rock-paper-scissors” approach, with each different unit strong versus certain types, but weak against other types. Speaking of units there are seven kinds available which include riflemen, engineers, tanks, transports, gunships, artillery, and command vehicles, with each faction having slightly different variations on a theme. Unfortunately you can only have 12 battle groups (units) on the battlefield at a time. This does at least ensure the management is kept to minimum and the player doesn’t have to struggle to remember unit number designations.

In another nod towards streamlining, resource management is pretty much a bare-bones approach. There’s no base management or resource gathering, instead “command” points are awarded for capturing buildings and are used for deploying new units - which are airlifted to a landing zone, upgrading buildings, and even performing special actions (like calling in an air strike).

Visually the game looks excellent with some great presentation as video clips are streamed into screen cutouts when key events occur, for example capturing a building. The only apparent negative is the restrictive camera view, which can be relative to any unit you control but only allows a view of the battlefield through the “eyes” of that unit. It’s certainly a more realistic approach, but probably won’t be everyone’s cup-of-tea.

Overall Tom Clancy’s EndWar was really playable. It may not have the tactical and strategic depth of classical games like Command & Conquer or Age of Empires, but it does offer a great alternative for strategy starved console users.

The demo of Tom Clancy’s EndWar is available from Xbox Live Marketplace (1.6GB).

I downloaded the demo and have not tried it yet. I’ve been meaning to. I’ll have to make time soon to play it for a while.