Intro:
Ive been saying for months how i was going to review another game, and with work and just my over all lazy nature i have been putting it off, but these past few months nothing but amazing titles have come out and being an RTS nerd, this is one i just have to review. Well, for years they have been hyping this and making this out to be some great new experience, for those of you who haven't heard of it, Tom Clancy's EndWar is a Real Time Strategy game based in the year 2016 and supposedly takes place during World War III and its simply one of the most innovative takes on a video game genre i have played in a long time. It takes the RTS formula and truly makes it work on consoles let me explain why.
Controls:
This is the main reason the game works so well is because everything you do is controlled by voice commands. Now i know alot of you are thinking "oh great another voice game" well get that thought out of your head right now because it works flawlessly and puts you into the action more than any other RTS before it. In fact the controls are so well done they go hand in hand with the gameplay to immerse you in the action. You truly feel like a commander when you say " Unit 1 Engage Hostile 3" or " Calling All Units, Move to Alpha" and they do in a split second.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is also very unique and well integrated. Since the single player is basically a glorified training mode for the Online play which is the main focus ill skip it entirely. The main mode of play here is Theatre of War. Theatre of War is basically a giant 3D globe that has hexagon grids all over it and each grid is a territory that can be controlled by one of the games 3 main factions, The JSF (America), The EUC Enforcer corps (United Europe Nations), and The Spetsnaz Guard Brigade which of course is good old Mother Russia. When you first go online your told to pick one of the three factions than pick one of 10 or so Brigade types. Each Brigade type gives u a set amount of the Tanks,Helicopters,Transports,Engineers,Artillery,Rifleman, and a Command Vehicle (which so far to my knowledge usually stays 1) and stat increases to each type. The point of the game is to play missions on the theatre of war which is usually 2 -4 maps a Turn, each time u win your doing your faction a favour, win enough times and u move on to the next grid or territory. The way Theatre of War works at the end of each turn it evaluates all the battles fought and then moves on to the next day. Basically its a persistent online War you take part in. Also every time u win or lose u get a certain amount of credits which u can spend to upgrade your units. So yes there are only about 7 different types of unites HOWEVER, with all the upgrade possibilities and the stat increases from Brigades u have to option to make them your unique pretty much. Everyones army will play different and also in 2 v 2 games this really changes the tide of war and makes things alot more interesting. No there is no clan support but its not a biggie, obviously u CAN make a clan and organize fights for your clans faction its just not a built in clan system in the game. But there are already countless amounts of clans. Actual game play in game depends on the map type which there are four of Assault, Conquest,Raid and Skirmish. The modes will have u doing things from capturing more than half of the 5-8 objectives on the map, or destroy or defend a target. You start a round with your choice of 3 of your brigades units, and as u go through a round ull get Command Points for taking out enemys and securing Uplinks or destroying objectives. Commands points allow u to call in for reinforcements, upgrade uplinks or use one of your support abilities which can be anything from calling in an airstrike to launching a WMD. Different factions all have their different thing, but they all are fun as hell because the voice command is just flawless
Graphics:
Its a mixed bag here and its only really a big deal if you were keeping up with the pre game hype. EndWar is a beautiful game, does it look as good as the screenshots? No, but the visuals are really good and for all the mayhem that goes on it never stutters. The Camera angles are also very well done and cinematic when u tell ground units to enter a transport or building or secure an uplink, it zooms in and lets u see all the action. The character animations are top notch, HOWEVER there are a few badly done textures and some pop in on really big maps. But over all its a good looking game, certainly above average for its genre.
Sound:
This is one of my favorite aspects of the game. Its sounds perfect, the voices of the unites, to the gunfire, to the sound of artillery exploding at your feet, soldiers marching and panicing in the heat of battles, building crumbling away from gunfire. The sound is just great.
FINAL VERDICT:
If you like Real Time Strategy games and dont have a PC to play them on or always wanted a good Console RTS, well look no further EndWar not only offers a good Console RTS, its one of the most innovative and fun RTS games ive played on a long time. I personally am addicted but its not for everyone.
8.7/10
