Tom Clancy’s End War

By Jonathan Volks

Jon’s Review: Purchasing this game I didn’t know a lot about what the story entailed or how it was going to play out. I had downloaded the demo and played through one of the boards and immediately I realized it was a game worth buying at full initial price. What draw me to it was how the game played which was similar to the Total War series except with some RPG elements and modern weaponry. Starting off their are two scenarios, Prelude to War and World War III. After selecting Prelude to War, you are presented with a global map and you can see all the different scenarios you may eventually fight in; Eastern United States, Europe and Western Russia. During the Prelude to War you can not choose which area to fight in, the story chooses for you and will also choose which side you will be fighting on. Pretty much its your tutorial about how the game play is going to be and introducing you to the different units.

After the Prelude to War, you are presented with choosing which of the 3 nations you will be fighting for and then which battalion you will command. Each battalion has its own strengths and weaknesses and you should choose based on how you play strategy games. After choosing you’ll head back to the global map and choose which scenario to fight in. You don’t get to choose exactly where your going to fight, the game usually gives you three or more scenarios to choose from. Some are defending, some are attacking but with each round you can only choose one scenario to fight in.  I found this to be a bit of a weakness with the game as you can only choose one scenario and are leaving the other ones open to a random win or loose. Starting a scenario you can choose which troops to start off with and then enter the scenario. Their are three types of scenarios, eliminate all hostiles, capture half or more of the uplink nodes, or destroy more than half of the enemies structures.

After winning or loosing the scenario, your taken back to the global map where the “weeks” wins or loses are updated on the map. From here you can enter the barracks to upgrade your troops with new offense, defense, mobility and abilities. Each scenario, depending on how you do you earn credits which can be spent on the upgrades. These upgrades are important as your enemy will also be upgrading as well. After upgrading, you head back to the global map and choose your next scenario. Keep repeating this process until you conquer the world.

Jon’s Final Assessment: Ubisoft has lived up to their reputation of creating good games. It was definitely worth purchasing at full initial retail price. I found the strategy and the RPG elements of the game highly enjoyable. After a while it does get a bit repetitive especially if you keep fighting over the same territory which means you keep fighting on the same map. A nice change is that your reinforcements might start in the north one time and the next time you fight in the same territory you might start in the south. Overall I’ll give this game a B+ and recommend it to anybody who enjoys military strategy.

Jon’s Rating: B+

Strengths:
Upgradeable Units
Fun Strategy
World War III

Weakness:
Repetitive
Only Choose One Scenario

If I Developed the Game: Please Note that this section is about some changes I would have made to the game should I had been on the development team. This does not mean that the development team did not do a good job however I would have brought up some changes. It also does not mean I am making the best choice and the development team could easily convince me that my change would not be wise. This section also might contain some spoilers that people may not want to read, proceed at your own warning.

• I have not completed the game yet but I did defeat the Russians and after I defeated them it was a bit of a disappointment that no cut scene played claiming my victory over the Russian Army. I would have like to have seen some kind of congratulations or something where it didn’t seem like just another day.
• After gaining certain unit abilities, I would have like to have seen those units fire those special weapons when I did not have them selected. Sometimes I was concentrating on a battle across the map and my tanks were shooting at a building full of riflemen. If they had fired their special weapon it would have been easier taking them out. Instead I would have to jump across the map, select the weapon and then the target and then jump back to what I was doing.
• When highlighting multiple units, I would have liked to be able to use their special abilities but you would have to select the unit with the ability you wanted to use and then fire it and then re-select the multiple units you just had.

Information Below Provided By EBGames.com

Publisher: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC
Category: Strategy:
Rating: Teen; Alcohol Reference, Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Tobacco Reference, Violence

The Story: The world enjoys an unprecedented era of peace as enhanced defense technology eliminates the threat of nuclear war. But can it last? 2020. Constant depletion of resources has international tensions at a breaking point. One spark will ignite what no one thought could happen….a third and final world war.

Points of Interest:

• Strategy for the next generation Led by creative director Michael de Plater (Rome Total War), EndWar will redefine strategy gaming. Designed exclusively for next-gen consoles EndWar will create a theatre of war, immersing you in the drama of World War III in a way you never thought possible.
• Fight For Your Nation Pick a side US, Europe, Russia – the fate of the world is in your hands. If you don’t step in to save your homeland, who will?
• Command Your Army Grow your army into the most powerful force on the planet. Your army is completely customizable, and experience breeds strength – your units grow more powerful with every campaign you fight.
• Light Up The City of Lights Tom Clancy’s World War III won’t be won by capturing remote deserts or grasslands but by striking countries in the heart. Paris, Moscow, Washington D.C. will all erupt in flames as you battle your way through the fully destructive playground.
• A Whole New Kind of Massive EndWar will be an online multiplayer experience unlike anything you’ve ever encountered. 16 player matchups? Try hundreds. 30 minute battles? Try persistent matchups lasting for months at a time. This isn’t a skirmish, it’s World War III.
• Talk Your Way to Victory Put the controller aside and start shouting commands. EndWar can be played almost entirely via voice command.

Minimum Requirements:

DirectX :		9.0c
Hard Drive Space :		10 GB Free
Operating System :		Windows XP/Vista
Processor :		Intel Core 2 DUO E4400 @ 2 GHz/AMD Equivalent
RAM :		1 GB/2 GB Windows Vista
Video Card :		256 MB (nVidia GeForce 7800 GT/ATI Radeon X1800XT)