Tom Clancy returns with a new game called Tom Clancy's Endwar. Tom Clancy's Endwar is a real time strategy game that takes place in a world not for off from the present where the United States of America , European Federation, and the Russian Federation are all at war with one another in a fight that will determine the fate of the world.

Pros:

Simple

Tom Clancy's Endwar features very simple controls and a very simple user interface. This is usually bad for a real time strategy game but for Endwar it works. For a strategy game that seems to be geared toward the console market a complex interface or controls would cripple this game and its experience. There is very little resource gathering other than points that you accumulate through secured capture points and victorious battles. Instead Endwar focuses in the intense action of your battles. Your are given seven types of units: infantry, engineers, transports, tanks, helicopters, artillery, and a command vehicle. Battle are played out in a rock, paper, scissors fashion, infantry defeat engineers, engineers defeat most vehicles when in cover, tanks defeat transports, helicopters defeat tanks, transports defeat helicopters, artillery is powerful when hidden but is fragile in close range and the command vehicle is weak against all but it gives you a real-time 3D map of the battlefield.

On-line Mode

The on-line modes for Tom Clancy's Endwar is pretty standard with skirmish mode and theater of war mode. The theater of ear mode is the meat of the on-line mode where players pick a side and fight for world dominance but the difference is that each turn passes with every day in the real world allowing you to see the ongoing struggle and ravages of the previous day.

Voice Recognition

"Control your army using only your voice" was a major selling point for Endwar and it actually holds up its end of the deal. About ninety percent of the time the computer will understand what you are saying. As a plus if you got the game early enough it was bundled with the first party Sony Bluetooth headset which retails for about forty dollars itself which is a great value and the headset is pretty good also.

Cons:

Enemy Artificial Intelligence

The enemy artificial intelligence is not that bright if you have played other strategy games the computer shouldn't pose much of a threat to you. Sometimes your units artificial intelligence doesn't act the way you instructed them to causing you to babysit them but it doesn't happen all that often.

Story what story?

The story here is pretty generic to the point where you'll probably forget it ever existed but your not here for story time your here for fighting things and world domination right?

If you like Tom Clancy or if your new to the real time strategy genre give it a shot. If your a veteran of the genre and have played tougher games then End war will probably be too easy for you. I give it a seven out of ten.

Learn more about this author, Don Emery.
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