In South America, a new terrorist group “March 33” has started to emerge. Believed to be descendents from the ODESSA Nazis, March 33 aims to bring down the governments of the world, establishing a new world order. To do so, they begin a campaign of violence and intimidation. In response to this terrorist threat, the original heroes of Conflict: Desert Storm; Bradley, Foley, Jones and Connors are dispatched. It would appear that there is a mole within the commanding ranks, and the CTU is ambushed upon landing. It’s up to you to find out who this mole is, as well as preventing March 33 from reaching their goals.
Jones is always dropping the keys to the jeep
Veterans of the previous three Conflict titles will be right at home once they dive into the game – the base mechanics have not changed a great deal, but Pivotal has put in a fair bit of effort into ensuring that everything has improved. The game engine used in Global Storm has been rebuilt from the ground up, which results in much smoother gameplay, an easier command issuing system and a variety of minor improvements, such as ragdoll physics on the enemies. The game’s control is still a little iffy – the analogue sticks are a little too sensitive still, driving the vehicles is still an ordeal, and the order system can suddenly decide to retract an order on its own, but it’s still leaps and bounds ahead of the last Desert Storm title, even if it’s not up to the standard of other big name war titles released this year.
Arguably the greatest enhancement that has been made during the development of Global Storm is a complete overhaul of the game’s AI system. The enemies are really smart, and will take note of everything in a situation, and order their buddies around to take the best course of action. Even on the easiest difficulty level, the player will have to tread carefully and put a high degree of thought into each and every plan he makes to get through the mission. It’s almost a little too hard – the player has to be thinking three moves ahead of the opposition at any one time, not to mention be watching what each of his team-mates are doing, and ensuring that they don’t get into serious strife. In the middle of a fire fight, things can get really hectic, and the player must keep a cool head, and not charge in Rambo-style.
Shooting the ground is obviously the most effective way to eliminate a terrorist
Each of the game’s 14 missions is huge, and will have you taking on a multitude of objectives. Your team will be involved in all sorts of missions, such as escorts, strikes, information recovery and rescue missions. The game has multiple difficulty levels, and each of the 14 missions can be played in multiplayer, which supports up to four players, via split-screen, LAN or over the online service on the console of your choice. For an extra added challenge, players can attempt to do a mission with just one soldier – of course, this is recommended only for the best players, as the game is tough enough with four guys under your command. Expect to get 10-12 hours out of the main campaign, and about the same again if you’ve got access to some friends and the equipment required for online play.
Conflict: Apple II edition
The latest Conflict game has also seen a graphical overhaul, and as a result looks much better than previous games in the series. Unfortunately, in comparison to other big military shooter releases this year, Global Storm doesn’t look quite as pretty. The environments are suitably decrepit, but textures, while improved over previous games, are still of a relatively low quality. Character models look decent in general, but the player’s squad look much better, and will show a degree of damage on their skin should they be injured in battle. Animation has improved, but is still a little rigid, though the inclusion of ragdoll physics has resulted in the scrapping of some of the dodgy canned death animations in the previous titles. There are a few nice visual effects seen with the night vision and thermal goggles, but nothing we’ve not experienced in other titles. The big problem in Global Storm is that the frame rate is seldom stable, often dropping from 30 fps to 10 fps in the blink of an eye, and even further if the action really heats up – this has a fairly detrimental effect on the gameplay. Global Storm includes support for 60 Hz and widescreen mode. Global Storm’s soundtrack is unremarkable, but the sound effects and voice work are quite good – you can’t have a war game without putting emphasis on the sound, and Pivotal have done just that. There’s plenty of chatter over the radio and between your men, and the voice actors do a reasonably good job. Dolby Pro Logic II support is included, for those who like to keep their neighbours/spouse/parents up at night.
Conflict: Global Storm is a step in the right direction for a series that has been less than stellar over the last few years. For the first time, a game in this series doesn’t feel like a quick cash-in on the popularity of the war genre; rather, Conflict: Global Storm feels like the first legitimate contender that Pivotal has released to date. If the developer could tighten the controls, fix those last few bugs and improve the graphics and animation while keeping the framerate stable, they’d be able to go toe to toe with the Battlefield 2s of the industry. As it stands, however, Conflict: Global Storm should prove to be a good diversion to the fans of the series.
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