Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers review

Full Spectrum Warrior was tagged as a military simulator and at the time of release it did indeed demand more in terms of strategy than any of its equivalent first person offerings. The main difference was that you controlled two squads, Alpha and Bravo. Both teams consisted of four men and had their individual specialists such as Grenadier and Rifleman.

A unique context sensitive cursor was used to control your teams and in the most part worked well producing a game that was both fresh and surprisingly fun to play. It’s been two years and now a full blown sequel has arrived in the form of Ten Hammers but unfortunately the two years don’t seem to have been put to good use.

Move Out!

The first thing you’ll notice is that the graphics have hardly moved on at all. The game looks fine at best and glitchy at worst, with whole textures disappearing at random points.

Given the fairly steep recommended requirements for running the game I had expected to see something lush and beautiful, it wasn’t to be. Perhaps the new story’s setting can’t hold the dusty atmosphere of the original as I found them to be fairly average and unmemorable. The graphics are functional though and do their job in a workhorse like fashion.

Don’t just stand there soldier!

Having played the original on the Xbox I found the jump to the PC version to be quite a shock. The controls are clunky and unintuitive, and really hamper what you are trying to do. I had to play through the tutorial mission twice just to get the hang of basic things I had no trouble doing on an Xbox pad.

To have a game like this where you need to make fairly quick decisions hampered by a dead duck control system is a crying shame and takes a huge bite out of the games’ fun quotient. Eventually your brain will memorise the numerous commands and you’ll be able to control your teams more efficiently but it didn’t really need to be this way.

RPG! RPG! Run!

There are a bunch of new things for budding war heroes to play around with. You can split a squad into two smaller teams, 2 men apiece. Unfortunately this is one of the most difficult things to do control wise being teeth-gnashingly frustrating.

A much better addition is the fact that you can enter some buildings and head upstairs to get a height advantage on your enemy. You get the chance to control some armoured vehicles, adding a little to the variety. You have a few more options when behind cover, and you can even use precision shots to take out entrenched enemies at the cost of opening up one of your men to return fire.

Damn, that was close. Where’s Corporal Jones?

The story takes you through 12 levels and the Ten Hammers of the title refers to the mountain range splitting up the country where the conflict takes place. Cut scenes may make you cringe from time to time but this is no different to any film I’ve ever seen that features the American army so I’m hardly going to mark it down for that. The enemy AI has been improved somewhat and they will now run to new cover as you close in on them. A well thrown grenade will also see them break cover for fear of being blown to pieces and that usually results in your squad being able to pick them off in the open ground.

A harrowing moment early on in the game saw me command one of my troops to throw a grenade at a Safe House (where enemies generally re-spawn until it’s destroyed). The soldier cooked the grenade then threw it towards the door. Unfortunately the grenade hit the gun barrel of my rifleman and it dropped straight at my feet. Panic ensued as I tried to get my men to run. The clunky controls won out in the end however as my men were stupidly killed. I turned the PC off at that point and had a lie down in a cool dark room to calm myself.

Medic! We need a Medic!

In the multiplayer game things hot up a little. You can embark against a human as they take on the role of the insurgents though these are controlled in a different way to your squads. There is a huge range of options and maps available and the multiplayer is there to be enjoyed if the single player doesn’t wear down your resolve first.

I strongly advise leaving this side of things alone until you have the controls down perfectly and know exactly what you are doing. At heart the game remains one where you use one team to cover and the other to flank and in that regard things have moved on little.

I’ll write a letter to Jones’ Mother

It’s difficult to call Ten Hammers a success, it seems to have moved on little where it matters, and fallen back where it shouldn’t. It remains a fairly solid strategy game but just doesn’t feel as fun as the original. In fact, it feels more like an add-on pack than a full on sequel and that just doesn’t seem right.

Hobbling a good game with awful controls is a crime and in this respect I judge Pandemic guilty as charged. I can’t really recommend it unless you absolutely loved the original. Give it a few months and it will have dropped in price making it a much more attractive proposition.