Full Spectrum Warrior

Full Spectrum Warrior
Composer(s)		Tobias Enhus
Engine	Havok
Platform(s)	Xbox, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2
Release	Xbox NA: June 1, 2004 EU: June 25, 2004 Microsoft Windows NA: September 21, 2004 EU: October 1, 2004 PlayStation 2 NA: March 22, 2005[1] EU: April 1, 2005
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Full Spectrum Warrior is a real-time tactics video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by THQ for Xbox, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 2. A sequel titled Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers was later released.

Gameplay

Full Spectrum Warrior is a squad-based game in which the player issues commands to two

.

Throughout the game, the player does not directly control any of the fireteam members; instead, orders are given using a cursor that projects onto the environment, letting the player tell his/her soldiers to hold a position and set a specific zone to cover with fire. It is also possible to order them to lay down suppressive fire on a given zone to cover the second squad's movement, or to reduce incoming fire.

Gameplay revolves around the concept of

and voice acting are also characteristics that distinguish the retail version from the military version.

Multiplayer

Full Spectrum Warrior includes a cooperative mode that was designed to take advantage of Microsoft's

online gaming service through the use of voice communication. In co-op mode, two players are in command of their own fireteam and must work together to accomplish the goals of the level.

Plot

Background Story
A dramatic wave of terrorist attacks sweeps Europe and Southeast Asia, particularly targeting US and UK interests. After months of intense searching, US intelligence has tracked the source of the attacks to the tiny fictional nation of Zekistan in Central Asia.

U.S.-led operations in

votes to invade Zekistan to remove Al-Afad from power.

Pakistan grants US access through its airspace, the invasion begins. The USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson launch aircraft to airstrike Al-Afad's air, armor, and bases across the nation. When the dust settles, infantry and armor from seven different NATO countries begin to land at southern Zekistan. Under the cover of darkness, the U.S.-led forces converge on the capital city of Zafarra.

Campaign Storyline
The story starts at the MOUT (if the player chooses to play the tutorial) in Fort Benning, as fireteams Alpha and Bravo of squad Charlie 90, B Company,

Invasion force sent to invade the country. When they arrived Zekistan, their first objective is to help secure the airfield, the main airport in the city, however, the route to the airport is crawling with resistance; the first few hours after they arrived, they were ambushed.

After the Airport is successfully captured, Charlie 90 is tasked with infiltrating Al-Afad's palace and eliminating him. They trek through the city and make it to the palace. While they manage to capture one of Afad's top

is then ordered to rescue the crew of the downed plane before they can be captured by Afad's men.

Charlie 90 secures the crash site, but the crew of the plane is taken hostage by Afad's men. Charlie 90, with the assistance of two

gunships

swoop down and destroy the SUV, eliminating Al-Afad.

Epilogue Missions
Despite the death of Al-Afad, propaganda broadcasts were made by a surviving group of Al-Afad soldiers called the Black Wind Brigade, headed by one of Al-Afad's sons Al-Hamal. As a way of repaying the Army Rangers from Mike 25 a debt for saving them in a parking lot, both Alpha and Bravo team from Charlie 90 were "on loan" to them to participate in unofficial assignments. In the first mission, both teams were to mark a radio tower for an airstrike to end the propaganda broadcasts. On the second epilogue mission, both fireteams, with assistance from Staff Sergeant Hackett, were sent to a mosque to take out the Black Wind Brigade. Although Al-Hamal is killed by an airstrike during a firefight, the younger brother, Colonel Samir who was presumed to be dead assumes the role as ruler, willing to work towards democracy and stray away from his father and brother's tyrannical regime.

These missions were released as DLC for the Xbox version and are included in the PC and PS2 versions by default and unlocked from the start, however the game still goes to credits after the last "Normal" mission and the player must manually start them from the level select.

Development

In 2000, the U.S. Army's Science & Technology community was curious to learn if commercial gaming platforms could be leveraged for training. Recognizing that a high percentage of incoming recruits had grown up using entertainment software products, there was interest in determining whether software game techniques and technology could complement and enhance established training methods.

Having established a U.S. Army University Affiliated Research Center (the Institute for Creative Technologies – ICT) in 1999 for the purpose of advancing virtual simulation technology, work began in May 2000 on a project entitled C4 under ICT Creative Director James Korris with industry partners Sony Imageworks and their teammate, Pandemic Studios, represented by co-founders Josh Resnick and Andrew Goldman.

At the time, there was a great deal of interest in leveraging the stability, low cost and computational/rendering power of the new generation of game consoles, chiefly Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox, for training applications. Legal restrictions on the PlayStation (using the platform for a military purpose) combined with the default Xbox configuration “persistence” (i.e. missions recorded on the embedded hard drive for after-action review) led to the final selection of the Xbox platform for development.

A commercial release of the game was required for Xbox platform access. The team, however, quickly concluded that a viable entertainment title might differ from a valid training tool. The exaggerated physics of entertainment software titles, it was believed, could produce a negative training effect in the Soldier audience. Accordingly, the team developed two versions of the game. The Army version was accessible through a static unlock code; the entertainment version played normally.

The most radical decision in the game's development was to limit first-person actions to issuing orders and directions to virtual Fire Teams and Squad members (see Gameplay). Given the popularity of the first-person shooter genre, it was assumed that all tactical-level military gameplay necessarily involved individual combat action. The application defied conventional wisdom, winning both awards and commercial acceptance. The game's working title evolved to C-Force (2001) and ultimately Full Spectrum Warrior (2003).

As work progressed on Full Spectrum Warrior, ICT developed another real-time tactical decision-making game with Quicksilver Software entitled Full Spectrum Command for the US Army's Infantry Captains Career Course, with the first-person perspective of a Company Commander. As the application was designed to play on a desktop PC (unlike the Xbox), no commercial release was necessary. Full Spectrum Command gave rise to a sequel developed for the US Army and Singapore Armed Forces (version 1.5). A related ICT/Quicksilver title, Full Spectrum Leader, simulates the first person perspective of a Platoon Leader.

Full Spectrum Warrior relates to the Army's program of training soldiers to be flexible and adaptable to a broad range of operational scenarios.

The game's budget was $5 million.^[2]

Reception

At the

The Xbox and PC versions received "favorable" reviews, while the PlayStation 2 version received "average" reviews according to video game

The game sold nearly 1 million copies for Xbox and PC.[2]

Full Spectrum Warrior became the subject of some controversy shortly after it was released. The two primary complaints aired were that the United States Army was not using their training version of the game because it was not "realistic enough".^[35] Secondly, the United States Army had been short-changed.^[36] There was some discussion in the press regarding whether the government had either wasted money on the project, or if they had been taken advantage of by Pandemic Studios, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, their partner on the project.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

References

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4. ^ EGM staff (June 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 179. Archived from the original on June 4, 2004. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
5. ^ Reed, Kristan (October 4, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior (PC)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
6. ^ Bramwell, Tom (July 2, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
7. ^ Kato, Matthew (July 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox)". Game Informer. No. 135. p. 119. Archived from the original on March 24, 2005. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
8. ^ Four-Eyed Dragon (June 1, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior Review for Xbox on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 8, 2005. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
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11. ^ Kasavin, Greg (March 24, 2005). "Full Spectrum Warrior Review (PS2)". GameSpot. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
12. ^ Kasavin, Greg (June 2, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior Review (Xbox)". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2015-11-30. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
13. ^ Lopez, Miguel (September 23, 2004). "GameSpy: Full Spectrum Warrior (PC)". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
14. ^ Lopez, Miguel (June 2, 2004). "GameSpy: Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox)". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
15. ^ Raymond, Justin (October 11, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on November 6, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
16. ^ Bedigian, Louis (April 10, 2005). "Full Spectrum Warrior - PS2 - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
17. ^ Bedigian, Louis (June 12, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior - XB - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
18. ^ Adams, Dan (September 24, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior Review (PC)". IGN. Archived from the original on 2015-11-28. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
19. ^ Sulic, Ivan (March 22, 2005). "Full Spectrum Warrior (PS2)". IGN. Archived from the original on 2015-11-28. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
20. ^ Perry, Douglass C. (May 31, 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox)". IGN. Archived from the original on 2015-11-28. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
21. ^ "Full Spectrum Warrior". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. June 2005. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
22. ^ McCaffrey, Ryan (August 2004). "Full Spectrum Warrior". Official Xbox Magazine. No. 34. pp. 74–75.
23. ^ "Full Spectrum Warrior". PC Gamer. December 2004. p. 70.
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25. ^ Herold, Charles (August 5, 2004). "GAME THEORY: O.K., Private, Give Me 50, Then Play This Video Game". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
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28. ^ ^{a b} "Full Spectrum Warrior for Xbox Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2015-09-29. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
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33. ^ "D.I.C.E. Awards By Video Game Details Full Spectrum Warrior". interactive.org. Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
34. ^ Feldman, Curt (July 20, 2004). "NPD: June game sales up 12 percent". GameSpot. Archived from the original on July 23, 2004. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
35. ^ "Playing to win". The Economist. December 4–10, 2004. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2013-11-22.
36. St. Petersburg Times. Archived
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External links

• Full Spectrum Warrior at MobyGames