30-Sep-2005 A new mandate for the conflict team as the storm goes ..erm global Urgent state of affairs notwithstanding, the release of Global Storm (recently renamed from Global Terror to avoid upsetting anyone) has been pretty well timed. The last instalment of the series took us on a purple-hazed trip back to Vietnam, though it wasn't as well received as predicted, despite gaining an Elite status in OXM.
The new mandate of Global Storm, as the name suggests, doesn't limit the developer to one particular location, instead spreading the action over a wide range of locales from jungle to desert, and from nuclear processing plants to nipplehardening snowbound wastelands. So we've got a multitude of locations, anything else? Well, the squad's newest recruit (apart from sassy sniper Sherman - more on her later) is the massively improved multiplayer, via both System Link and Xbox Live. Then we've got the looks - check. Multiplayer? Check. Surely all that must make Global Storm the most accomplished and playable Conflict game yet? Well, sort of.
This jack-of-all-trades mentality is also translated over into the game itself, and here, if anywhere, is where the game's fundamental faults lie. But let's not start the day on a downer - GS has plenty of very cool stuff going for it first. Players once again get to control four members of the Conflict squad; the original American wholesome foursome of Bradley, Jones, Connors and Foley. Parachuting onto enemy territory, the team is instantly ambushed and captured, and players must escape their hellish South American prison. The ensuing level acts as a kind of rough tutorial, but it's not as simple as other similar titles - there's definitely an assumption that you've played one of the previous Conflict titles.
It's nothing to worry about, however - the controls and interface have been streamlined to make moving and switching between squad members even easier, and newcomers will get to grips with the game quicker than a Velcro-covered tube of Loctite. The Left trigger now brings up a command list, and a quick tap of the A button toggles your entire squad to either follow you or hold position. The more individual movement commands have been scrapped after feedback from fans of the series, as everyone pretty much only used this command. However, you can still decide which way your team faces, plus the option of directing them to specific points in a stealthy manner or all-out charge. To direct your squad, simply move the reticule, hit B, and they'll run to the designated point. All credit to the developer for squeezing a complex series of commands and options into the humble Xbox pad all in a simple and intuitive way. If none of that makes sense, fear not - it's actually a lot easier than it sounds.
Each member of your team has specific skills (sharpshooter, demolitions and the like) which must be utilised accordingly. When it comes to blowing shit up, Jones is your resident Fred Dibnah - although the rest of the squad are capable of setting C4 charges, he'll get the job done twice as fast. Previously the sharing of equipment from your inventory was vital to get through the game, but now, thanks to the streamlined interface, this is less important. Approach a fallen comrade and you can instantly heal a player without cycling through an inventory to select the relevant equipment, and players can heal themselves with an instant tap of the Right trigger. Your team's AI can be a little rough around the edges, though. Granted, they always assume intelligent firing positions around you and watch each other's backs - they're fine looking after themselves. For the most part, your squad will pick up replacement ammo as and when they need it, right up until they run dry, at which point they should start using the discarded enemy weapons. Often they don't, though, and it's pretty annoying to find yourself cornered and outnumbered, cycling through your team to find them holding an empty pistol between them and using bad language to fend off the enemy.
On the other hand, the enemy AI is absolutely top-notch, and really makes you think about how you tackle even the most outwardly straightforward task, whether it's storming a bunker or entering a room known to contain hostiles. Your opponents display distinctly human characteristics, making their behaviour realistically unpredictable. They'll duck behind trees, weave towards you under constant cover, make flanking manoeuvres, and, finding strength in numbers, will either charge your position when they're feeling bullish and confident, or know when the battle is lost and retreat, running back to summon reinforcements. There really is no hard and fast rule, which makes every second of Global Storm a different and varied experience. You're free to carry out objectives however you see fit, using whatever equipment you like to blow up, take out or capture the specific target.
Keeping in tone with the rest of the series, Global Storm is rock hard. Really, really, bastard hard. There's nothing wrong with a challenge, but the flipside is that the game occasionally borders on the I-want-to-stab-myself-in-the-eye-with- thebluntest-object-I-can-find levels of difficulty. Because you only get three or five saves per level (depending on the difficulty setting), the cheap method of instantly saving after every bad guy you've killed isn't an option, adding a definite strategic element to the game. Good for masochists, infuriating for pretty much everyone else. Then there are certain missions which, to cement continuity, follow on from the previous one, meaning you're thrown right back into the same environment from which you've just escaped, with your health, weapons, ammo and supplies carried over from the previous mission. We're all for realism and a bit of a challenge, but when your squad's nearly dead and using that spare enemy pistol you found a while back, it quickly gets irritating. And that's only the third mission in - it's a punishing learning curve too.
Like the other Conflict games, there are vehicles to play with in Global Storm, but they're very shoddily implemented. All four members of the squad can be individually controlled, and will take up driver, passenger, gunner and rear gunner positions respectively. Fair enough - let's roll! Well, no, let's not roll, actually - the AI isn't up to actually driving the vehicles, so it's down to you to take the wheel. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the vehicle camera only points in the direction you're going, meaning the only way to find out what's round the next corner is by turning into it - usually straight into the loaded gun of a waiting tank. After the tenth time getting blown to smithereens for no other reason than a camera oversight, we dumped the wheels and walked. And did we mention the slow and sluggish handling, clumsy steering, and the fact that the stupid camera switches between a forwards and backwards point of view at the slightest change of direction, even if you're travelling at no miles per hour? Not really the most fun we've ever had, and it makes the whole vehicle thing redundant.
As far as visuals go, at least the series has buffed up its boots and put on its best parade gear. Although they're still murky and almost too dark in certain sections of the game, the graphics are way more detailed. The character animation also looks incredibly smooth and realistic, and we loved the way your soldiers limp in a lifelike way when they're hit. A huge gameplay improvement means you can now throw grenades on the fly with a quick tap of the Black button, sending them precisely to the dot on your targeting reticule. Well executed for the most part - although when your squad is lying prone, not only can you throw them the entire length of the map, but you do so in a comical limpwristed, weakest-girl-in-school way. Odd.
This confused mix of arcade blasting and struggled realism is the main thing that lets Global Storm down. Is it a full-on squad shooter? Well, no - if you want you can take one guy and pretty much charge through every level, armed to the teeth, like a regular third-person actioner. But it isn't an all-out blaster, either - the game continually stresses that you have to use your entire team to their full extent during missions, although then again it's on rare occasions indeed that this is absolutely necessary. Still, Global Storm is a game that falls between two stools, not really managing to be either squad strategy or action-packed shooter.
What does really make Conflict: Global Storm pull its socks up, though, is the new and improved multiplayer. Previously only playable in split-screen, the game now features System Link and Xbox Live capabilities. Between two and four players can work through any mission in the game, finally with an entire screen to themselves. We found playing with one other player and controlling a squad member each to be loads of fun, striking just the right balance between shooting and squadbased elements. That said, with three other mates all working together, each mission is tons more enjoyable than when playing through with an AIcontrolled team. Unfortunately, that's your lot for game types. We'd have loved to see Global Storm take a leaf out of Ghost Recon 2's book and included a few other objective-based multiplayer modes, but sadly it wasn't to be. It's a real shame too, as although Global Storm is a definite improvement for the Conflict series, it feels like a somewhat half-hearted one.
A couple of years ago this would have blown us away. But times change, we start greying and videogames move on. GS isn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but the improvements, welcome though they are, are too out-of-date to be genuinely innovative or truly great. It's robust, solid, and reasonably fun to work through, it's online, and packs in a fun multiplayer. It should be awesome, but generic gameplay and schoolboy errors don't quite cut it. A small step forward maybe, but we'd like to see more of a giant leap next time.
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