Review: Tom Clancy’s: End War – Xbox 360 Review

By: Rob Clarke
Posted: Dec 23, 2008

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Although briefly attempted last generation, one of the more recent genres to attach itself to the console market has been Real Time Strategy. A stalwart of PC gaming for decades, the genre hasn’t made a particularly smooth transition over to the rather more limited control system that consoles offer, and with nearly all console RTS games being PC ports, people that could opted to play them on the PC instead and people that couldn’t tended to avoid them for more immediate and satisfying offerings.

But perhaps it’s in this attitude to directly porting RTS games and struggling to map a keyboards worth of buttons onto a gamepad that developers have got it wrong. Perhaps the RTS can be adapted and built from the ground up to be a worthwhile console experience. Endwar is an RTS game that just happens to be a console exclusive, and it’s one of the very few games ever made to require the use of a headset as the primary control device.

But first, let’s talk a little about how the game actually plays. The story is very typical Clancy, set in a near future world where nuclear weapons have become obsolete but the lack of oil has ignited a World War 3 scenario. As with most of Clancy’s stuff, you’ll either love it or hate it, but unlike some of the older Clancy offerings, the story of the game is less of a plot and more of a setting that doesn’t really get expanded on through gameplay, there’s no c&c style story unfolding using Hollywood actors here and the single player mode is more of a precursor to playing online than a game in itself.

The game includes three different factions to play as; the United States Joint Strike Force, the Enforce Corps (Europe) and the Spetsnaz Guard Brigade (Russia). Despite the names, there’s a real lack of variety in each, both in terms of gameplay and uninspired graphical style. With only seven units in the entire game which each faction has full access to, the game doesn’t offer much in the way of individuality. In typical RTS style, each faction has its own superweapon capable of dealing massive amounts of damage across the map, but these aren’t seen often and it’s otherwise difficult to tell the factions apart, which considering the vibrant differences witnessed between factions or races in most RTS games is a little disappointing.

In recent years there’s been a distinct move away from the micromanagement and resource gathering that the genre relied upon years ago, and Endwar is no different. It replaces any need for base building or resources with ‘uplink buildings’ which, once captured, give you points to spend on purchasing new units or upgrading your old ones.

If you’ve ever played an RTS game in the past you’ll have seen it done, and you’ll probably already know if you prefer capturing points to building bases. If not, the main point to remember is that you’ll spend all of your time doing once thing (fighting) rather than trying to multitask. This gives the game a far more action orientated focus and denies players the chance to sit in a heavily fortified base simply defending for the entire game.

Taking these uplinks requires mastery of the mentioned voice control system. Holding down the right trigger allows the issuing of commands by talking to the units. “Unit one move to Alpha”, for example, will move all of unit one to the uplink mode marked Alpha on the map. Using simple to remember commands like the word “plus” and “attack”, you can choose which units to attack which enemies with, how many you want to send, and generally control the battlefield using just your voice.

Anyone reading who has tried to use a speech to text application on a computer or had to talk to those annoying computerised phone services that ask to you say “yes” instead of just pressing a button are most likely incredibly skeptical right now. This is the biggest shock of Endwar though – it does actually work almost every single time. I have a fairly plain, English accent but I tried my best to do all manner of ridiculously poor accents and trip up the system, and it remained surprisingly good at deciphering my speech into the proper commands making repeating a rare occurrence.

Just being able to pick up your commands doesn’t make a system perfect, however. You can’t tell a group of units to go “hide behind that building” or “some of you move up and the others stay behind and defend this point”. Endwar let’s you talk to it, but only on Endwars terms. Generally using a combination of the voice and traditional button controls tends to be the best way around any problems, but despite the obvious drawbacks of the system it’s still the smartest and most original development to come out of real time strategy games for a long time.

So much so, in fact, it makes the rest of the game feel like it could have done better. There’s nothing exactly ‘wrong’ here; the game is well balanced, it’s exciting, the graphics are very impressive and there’s no lag at all. There’s just not enough strategy and depth for most players. At times it feels less like an RTS and more like a 3D version of paper, rock scissors, with helicopters beating tanks, transports beating helicopters and tanks beating transports, and each game being a mad rush to the uplinks followed by simply responding to the computers actions.

Of course, that’s how most RTS games actually work, but in Endwar it all seems a little more transparent, like the developers used a little too much water when diluting the genre for console audiences. During play I’d find myself wishing that a similar control system could be applied to more complicated games like Supreme Commander or more plot heavy games like Red Alert 3.

Luckily the excellent multiplayer mode is Endwars saving grace. It allows players to enter into a global war in a very real sense, using a risk style game board to simulate every single battle becoming part of a greater fight for world domination. Very few RTS games have ever attempted this and when they have it’s always had some major flaws, but here it’s very polished and adds some much needed depth to the game.

If you’re not going to partake in this, Endwar is certainly worth a rental to see how the voice command system works and to play a solid – if not quite A grade – title. If you’re into multiplayer however, buying Endwar is certainly recommended as no other RTS on the 360 can currently compete in terms of scope or accessibility.

The only other warning I can give potential players is that playing Endwar in public makes you sound and feel like an absolute idiot, so unless you have thick skin, you might want to save this one for when you’re alone!