Tom Clancy’s EndWar

Tom Clancy’s EndWar

It’s a gimmick that videogames have been trying to perfect for many years now but never before has voice command been so well executed as in this, the latest Tom Clancy war game. Rather than direct your troops around the battlefield using the controller, now you simply hold down the R-trigger, speak your commands and watch your tanks and gunships obey in real time. Constructed from a limited vocabulary of options the commands never feel restricting. Want to move your helicopters to Alpha point, sweeping around the back of some enemy artillery that your tanks are engaging? It’s as simple as two lines of commands.

The voice command is supremely accurate, recognizing inputs made in various accents with rarely a fault. The camera is controlled with the controller (although the voice command means that you’ll be able to direct troops on the other side of a map without a line of sight to them) and, should you need to, you can input commands using the controller too as a backup. Initially you are given command of three different unit types: tanks, transports and gunships. Each of these units is strong against one unit type and weaker against the other so, for example, gunships are strong against tanks but weak against transports. Soon enough the roster of units you command rises to seven increasing the tactical considerations you must weigh up before sending troops into a firefight.

The game’s best described as real time strategy, demanding players manage a battlefield as the commander, able to race the camera across vast swathes of land, picking out hostile units and manoeuvring troops to attack or defend against them.

Each unit has its own health bar which, if depleted into the danger zone renders it incapacitated until rescued. Units that are successfully extracted from the battlefield live to fight another day but, if destroyed while awaiting salvation, they’re lost forever. This puts the emphasis on trying to keep units alive, something you’ll want to do as, for every battle they survive they will earn experience points, gain rank promotions and get access to new attacks and upgrades. You soon grow attached to your units, learning their unique call signs while striving to keep them alive.

The game’20-hour single player campaign is important for learning the basics and growing confident with the complexities, but much of EndWar’s long term enjoyment lies in the global, persistent online battle. This has three factions fighting it out for territory, like a huge game of Xbox LIVE ‘Risk,’ where battles will win areas of the map over to a side.

The game’s slick, confident execution and visuals combined with its strong (if gimmicky) ideas create a beguiling package, one that will last would-be commanders for months to come should they get caught up in the ongoing world war.

4 out of 5