I was never a fan of strategy games. I gave Populous some love back in the day on the Amiga, but other than that Ive kept well away from the command and conquer style stuff. That is, up until now. I got a review copy of Tom Clancy's End War yesterday and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much. Sure, I saw the videos and while it looked good, it still didn't seem for me. Plus it had what seemed like a gimmick attached. Control the game with your voice and your Xbox headset.
So, I fired up the 360 at around 2am this morning and 2 hours later I was damn well impressed. That voice gimmick, is far from a gimmick. Its downright brilliant. And it works very, very well and nothing beats saying "UNIT 1 ATTACK HOSTILE 1" and watching your Unit 1 go off and kick ass. You can control your entire army via your voice. Get them to retreat. Get them to secure a building. Get them to take cover. The only thing you cant get them do is do a little victory dance and run rampage around the place with a couple of strippers.
Theres a tonne of commands. And its all so easy to execute. Right trigger, and your voice. That its! Brilliant. I had never really experienced voice command until now and its such a different way of playing. Graphically and sonically the game is what it is. Fairly detailed but nothing that'll melt your mind. The presentation is superb with a great story line in the solo mode and over xbox live, well. What can be said! Its bloody superb. You and your mates will be hoarse from roaring commands for days. For something a little bit different, and for something that'll change the minds of the non strategy fans (like me) you could do no wrong by checking out Tom Clancys End War. I genuinely love it!
8.5/10
That said, its probably not too wise to play it in the early hours of the morning. When I did eventually crawl into bed, she who must be obeyed asked me "Who the hell were you talking to?" I'm not entirely sure she believed I was talking to my Xbox 360.
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