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 REVIEW:
OPERATION: CONFLICT DESERT STORM |
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Conflict Desert Storm is an effort to
modernize Ghost Recon and similar games of the genre.
With few new ideas and little effort, this development
team has generated a "me too" game. Although in some
parts of the game a few ideas shine, notably the team
commands, most parts of the game show the developers'
lack of experience in this area.
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February 18, 2003
SCi
Gotham Games
XBox
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Conflict Desert Storm takes place during the 1991 Gulf War. You are
one of 4 squad members in the U.S. military. The game follows the
actual war events pretty closely. As a storyline, current events make
the timing for release of this game a little off.
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The
graphics in Conflict Desert Storm are like those in Ghost
Recon for the Xbox in a lot of ways. The biggest difference
is that there is less variety in the levels in this game,
especially in the graphical designs. Everything is realistic,
but just lacks in variety. The character models and vehicles
are the stand-out graphics.
Graphical glitches are apparent in the very poor collision detection;
a player can put his head straight through a wall if he runs into
it. This alone takes the graphics score down a point.
Landscapes
The landscapes in Conflict Desert Storm are bland and generally
feel empty, due to a lack of vegetation and plain old detail. The
landscapes pale in comparison to Ghost Recon's.
Buildings
The buildings in Desert Storm are fair in quality. The exterior
detailing is sharp from near and far distances.
Building exteriors are sharp in their details.
My chief complaint is the lack of detail, mostly inside the buildings.
Vehicles
There are a variety of good-looking vehicles in Conflict Desert
Storm; they represent the best-looking models in the whole game.
Vehicles range from jeeps and cargo vans to Scud-carrying trucks.
The well-rounded variety of vehicles and their fairly realistic
appearance add up to a solid stab at this area of graphics. They
are not the best I have seen, but definitely not the worst.
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| Ghost Recon SCUD Launcher |
MetaVR SCUD Launcher;click to
see close-up |
Characters
The character models are nothing to marvel at but are passable by
today's expectations. The models show what appear to be bump-mapping
techniques for the Xbox version of the game. Although they are ok
in appearance, the characters lack in variety. Every time you encounter
a terrorist, you feel as though you have seen that character before.
Far Horizon
The horizons of Conflict Desert Storm are fairly short in distance,
which can be a problem when you are trying to scout ahead in the
game. This problem is likely due to an attempt to keep the polygon
count down so that the game's weak graphics engine can handle the
information that needs to be processed.
Special Effects
The special effects in the game are few and far between. Explosions
look as though they came from '70s movies. When a vehicle explodes,
its remains look like the same vehicle, except colored in black.
Gunshots are poorly animated and look unrealistic, especially when
simple details are missing, such as casings falling after the shot.
Compared with other war games, such as SOCUM US Navy Seals and Ghost
Recon, special effects are completely non-existent in Conflict Desert
Storm.
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As a game, Conflict Desert Storm is incomplete. It has some
of the worst AI I've ever seen. Teammates are no help and
are a hassle to keep alive. This raises the difficulty level
in the way you have to fight enemies - nearly alone. The lack
of AI hits the enemies too in that they pose no problem unless
you find them in great numbers. For example, they have a hard
time shooting accurately, they have problems organizing themselves
and working together. They all seem to work individually instead
of as a team.
One modest advantage is that the game is a very easy player. For example,
each level starts with 10 health-packs to heal teammates. There are
enough packs to repeat each level twice before you run out of them.
The mission variety is well done; you do everything from hostage rescues
to destroying Scud missiles and downing enemy communications.
There is one nice feature that increases each character's stats in
the field. Each character can gain levels if they survive previous
missions. In this way the game adds a nice RGP (role playing game)
element.
Overall, Conflict Desert Storm is the equivalent of a poor man's SOCOM:
US Navy Seals in that it has no online play, which many competitors
offer. It doesn't feature a cooperative mode, in which friends can
play on your team. Overall, Conflict Desert Storm lacks a good single-player
experience.
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CONTROL SCHEME |
SCORE: 5.0 |
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I found the controls hard to adjust to and the button layout for the
game a little awkward. The hardest part is trying to control your
teammates. I found myself ordering the wrong commands on countless
occasions because the command system is really counter-intuitive and
more complicated than it needs to be.
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There's little replay value to be found in this game. Conflict Desert
Storm doesn't have extra features to keep you hooked and coming back
for more in its lack of cooperative mode, online mode or any other
neat additions. The only reason I could see to play it over again
is because of the RPG ability to build a character's statistics.
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BUGS AND GLITCHES |
SCORE: 5.0 |
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In
the graphics engine, I found you can move through walls and
landscapes in the worlds.
However, the bugs are not as outstanding as the lack of
quality AI, which creates problems working together, shooting
straight and producing any realistic challenge. Enemies seem
more like poorly programmed robots than humans and their actions,
as described earlier, will leave you scratching your head.
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Summing up, this is a poorly strung together game. It pales in comparison
to SOCOM: US Navy Seals and Ghost Recon. Save your money - pass on
this one.
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