Every now and then a game is made which is so innovative and captivating that it completely revolutionises its genre, or even gaming as a whole. However, far more often than that, games are made which are destined to sit on the back burner. Tom Clancy’s Endwar fits the latter.
Endwar is not a bad game, but it’s not a great game either. As in most Tom Clancy games, Endwar is set in a futuristic world where various political tensions erupt into devastating wars. The idea is tried and true, but after years of flogging is becoming a bit repetitive. The events that take place in Endwar occur in the year 2020 when a nuclear attack on Saudi Arabia has caused oil prices to skyrocket. Meanwhile, Europe and Russia have formed a coalition and surpassed the US in terms of military and political power. In an effort to regain its once exalted status, the US sets up a military outpost in space. Europe and Russia, feeling threatened by the US, decide to bomb the launch. While it is nothing spectacular, Endwar’s story line does an adequate job.
Endwar makes a number of fairly interesting innovations and changes to the now aging RTS genre, and thankfully so. As in accordance with modern standards, instead of the player recruiting individual units, they command platoons. For example, one platoon of riflemen is an entire group of 10 to 20 marksmen who can only be commanded as a whole. The same goes for tanks, transports, helicopters and the many other accessible units that Endwar offers. Instead of having to manually hotkey your groups with 1, 2, 3 and 4, your units are automatically numbered.
Endwar earns points for originality, yet falls short in terms of workability and enjoyment. Tom Clancy games have a deserved reputation for their complex and sometimes confusing controls, and Endwar continues this trend. While the innovation is a fresh breath for the RTS genre, its execution has not resulted in a clean, comfortable feel.
Games like Command and Conquer allowed the player to form their own unique strategies in order to complete missions and defeat other players. Endwar has taken its own route and has gotten rid of the need to do so.
Units are very limited and can generally only defeat one other class-type. In theory this makes the game more realistic, but ultimately ends up in a boring “rock, paper, scissors” experience; tanks beat transporters, transporters beat riflemen, riflemen beat engineers, engineers beat helicopters. This goes on and on with literally every class available in the game, though becomes utterly agonising when two platoons of engineers cannot beat a squadron of riflemen.
A further fault of the game is speed; I found myself watching for several minutes while my groups painstakingly took their time walking across the map. This problem also extends to combat; if you have any hopes of quickly killing an enemy, cancel them. Gawking at the screen and watching one group of transports and two engineer squads firing away at a single riflemen platoon for close to a minute is not exactly fun, though necessary.
When we compare Endwar to previous RTS pioneers such as Red Alert, Warcraft and Age of Empires, there is one particular inescapable difference. While the aforementioned are not unflawed, they are fun. The problem with Endwar is not entirely its slow pace; Age of Empires is not a fast-paced game, yet it manages to keep things fresh by giving a wide range of strategies to develop, along with several buildings and units to choose from. The real flaw with Endwar is its limitations. Instead of giving several options, players may find that they are stuck with what they’ve been given for an entire mission.
This is not to say that the game is terrible, it just could be better. To be fair, there are many admiral qualities offered in Tom Clancy’s Endwar, including its original twist on the relatively strictly set strategy enterprise.
Endwar gives an option to use a microphone to command units. While this input method is not much faster, it can be quite enjoyable to play around with. A general line would be “Unit 4 to Alpha,” or “Unit 1 to Hostile 3” and so on. Unlike many other attempts at voice control, Endwar picks up orders with surprising accuracy. It also features catchy graphical perks, such as beautiful blurs when moving between units or making a fast camera move, and a well modelled and textured environment.
Another relief in Endwar’s design is in the story. While it is set in 2020, it does not feature improbable spaceships and incomprehensible technology. This keeps the storyline realistic. Many modern games and movies incorporate alien takeovers or plasma rifles into the storyline, yet Endwar does not resort to make-believe.
Overall, Tom Clancy’s Endwar is a decent game. I’m a supporter of game makers implementing original ideas. The game features stunning graphics and polished maps; a definite accomplishment for the RTS. The gameplay and story, however, fall short of their target with the boring and linear “rock, paper, scissors” routine. Endwar is an above average game with many enjoyable features, though it ultimately falls short in terms of enjoyment.
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