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Last year’s Full Spectrum Warrior tried to give players a much better sense of what being in a soldier’s shoes was like. In some ways, it had a stronger claim to this than just about any strategy game available: a variation of the FSW game was developed as a training aid for the U.S. Army. Now, a year later, Pandemic and THQ returns to their military tactics franchise with Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers. We met with William Stahl, the creative director of the Ten Hammers game and got an update on the progress of this anticipated title. We were fortunate enough to be shown a pre-submission copy of Ten Hammers; in fact, the version that the demonstration ran on was the very latest burn of the game itself. Interestingly, the developers at Pandemic preferred the idea of developing a game for the Xbox at the end of its cycle lifetime than rush a title for the 360. From what we saw, this was a great choice, because the game has a much deeper experience than the previous title. The storyline behind the game is a creative one, with an extremely unique convention to unfold the plot. The game takes place in a fictional Middle Eastern country that’s constantly been a battleground for one country or another for a long time. Initially, it was under Asian influence, particularly China, for a long time. The Russians came in and upgraded the civic infrastructure of the country, which lasted for a while until Arabic armies kicked the Russians out.
  
Unfortunately, even with Arabic rule, the country isn’t completely peaceful. Two rival factions, the Mujahadeen (or the remnants of the country’s army) and the Ansra al-Raheed, a new religious army seeking to overthrow the government. The primary section of contention in the country is the main connection point between the northern and southern sections of the country known as the Tien Amir (or Ten Hammers) bridge. The bridge is key because it controls supply lines, drug distribution and other potentially hazardous transportation routes, which is what Coalition forces are focusing on taking and holding away from either side. What makes Ten Hammers so unique is the fact that the narrative of each one of the twelve missions that is sectioned into four different chapters takes place at different times and from different perspectives through the battle to control the bridge. For instance, we were told that one part of the game tasked you with searching for a lost squad, whereas another mission had you playing as the lost squad, going over the situation that separated them from their fellow forces. This switch in perspectives is possible thanks to a new feature Pandemic designed. In particular, the designers wanted the possibility that any one of the soldiers in a gamer’s control could be killed. In fact, if you don’t get medical attention for wounded troops, they’ll bleed out and die on you in your squad. Fortunately, any dialogue or plot points for these fallen soldiers gets reassigned to a substitute grunt, who might not be as good as the guy you lost. This is particularly important because your soldiers all have different special abilities based on their position. For instance, your gunner will have the chance to fire a grenade through cover to get rid of insurgents looking for protection. Similarly, riflemen might be able to snipe an enemy that tries to get a shot on someone else. Apart from that, your troops have different levels of combat effectiveness, particularly based on the situation they’re in. If an enemy is pinned down, your troops feel relatively comfortable taking him out. On the other hand, if you’re getting fired at from all sides, the stress of the situation will reduce the accuracy of your shots, and the range of your grenades being thrown.
  
One of the newer facets of the game comes in how the game tracks enemy behavior. For one thing, enemy AI is radically aware of gunfire from anywhere on the map, and if any guns are fired, the enemy soldiers actively start searching for threats to their safety. What’s more, the game actively knows how many enemy soldiers are in a certain section of the map, and if their levels fall below a certain level, it will replenish them with an ingenious convention. There are buildings that are known as safe houses that will pump out additional soldiers, constantly providing threats to you until you destroy it. This can be especially problematic because you could be flanked from the rear or surrounded by enemies when you least expect it if you simply leave these buildings alone. Fortunately, you can perform a number of protective and offensive measures to defend yourself. For one, you can arrange your teams (you’ll be able to direct up to four this time around) in a number of formations, including box formations to have each soldier pointing a gun in a separate cardinal direction. Even better, you’ll be able to split these teams up into smaller “buddy teams,” or two man squads that can be sent to help you cover different sides of a building, providing additional firepower. Obviously, this won’t be enough to give you a sense of the battlefield, so you can send a soldier to scout out their surroundings. If things are clear, he’ll wave the rest of the squad forward, but if they’re not, he’ll run back. You’ll also be able to enter buildings this time around and get a height advantage on opponents, taking the cover away from just about any single enemy.
  
What is especially cool is that successfully accomplishing certain tasks without errors (such as killing civilians or losing troops) will get you bonuses, such as being able to call in tanks or helicopters. It will also reflect on the evaluation that you’ll have at the end of each mission, which will provide you with ribbons and medals for good work or reprimands for mistakes. Once you’ve gotten through either the co-op play or the single player campaign, you can take on other players in the versus multiplayer mode, where you’ll be able to take on the role of either one of the insurgent groups or as the coalition. One of the benefits of the insurgents in multiplayer is that they’ll be able to recruit additional troops from the numerous civilians that are scattered around each map. What’s more, every single map is much larger that the first FSW. In fact, the smallest map in Ten Hammers is about the size of the largest one in Full Spectrum Warrior, and the largest one is about four times the size of those in the first title. The visuals have received an extra level of polish, and you’ll be able to detect a lot of cleaner details in battle, such as explosions, bullet holes and other signs of combat. Character models look a lot larger and more defined that the first Full Spectrum game, which is a definite plus, and the additional tweaks to the maps makes the levels seem more organic and natural. Sound also seems to be augmented, and there’s a lot more dialogue being fired back and forth in the midst of a fight than ever before. However, you’ll definitely want to watch it around the kids, as these soldiers can be quite liberal with the mature language. This looks like it’ll be a great game to test your military skills out on when it comes out next March. Check back soon for updated previews and a review!
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