I had given up on first person shooter games as being boring and requiring little thought. My mind has been changed by this game. Technically, it's first person plural, because in addition to your own character you have a squad of 3 other commandos that you control.

The AI for the squad is great. I was concerned that trying to control them all would be unwieldy, but I've quickly figured out how to manage them and only rarely do they wander off. They often take the logical action in different situations instead of just running around and shooting. As I've progressed further, there have been several situations that require you to place your squad in strategic spots so that overwhelming enemies can be eliminated. And they have some pretty funny things to say at times.

The game play itself is just plain fun. It is very directed, at times I'd like to wander off to explore other areas with my squad, but the direction is intentional and true to life of combat operations. You can't have soldiers running off wherever they please.

The HUD in the trooper's helmet is great. I bet the DoD is working on something just like that right now.

The only drawbacks to the game are the lack of freedom when accomplishing missions, and the lack of a picture guide concerning what the different grenades look like. After collecting several types, I had to use trial and error to figure out which grenades were which. That was painful. Also, make sure your graphics card can play the game. I spent an afternoon trying to find the right card that would work with it(NVidia GeForce FX5500, in case you're curious)

Overall, it's a great game. I've had a lot of fun with it and am looking forward to playing through the rest of the levels than trying it online.



Recommended: Yes