Tom Clancy's EndWar - First Look Preview

Announced back in the spring, Tom Clancy's EndWar has until recent weeks been under cover of a CGI trailer that sees the destruction of Paris with multiple warheads...ah well, c'est la vie! The fourth franchise to emerge from brand Clancy, though the first since the heady days of the original Splinter Cell in 2003, EndWar takes a dramatically different tact than its three predecessors by expanding the battlefield beyond counter-terrorist activity and espionage. Set in the near future where a nuclear missile shield and overstated oil reserves lead to a global conventional war (meaning no large scale nukes), EndWar will put players into the role of a field commander on the front line.

That much we know, along with news that one of the key features being built into the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title is a substantial voice command system enabling gamers to fully immerse themselves in the battlefield, and a persistent online 'World War' between the game's three factions (United States, European Federation, Russia). Such reliance on what has previously been a patchy 'novelty' in gaming obviously opens up EndWar to falling to its knees, but at May's UbiDays 2007 Ubisoft displayed a steadfast belief that the technology was sound, and would work to a greater extent than past games. Due for release in the first quarter of 2008, developers Ubisoft Shanghai estimate a February launch, the publisher recently showed off EndWar in action - including a demonstration of the voice command system - and TVG was there to experience the battlefield of the future...

Described by Project Lead, and former The Creative Assembly luminary, Michael de Plater as 'Ghost Recon but fifty times bigger', Tom Clancy's EndWar is one RTS title that could grab the imaginations of console gamers like no other. Despite claims from competitors that their own RTS attempts on Xbox 360 have been built from the ground up, Ubisoft remains adamant that EndWar will be the first to push real-time strategy to its full potential on consoles - thanks to its control system and persistent online world war. The voice command control system of course remains at the crux of whether EndWar succeeds or fails when it arrives on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February next year...and during the hands off demonstration the technology appeared to work incredibly well.

With an Xbox 360 headset clasped around his head, De Plater showed how units could be brought together into colour-coded groups and commanded further as the battles rage on. Obviously, an open book of phrases is out of the question, but EndWar will feature a comprehensive list of commands that appears to provide the sort of flexibility required by players. Ubisoft Shanghai's strategy is based upon a branching system, where gamers will go down a line of commands. For instance, "Blue group...Attack...Crosshair" will see the units lumped together into Blue group take on the enemy positions at that particular point on the map, together with a host of others ordering everything from the infiltration of buildings to...well, their demolition with a well-placed artillery shell or two. The AI of units was also being emphasised, with the infiltration of a strategic building used in the demonstration to show how a Special Ops team approaches the task with covering positions around the main entrance, and some help with flash-bang and smoke grenades. There are also indications that if soldiers are wounded in the heat of battle, their colleagues will help drag them out of the line of fire - if EndWar includes additional elements, then armchair generals will definitely get the game they've long desired. It has to be said however, that on a couple of occasions De Plater had to repeat his order, but considering that EndWar is still several months away from release, the system worked remarkably well and ensured that our earlier high anticipations haven't been dampened down.

The bulk of the Campaign remains under wraps, but accomplishing the objectives, capturing strategic points, and starting the countdown to victory is only part of the structure of battle. By successfully completing objectives, players will be one step closer to finishing the battle, illustrated with a 'victory bar' on the HUD. Once the victory bar is started, a host of WMDs are unlocked for gamers to use and the condition of End War begins. With the launch of the missile shield in 2014, wide-scale nuclear warheads won't feature in the game; instead, players will have access to smaller tactical 'suitcase' nukes and a few other haymaker-style weapons making the WMD list of armaments.

Splitting the globe into forty territories, all playable across multiple modes both online and offline, Endwar's persistent world war will rage across Xbox 360 and PlayStation Network in an endless, and hopefully organic, way very much like a real front line. In a move that mirrors the likes of FIFA's Interactive Leagues or Guild Wars: Factions' own battle lines, the frontline of war won't be updated immediately. Instead they'll be reset on a twenty-four hour basis - we'd personally like to see some sort of data-based video that shows how the front line has moved as the war progresses, and hopefully with similar moves being made in Halo and PGR (Saved Films and PGR On Demand respectively), this will be considered by the Shanghai team. Players will also continue to use their own persistent battalions in the multiplayer mode, gaining veteran status as the war progresses. Kitting them out with customised insignia and mottos, Shanghai is pushing the idea of ownership of your units and it's understandable why: to create an affinity with the troops like any real world commander would. It's just another piece in Ubisoft's strategy to create an intricately compelling strategy game.