When we went hands (or rather ears) on with EndWar at UbiDays earlier this year, we were in two minds about Ubisoft's foray into RTS gaming with the Tom Clancy brand. The voice command system was excellent - flawless even. Our commands were recognised through an Xbox 360 headset with ease, while the command strings used to carry out manoeuvres were logically laid out. More hands on experience has confirmed this initial assessment, although we were a little uncertain about the gameplay and visual display of EndWar when we saw it at UbiDays.

However, at a recent preview event for EndWar we were given the chance to sample the game more extensively and we're now going to order a retreat from our previous misgivings. Firstly, the gameplay is spot-on for the type of RTS that Ubisoft Shanghai has tried to build here. Make no mistake; this is a strategy game that has been purpose built for the consoles. RTS titles tend to have their base on the PC and then get ported down to the consoles with a tweaked interface and control setup shoehorned in to make up for the lack of a mouse and keyboard. Not so in EndWar's case, and this is not just because a PC version is yet to be announced or the voice command system solves the interface/control problem. The gameplay is also a bespoke solution for console gamers, providing more action packed RTS gaming with a faster pulse running through its veins.

Tom Clancy Does Risk

The Risk 'style' conquest map is perhaps an overused analogy in videogames. We've seen the term used in previous titles such as Rise of Nations or Star Wars: Battlefront 2 as the shorthand for, "There's a world map with territories that you can conquer over a series of turns." The same goes for EndWar's Risk 'style' map, but these maps do have their upsides: 1) they add a touch of strategy to what would otherwise be fairly a bland menu screen, and 2) they form a link between the in-game skirmishes and a more epic War that's being depicted in the game's storyline.

In EndWar's case, much of this storyline runs through the map interface. The usual RTS plotline of cut-scenes is pretty difficult to employ in EndWar simply because the single-player campaign is completely non-linear. The outcome of World War III depends on which territories you successfully defend and conquer from the map, resulting in far too many permutations for a cut-scene to be used in each case. Instead, Ubisoft Shanghai has recorded 250,000 lines of dialogue that play after each battle, updating you on the battlefronts between each superpower, the generals you'll be facing in a specified conflict (their tendencies in combat etc.), as well as your history of command in that region. What's more, the destruction of a territory's environment will be ongoing throughout the whole campaign, leading to particularly war torn regions having more ravaged landscapes.

There are over 40 territories in the Atlantic Theatre of War where the game's three factions (the Russian Spetsnaz Guards Brigade, European Federation Enforcer Corps., and United States Joint Strike Force) duel it out for global supremacy. Each territory will have a choice of battles for you to undertake from either an offensive or defensive standpoint, and these make use of the four modes that Ubisoft Shanghai has crafted for EndWar. The standard mode appears to be Conquest, where each side struggles to secure a majority of "Uplink" control points on a map. Once one side secures that majority, the game's DEFCON timer counts down and as long as the player retains control of a majority of Uplinks for the duration of the countdown, they'll win the battle.

The flipside of this is that once the DEFCON timer is started by a player, their opponent then has clearance to use WMDs. These range from the Russian's tactical nuke to the European's supersized laser cannon (think of GoW's Hammer of Dawn on steroids). Of course, the US has the weirdest of the three: tungsten projectiles that are fired at targets from space. This WMD is actually based on a speculative technology of the present day US military, affably nicknamed the "Rods from God" (although we're thinking God probably doesn't approve).

All of these are powerful enough to wipe an Uplink off the map, which gives the user a fairly good chance of stopping the DEFCON timer. However, once the WMD is deployed by player 1, the opponent then has clearance to use their WMD, while the recharge rate on these armaments is so long that each player will usually only be able to use them once. It's a nifty little piece of balancing by Ubisoft Shanghai which brings another level of strategy to the table and ensures that battles don't simply become a war of attrition. It can also turn the tables of combat in its final throws, meaning that players should always have a backup plan nestled somewhere in their tactical nuke/laser cannon/Rod of God shells.

Our hands on was with the Conquest mode and we can safely say that it panders to console gamers' demands brilliantly. The way that Ubisoft Shanghai has circumvented the need for resource management with Command Points, for example, is perfect for the action hungry control pad junkie. Initially you'll only have enough Command Points to bring three units to the battlefield, but as the battle unfolds and more Uplinks are secured, your Command Point allowance increases. This opens up more slots for unit deployments (up to 12) and can also be used for specialised attacks for each superpower such as airstrikes, electronic warfare (that disables opposing units), and Force Recon (which allows you to call in more reserves). However, these reserves work under a limit that tends to run dry shortly after the battle reaches its climax. The resulting combat is much more complex and involving than a quick fix, but also puts you behind enemy lines immediately with the warfare only moments away. In short, it makes Command & Conquer seem long and drawn out.

The other modes on offer will be Siege, Assault, and Raid. They differ from Conquest in that Siege is for capital cities only (where the defender must hold onto one location), Assault is an all-out battle for 12 vs. 12 units, and Raid challenges players to blow-up or defend specific buildings. All will feature on the conquest map and some will play-out differently depending on whether you're the attacking or defending force (e.g. Raid and Siege). Additionally, they'll all be available in the multiplayer game, which has the same Risk 'style' map as the single-player game. The big difference is that one turn encompasses literally thousands of battles rather than the solitary skirmish of a single-player campaign - this is where EndWar's MMORTS elements come into play.

World War III: Coming To A Living Room Near You

In the multiplayer, gamers from each superpower will take part in battles across disputed territories for a certain amount of man hours (Ubisoft told us this would be about a day) and this constitutes one turn on the conquest map. Once these battles are played out, the results are then tabulated to determine which superpower has won out in the disputed territory for that turn. The upshot of this is a conquest map with battlefronts that are changing on a daily basis due to the efforts of a veritable gaming horde limited only to how many people decide to log-on. It's a milestone in multiplayer RTS gaming without a doubt. Ubisoft even foresees specific events driven by EndWar's community team, such as a D-Day landing in New York if the Americans become too powerful in Europe.

On release, multiplayer duels will cater for 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 battles and these options will then be expanded to 4 vs. 4 players with free DLC that's due to be made available around a month after launch. The only major difference we spotted between these multiplayer battles and single-player conflicts was the added AI units in the single-player. When we started off a Conquest battle in the single-player, our initial playable units were joined by a few AI infantry units that paced out onto the battlefield droid style. But that's the only difference we noticed in Conquest mode at least - the same amount of playable units were made available in either type of battle.

Speaking of units, we noted seven different types during our hands on. These ranged from Engineers and Riflemen on the infantry side to Tanks, Transports, Artillery, Gunships, and Command Vehicles on the vehicle side. There's a rock, paper, scissors breakdown for the main vehicles (Transports beat Gunships, Gunships beat Tanks, and Tanks beat Transports), while only infantry units could secure Uplinks in Conquest mode and are also able to garrison available buildings. Artillery is pretty adept at long range shelling but fairly scuppered with any close range combat (as you might expect), while Command Vehicles can be unloaded anywhere on the map for a strategic advantage by opening up an added tactical map with more detail than the standard HUD map. You can group any combination of these units using the voice command system and each unit type can also gain experience from one battle to the next, opening up a variety of upgrades in the process. From the conquest map interface, credits won in battle can be used to buy everything from rockets for your helicopters to sniping skills for riflemen (each unit has around 20 upgrades each).

The units also form the key to how EndWar's voice command system works. Each unit is located in a numbered slot at the bottom of the HUD. You can then order around the units with command strings. Almost all orders start with you addressing the unit first (i.e. saying "Unit 1"). This then opens up a variety of voice command options (e.g. "Attack", "Secure", "Move To", and "Retreat" etc.) and once you've specified the action, you'll then have to command where the action should take place (e.g. "Hostile 1" or Uplink "Alpha"). These three commands form a string that should sound something like this: "Unit 1; Attack; Hostile 3" or "Unit 3; Secure; Bravo" etc.

EndWar's camera can be moved around using a command string such as "Unit 3; Camera," which then sends the camera low-flying across the battlefield to Unit 3 from wherever it was before. This challenges gamers to have a good memory for where they've placed certain units throughout a battle (those with bad memories can just use a Command Vehicle), but because there are a maximum of 12 units on your side of the battlefield at any one time, this is never a huge problem. Take it from us, the voice command system runs as smoothly as the The Fonz on ice.

We were also impressed by the visuals this time around. At first, some of the maps may seem a bit drab and barren. This is particularly the case with capital cities such as Paris, which are hardly depicted as the bustling metropolises that they are, although we suspect that this design has been deliberately engineered to make the maps RTS gameplay friendly. However, when you zoom into the action a whole new layer of graphical depth is unveiled such as fences that crumple under the weight of tank tracks, or infantrymen that lay down covering fire while moving between positions. It's with these soldiers that the micro detail of EndWar is really noticeable, owing to the good job that Ubisoft's GRAW team has done in helping out with the character models.