MAGO
March 3rd, 2005, 09:32 AM
<a href="http://xbox.ign.com/articles/592/592879p1.html">Link</A>
March 2, 2005 - if you own an Xbox or a PC, the military shooter is your good friend. Rainbow Six, Full Spectrum Warrior, Brothers In Arms, and Medal of Honor are, have been, or are soon to be close to our combative gaming hearts. Take-Two and newly formed developer Destineer know this intimately, which is why early April we'll all get the chance to clear the fictional streets of Beirut in a campaign unlike any other.
Working closely with the US Marines, Destineer's squad-based Xbox and PC first-person shooter takes a different direction on the genre. Using four-man squad AI, with ever-changing morale that reacts to your skills (or lack thereof), and a robust command system that includes everything from opening doors and clearing rooms to sending airstrikes into machine gunner nests, First To Fight is a simulation that begs you to employ skill, military smarts, and gaming wisdom to beat its gradually ramped up single-player campaign. We know, because we've been playing it, and in today's in-depth look (complete with exclusive movies), we dip into its interesting single-player mode.
The premise behind First to Fight is your four-man fireteam. This four-man group functions at all times using a ready-team-fire-assist mechanic to constantly move in a close-knit unit covering all angles -- front, left, right, and rear. Your team is fully equipped with all military issued weapons; as team leader, you carry an M16 A4 (assault rifle), plus a powerful M203 grenade launcher. Two of your members also carry M16 A4s, and the last carries an M249 Saw, a powerful machine gun perfect for laying down serious suppression fire.
Your M16 A4 is a smooth operating assalt rifle. It's quick and smooth as you swivel it from side to side, and the scope usage is fluid and cooperative, giving you excellent line of fire with stationary and moving enemies. Its smooth, quick nature immediately grew on me.
Ready-Team-Fire-Assist
The game starts you off with TV briefs and an entrenched reporter, Amber Wolf, who informs the viewers, you, about the hot and dangerous fictitious situation in Beirut. You're called in to set up a headquarters and to clear out the streets of Al Karatina, one by one. The streets are mostly empty, except for a few random citizens who seem to not mind the blaring war sirens, constant gunfire, and screams of religious righteousness against the American infidels. No worries, though. You'll instantly notice the 10- and 15-story apartment buildings and narrow streets, with sections of fruit stands, broken down cars, and crumbled buildings, all which help to form the impression that things are collapsing fast. The narrow, high buildings create a cramped, tense sensation creating fear and anxiety, and the blaring sirens heighten the feeling.
Those liars! This ain't no split tease!
Your character isn't like Halo 2's Master Chief, a super-enhanced athlete capable of sprinting across a field of enemy fire. No, your players are human US Marines, so they move carefully and slowly, checking every corner for fire, and constantly covering themselves for fear of ambushes from behind any door, corner, porch, or building top. From the inside of a small building, you and your team round a corner, and in the first intersection they see, enemy militants attack sporadically from both sides. The first enemies attack from the left, and as you start gunning them down, the others attack shortly after from the right. This instance gives you the perfect sample of your team's competence; they instantly respond to the fire, targeting the enemy to protect you.
The team commands work easily and well. By pointing the reticule over any object and pressing a single button, it instantly goes to it. You can tell them to cover you, suppress, snipe, and comply. The team must have an enemy in sight to actually suppress or cover, however, and comply is a command toward the enemy. If you see that you've overpowered the enemy, and they stop shooting or start to run, you can yell out "Drop Your Weapon," and they will comply. You team knows more than you think. It reacts knowledgably to a host of different situations, yet it's always waiting for your command.
The team also talks and responds to you, be it positively or negatively. If you shoot an innocent civilian, someone will yell, "What the hell are you doing?" When you roll your reticule over a team member, it displays his name, health, morale, and discipline. If you lead the team well, meaning you cover them well, put them in smart situations, and kill enemies regularly, those stats remain relatively high. Kill a civilian, put them in bad spots, or have them take too much heat, and those numbers decrease. Those numbers affect their willingness to fight, their accuracy and their general performance. They won't go so far as to quit on you, but if you act like an idiot and force them into dumb-ass situations, they're not going to respect you much.
Al Karatina
Interacting with the environment is also exceptionally fun. It's not like the normal, "open this door, collect that package, sneak around that corner and find special bonus stuff." Instead, your reticule changes color when it rolls over something worth your while. Let's take a simple door for instance. Roll over it and the reticule changes to blue. That means you can send your team to it to perform several tasks. You can breach, grenade and hold, and wait. For Rainbow Six fans, that's all pretty familiar territory. What about enemies sitting on pickup trucks with mounted machine guns? Whhhoooo doggie, that's when it picks up. First, you must take out the enemy on said pickup. Then, aim your reticule over the pickup, whether you're far away and aiming, or zoomed in using your high-powered 2X scope, and hold a button to use it, call for sniper cover, or suppress. Here, the reticule turns red. A team member will run to it and mount the gun, instantly reacting to any enemy it can see. You'll be able to mount tanks, jeeps, and other armed vehicles against the enemy. It's wise to always keep that lone man covered.
If one of your men does take a hit and is injured, just like the real life US Marines, they will not leave a man behind. So, it's your job to get to him and administer first aid. If, for instance, he's really messed up, "critically injured," then he slowly loses blood, and it might be best to call an "evac," meaning a corpsman. He'll come in and carry your team member away. Your injured squad mate won't return in that same level, but in the next one, he'll be back. To finish a mission, one or maybe two men can take critical damage, but if they all die, the mission is over.
The AI is pretty tough. It's just slightly slower than you. That is, when you enter a room quickly, ready to strike, you have a split-second jump on it. Which makes sense, but they still turn around quickly to fight. The environments make for very good use of the enemy's quickness as well. For instance, I entered a warehouse filled with stacked crates. The shelves often had head-high windows for enemies to shoot from. Moving here was tricky because you couldn't determine where the windows were. Enemies peek around from all areas, and when you do get the jump on them, they take cover. Oftentimes, they quickly spin out to take pot shots. They may wait several seconds before coming out again. Or, they might find another area and wait for you to move. They too function on morale. They'll attack until you've weakened them, after which they'll move back, retrench, and wait. And if you are really hard on them, they'll turn and run.
Do it all yourself, or command your team.
Kick-Butt Commands
So, you've got standard military commands like breaching doors, hurling grenades, covering, suppressing, and forming up. Sounds pretty standard. Then, as I've explained, there are the environmental commands, enabling your team to be deployed to mount enemy guns on vehicles, machine gun nests, and vehicles (though you cannot drive any of them).
This is where the game grows more complicated. In one area, I snuck out a door, and realized a was right in front of a heavily nested machine gun lair. In other words, I was F'ed. Normally, I would simply try and do everything myself. In fact, I did just that. I commanded my team to breach and grenade the one door on the right, while I handled the other door on the left. I distracted the machine gunners, so my men could fight them off. It worked OK, but then they died.
In my second attempt, I skipped the muscle and the standard Rainbow Six approach because I noticed something different. The machine gun nest turned red as I ran my reticule over it. That meant my options had changed. When I snuck out again, on the left side, I picked off two shooters to clear some room. Then I held down the action button, and it offered me the chance to call in an air strike. OH YEAH. I called it. The strike came in about 30 seconds, and it smoked the hell out of those little hidden bitches.
First to Fight provides all sorts of situations of this nature. Once this simple concept was introduced, I noticed that in following missions, the option appeared regularly. The trick was to find the best positioning, because more often than not, you cannot see the enemy. Moving slowly into a new area, scoping it out, and finding a smart spot takes care of that. Once you're comfortable, call in the sniper, wait about 10 seconds, then try to draw the enemy out, and snipe! As you progress through the game, you'll be able to not only call in sniper teams, but cobra gunships and mortar crews as well. Watching the explosions and seeing that "Area All Clear" signal becomes such a wonderful feeling in those moments.
Outlook
We've been following First to Fight since the code was so early it barely worked. We might have had some doubts then, but Destineer has shown a solid foundation, fundamentally interesting gameplay, and has since displayed serious progress in its code. The preview we got our hands on proved that this game is going to be both hardcore as a single-player and as a multiplayer game, and more importantly, that it's got its own unique brand of fun. Military fanatics are sure to instantly throw themselves into its distinctive setups and compelling combat situations, as they strive to master their teams, read situations intelligently, and break the enemy's back with exactly the right methods. Check our exclusive movies to get a sense of Close Combat: First to Fight. We'll have more soon.
what do you guys think??..it looks promising...
March 2, 2005 - if you own an Xbox or a PC, the military shooter is your good friend. Rainbow Six, Full Spectrum Warrior, Brothers In Arms, and Medal of Honor are, have been, or are soon to be close to our combative gaming hearts. Take-Two and newly formed developer Destineer know this intimately, which is why early April we'll all get the chance to clear the fictional streets of Beirut in a campaign unlike any other.
Working closely with the US Marines, Destineer's squad-based Xbox and PC first-person shooter takes a different direction on the genre. Using four-man squad AI, with ever-changing morale that reacts to your skills (or lack thereof), and a robust command system that includes everything from opening doors and clearing rooms to sending airstrikes into machine gunner nests, First To Fight is a simulation that begs you to employ skill, military smarts, and gaming wisdom to beat its gradually ramped up single-player campaign. We know, because we've been playing it, and in today's in-depth look (complete with exclusive movies), we dip into its interesting single-player mode.
The premise behind First to Fight is your four-man fireteam. This four-man group functions at all times using a ready-team-fire-assist mechanic to constantly move in a close-knit unit covering all angles -- front, left, right, and rear. Your team is fully equipped with all military issued weapons; as team leader, you carry an M16 A4 (assault rifle), plus a powerful M203 grenade launcher. Two of your members also carry M16 A4s, and the last carries an M249 Saw, a powerful machine gun perfect for laying down serious suppression fire.
Your M16 A4 is a smooth operating assalt rifle. It's quick and smooth as you swivel it from side to side, and the scope usage is fluid and cooperative, giving you excellent line of fire with stationary and moving enemies. Its smooth, quick nature immediately grew on me.
Ready-Team-Fire-Assist
The game starts you off with TV briefs and an entrenched reporter, Amber Wolf, who informs the viewers, you, about the hot and dangerous fictitious situation in Beirut. You're called in to set up a headquarters and to clear out the streets of Al Karatina, one by one. The streets are mostly empty, except for a few random citizens who seem to not mind the blaring war sirens, constant gunfire, and screams of religious righteousness against the American infidels. No worries, though. You'll instantly notice the 10- and 15-story apartment buildings and narrow streets, with sections of fruit stands, broken down cars, and crumbled buildings, all which help to form the impression that things are collapsing fast. The narrow, high buildings create a cramped, tense sensation creating fear and anxiety, and the blaring sirens heighten the feeling.
Those liars! This ain't no split tease!
Your character isn't like Halo 2's Master Chief, a super-enhanced athlete capable of sprinting across a field of enemy fire. No, your players are human US Marines, so they move carefully and slowly, checking every corner for fire, and constantly covering themselves for fear of ambushes from behind any door, corner, porch, or building top. From the inside of a small building, you and your team round a corner, and in the first intersection they see, enemy militants attack sporadically from both sides. The first enemies attack from the left, and as you start gunning them down, the others attack shortly after from the right. This instance gives you the perfect sample of your team's competence; they instantly respond to the fire, targeting the enemy to protect you.
The team commands work easily and well. By pointing the reticule over any object and pressing a single button, it instantly goes to it. You can tell them to cover you, suppress, snipe, and comply. The team must have an enemy in sight to actually suppress or cover, however, and comply is a command toward the enemy. If you see that you've overpowered the enemy, and they stop shooting or start to run, you can yell out "Drop Your Weapon," and they will comply. You team knows more than you think. It reacts knowledgably to a host of different situations, yet it's always waiting for your command.
The team also talks and responds to you, be it positively or negatively. If you shoot an innocent civilian, someone will yell, "What the hell are you doing?" When you roll your reticule over a team member, it displays his name, health, morale, and discipline. If you lead the team well, meaning you cover them well, put them in smart situations, and kill enemies regularly, those stats remain relatively high. Kill a civilian, put them in bad spots, or have them take too much heat, and those numbers decrease. Those numbers affect their willingness to fight, their accuracy and their general performance. They won't go so far as to quit on you, but if you act like an idiot and force them into dumb-ass situations, they're not going to respect you much.
Al Karatina
Interacting with the environment is also exceptionally fun. It's not like the normal, "open this door, collect that package, sneak around that corner and find special bonus stuff." Instead, your reticule changes color when it rolls over something worth your while. Let's take a simple door for instance. Roll over it and the reticule changes to blue. That means you can send your team to it to perform several tasks. You can breach, grenade and hold, and wait. For Rainbow Six fans, that's all pretty familiar territory. What about enemies sitting on pickup trucks with mounted machine guns? Whhhoooo doggie, that's when it picks up. First, you must take out the enemy on said pickup. Then, aim your reticule over the pickup, whether you're far away and aiming, or zoomed in using your high-powered 2X scope, and hold a button to use it, call for sniper cover, or suppress. Here, the reticule turns red. A team member will run to it and mount the gun, instantly reacting to any enemy it can see. You'll be able to mount tanks, jeeps, and other armed vehicles against the enemy. It's wise to always keep that lone man covered.
If one of your men does take a hit and is injured, just like the real life US Marines, they will not leave a man behind. So, it's your job to get to him and administer first aid. If, for instance, he's really messed up, "critically injured," then he slowly loses blood, and it might be best to call an "evac," meaning a corpsman. He'll come in and carry your team member away. Your injured squad mate won't return in that same level, but in the next one, he'll be back. To finish a mission, one or maybe two men can take critical damage, but if they all die, the mission is over.
The AI is pretty tough. It's just slightly slower than you. That is, when you enter a room quickly, ready to strike, you have a split-second jump on it. Which makes sense, but they still turn around quickly to fight. The environments make for very good use of the enemy's quickness as well. For instance, I entered a warehouse filled with stacked crates. The shelves often had head-high windows for enemies to shoot from. Moving here was tricky because you couldn't determine where the windows were. Enemies peek around from all areas, and when you do get the jump on them, they take cover. Oftentimes, they quickly spin out to take pot shots. They may wait several seconds before coming out again. Or, they might find another area and wait for you to move. They too function on morale. They'll attack until you've weakened them, after which they'll move back, retrench, and wait. And if you are really hard on them, they'll turn and run.
Do it all yourself, or command your team.
Kick-Butt Commands
So, you've got standard military commands like breaching doors, hurling grenades, covering, suppressing, and forming up. Sounds pretty standard. Then, as I've explained, there are the environmental commands, enabling your team to be deployed to mount enemy guns on vehicles, machine gun nests, and vehicles (though you cannot drive any of them).
This is where the game grows more complicated. In one area, I snuck out a door, and realized a was right in front of a heavily nested machine gun lair. In other words, I was F'ed. Normally, I would simply try and do everything myself. In fact, I did just that. I commanded my team to breach and grenade the one door on the right, while I handled the other door on the left. I distracted the machine gunners, so my men could fight them off. It worked OK, but then they died.
In my second attempt, I skipped the muscle and the standard Rainbow Six approach because I noticed something different. The machine gun nest turned red as I ran my reticule over it. That meant my options had changed. When I snuck out again, on the left side, I picked off two shooters to clear some room. Then I held down the action button, and it offered me the chance to call in an air strike. OH YEAH. I called it. The strike came in about 30 seconds, and it smoked the hell out of those little hidden bitches.
First to Fight provides all sorts of situations of this nature. Once this simple concept was introduced, I noticed that in following missions, the option appeared regularly. The trick was to find the best positioning, because more often than not, you cannot see the enemy. Moving slowly into a new area, scoping it out, and finding a smart spot takes care of that. Once you're comfortable, call in the sniper, wait about 10 seconds, then try to draw the enemy out, and snipe! As you progress through the game, you'll be able to not only call in sniper teams, but cobra gunships and mortar crews as well. Watching the explosions and seeing that "Area All Clear" signal becomes such a wonderful feeling in those moments.
Outlook
We've been following First to Fight since the code was so early it barely worked. We might have had some doubts then, but Destineer has shown a solid foundation, fundamentally interesting gameplay, and has since displayed serious progress in its code. The preview we got our hands on proved that this game is going to be both hardcore as a single-player and as a multiplayer game, and more importantly, that it's got its own unique brand of fun. Military fanatics are sure to instantly throw themselves into its distinctive setups and compelling combat situations, as they strive to master their teams, read situations intelligently, and break the enemy's back with exactly the right methods. Check our exclusive movies to get a sense of Close Combat: First to Fight. We'll have more soon.
what do you guys think??..it looks promising...