Conflict: Global Terror
Need to shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot? Shoot, this game’s got you covered.
Tags: Conflict: Global Terror Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 17th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Conflict: Global Terror (title page) | 1+ | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Squad-Based Shooter | No | ||
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The Conflict series of games by developer Pivotal Games has been around for a while, and if you’re looking for the latest chapter, look no further than PS2. Conflict: Global Terror is – brace yourselves – a mission-based tactical shooting that allows you to operate as part of a four-man assault squad. What’s that? No, erm… Tom Clancy’s name is NOT involved in this one. Pardon? Erm… No, it was not developed anyone going by the name Hideo, either. Wait, wait! Er. Gosh. Room cleared out a lot. Well, that’s fine. Now that all the bandwagon-jumpers are gone, let’s talk about a game that, if not exactly a commercial favorite, is a decent enough shooter to appeal to the average fan of… well, shooters.
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Sure, Conflict: Global Terror isn’t exactly a high-profile franchise. In fact, it’s profile is rather modest. But you have to admire the ability of Pivotal Games to adapt to changing times. Unlike some developers who will forever be stuck re-fighting World War II or key battles from the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, Pivotal isn’t afraid to be more topical and up-to-date. This time out, the enemy in your cross-hairs are the same sort of folks the US is fighting for real: terrorists. Evil-doers. Or as W might say, the terror-doers. The campaign is a lengthy, 14-mission deal that spans the globe, delivering a constant variety of environments and, in the end, frankly a bit more closure than we’ve come to realize in real life. You remember real life, don’t you? It’s that stuff they talk about, going on around you, on CNN and Fox News. Umm… never mind.
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Anyway, I wish I could report that Conflict: Global Terror delivers the thrills of 24 and the character-driven story of a Metal Gear Solid game, but that would be fibbing. An untruth. Or, as W might put it, a truthectomy. Sadly, like so many rank-and-file shooters, the situations you face and the places you travel are far more developed than the rather generic G.I.s you battle through the game with. Some would defend this approach to war game development, pointing out that making any one solider stand out as superheroic in a Solid Snake kind of way does an injustice to all the real, relatively unknown and unheralded soldiers who fight the real War on Terror and indeed every war we’ve ever been in. And there’s a solid point there. But it also makes for a game that’s more boring and more emotionally distant from the gamer.
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No, Conflict: Global Terror is made for a different kind of gamer. The kind of gamer who just loves pointing a virtual gun up on whatever comes across the screen and firing… a lot. That visceral thrill is delivered here, though some aspects of the game’s design may hamper enjoyment. For one thing, the game is completely without an auto-save feature. Most shooters build one in so that even if you die, all you do is return to the last checkpoint at which the game auto-saved you. That’s not present here, meaning you better remember to save periodically. But, uh… not too often because to add insult to injury, you’re limited on how many times you can save per level.
Just a sec… What’s that, dear? The dog is on fire? I need to free up the phone line to call the vet? But hon, I’m 70 percent through level 10 and I’m out of save and the last one I used would knock me back all the way to… It can’t wait? God… every time I’m about to finish this freaking level, something happens. Dog on fire, son kidnapped by a group of rabid Canadians, pizza getting cold, Sheriff coming to evict me from my foreclosed house… when’s a guy gonna get a freakin’ break? Huh? Wazzat? Oh, sorry. Never mind. No auto-saves and limited saves per level is a good thing… really! Really separates the true gamers from, I don’t know… people with jobs!
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Getting back to the game, the AI is nothing to write home about. Even if you’re strategic in your use of ammo, your CPU-controlled squad members usually won’t be. Plus, if you don’t fire for a while, a glitch in the programming has your character drop his weapon from the ready position. Doesn’t seem to be a big deal until you get the jump on someone, only that enemy is ready and you’re not and he (or she, all you female al-Qaeda members out there) gets the drop on you. Not fun. Sure, there are workarounds. But that’s my idea of a fun game… a game I have to work around to play through effectively. Toss all those well-designed games, baby… give me the ones that REALLY make me work for a win by battling flaws like this as well as the enemy!
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OK, so it’s safe to say I’m not overly impressed with Conflict: Global Terror. But then, it’s not overly impressed with itself, either. The graphics are standard at best and the sound work is only good at being full of loud, booming sounds and substandard voice work. In fact, the game as a whole just feels mailed in. And with a wealth of top-notch shooters out there just begging for your attention and your gaming dollar, including Call of Duty: Big Red One for PS2 and Call of Duty 2 on Xbox 360, just to name a couple of the more top-notch offerings, it’s just hard to muster a lot of enthusiasm for a standard-issue game like Conflict: Global Terror.
Sure, I credit those who made this for offering a generously-long campaign and a scenario that hasn’t been done and redone 5.2 billion times in the past year, but even conceptual freshness needs some other elements around it to make the game special. You know, like sharp graphics that keep up with the pack, characters that engage you to the story as much as the concept does, smarter game design and AI, and just generally a bit more passion. At best, Conflict: Global Terror merit’s a one-time GameFly rental. You know, once you grow board with all the other excellent shooters on the market and just have some time to kill.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ At least the War On Terror hasn’t been quite as overdone as World War II. + A lot of mission depth and environmental variety. |
5.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Too bad all those nifty environments don’t look very sharp. - Crappy save-game strategy. - Not much of the game feels special. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
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An average game deserves an average score, and they don’t come more average than Conflict: Global Terror. |
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Tags: Conflict: Global Terror
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 17th, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
