Tom Clancy's EndWar (PlayStation 3)

E3 2008: EndWar Hands-on

Erik Brudvig
Controlling an army with the power of your voice is only the beginning.
Jul 15th, 2008 - Tom Clancy's End War is feature complete and Ubisoft Shanghai has just completed its first closed beta where roughly 15,000 testers put the game through its paces. Now Ubisoft is ready to start tackling the feedback they're getting and getting the word out on why this isn't your average strategy game. For this RTS, it's not just the voice commands and camera that puts you into the action that will set it apart from the pack. As Ubisoft pointed out during our three hour demo of the game, there's a whole lot more to get excited about.Our demo opened with an introduction to the offline meta-campaign. You begin by choosing one of the three factions (US, Europe Union, or Russia) and then choose a battalion. Each of the various battalions for you to choose from have their own potential load-outs (some have more air units while others are stacked with infantry) and small bonuses that they begin with. Each of the units in your battalion is persistent throughout the campaign. Keep them alive and they'll gain experience, rank-up, and be outfitted with more powerful weaponry. Of course, sending them blindly into battle could get them pinned down and ultimately killed, wiping out any gains they've accumulated. Don't worry, once a unit is pinned down, protective shields are activated that do a fairly good job of keeping your guys alive until they can be airlifted out.
Those helicopters don't stand a chance.
The war between the three super powers has erupted over a missile defense system. The goal of this meta-campaign is to take control of the satellite uplink controls that control the missile defense shield. Some places are more important than others, such as military positions or capitals. Each turn you can take on one mission of your choice, be it attacking a foe or defending one of your territories. The rest of the battles are simulated through AI (In the online game each territory is fought over by players throughout the day). How you perform in battle, who you defeat, and where the battle takes place will all play into the simulation and affect the next day's front lines.At the end of each mission, the spoils of war are divvied up amongst the players (or given straight to you if you're playing as a one man army). There's a base amount of money given for the win, then various bonus amounts based on your actions in the fight. Once you've got the cash, it's time to start spending. For that you'll be heading back to the barracks. There are roughly 80 upgrades per faction that will allow you to shape your battalion exactly how you see fit.
Inside the barracks.
This meta-campaign mirrors the online game, but since the game hasn't been released we weren't able to test out the persistent war against real human opponents. That doesn't mean you won't have some variety in your fights. The AI opposition has a number of different personalities and ranks, each with their own fighting styles and assorted bonuses. Some, we're told, will even mirror griefers in the real world and will try to take out your downed soldiers before they can escape to fight another day. Next >>


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