The “Break it Down” Blog

Summary [8.5 out of 10]

Tom Clancy’s EndWar is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game set about 10 years in the future.  In EndWar you play as either the United States of America, the European Federation, or Russia in the battles that lead up to  and include World War III. Unlike most RTS games in EndWar there is no base or resources management.  There is just the fighting portion of RTS games.  Yet, even this is a little different because the unit cap is 12.  So, you need to use your available units wisely to win.  EndWar also has a unique control setup in that all of your units can be controlled completely with voice commands. You can still use the controller in addition or instead of the voice commands, but it is not required.

The Good

• The Voice Controls. Past Tom Clancy games from Ubisoft have support some optional voice commands but they never worker really well and they were only for single payer matches. In EndWar the voice controls work really well and they are supported in single player and multiplayer matches.  When the game starts it gives you a short training on how to use the voice commands. Mostly you just need to remember to speak clearly and not to speed up your talking when things get tense.  I found that I would mostly use the voice commands to control my units, but then would use the controller for things like changing the camera location and deploying mine fields.
• The game mechanics. The lack of base and resource management is really refreshing. Because of this all of the focus is on the troops battling. Most missions you start with 3 or 4 units and get more as the mission progresses.  This makes it critical that you play to your troops strengths. Because of the low troop levels and and that the whole game is focussed on fighting most missions take around 15 minutes. I found these quick battles quite refreshing compared to past RTS matches I’ve played that could take 3 or more hours when there are a lotof people playing.
• The Multiplayer. The 2v2 matches are my favorite, but 1v1 and 4v4 are fun as well. Like the single player missions the multiplayer matches take 15 minutes or less.  Team coordination and strategy is key to winning in 2v2 and 4v4 matches because your whole team together still only gets up to 12 units.  So, in a 2v2 match you contorl up to 6 and your partner can control up to 6 units. With four different game types and a lot of maps there is a lot of available variations for playing multiplayer.
• Unit Upgrades. As you play through the game your troops get promote and you win credits based on how well you perform. You can then use these credits to upgrade your promoted units. However, if a unit dies you get a replacement that has none of the upgrades that the promoted unit had.  So, your get rewarded for keeping your units alive and retreating with then as necessary. The unit upgrades really let you create a specialized battalion that fits your play style.  For me that was Artillery and Tanks with as many offensive upgrades as possible and then my infantry and engineers had all the defensive upgrades I could afford.  This game me a slow moving but very powerful attack force with sold defensive troops to stay close and defend them.

The Bad

• Short Campaign. I don’t have a lot of complaints with EndWar but I was surprised when the campaign ended. I felt like I was about half way through the campaign based on my troop upgrades when I completed a mission and it came up and told me I had one the game.
• Very Few Multiplayer Players. Almost all of the multiplayer matches I played were with friends when we coordinated times to get together and play.  Maybe I was not choosing the popular game types to play or I was not on at a high volume time, but every time I tried to play a public multiplayer matches I gave up after 4 or 5 minutes of waiting for an opponent. I know there were some people playing when I was because I would be given teammates but it then it would never give us an opponent before I gave up waiting.
• Camera Options. The camera can be moved around but only within a set distance from one of your units.  I found myself wanting to be able to move the camera a bit higher or further pretty frequently. There is an option to have an overhead map view that was helpful, but only in circumstances when you have a command vehicle or UAV drones.

Conclusion [8.5 out of 10]

EndWar is not a prefect RTS game but it is a lot of fun.  Even with the minor annoyances I had with it I would still highly recommend trying it out. If you’re not interested in the multiplayer components you probably will want to just rent it because the campaign is not really long, but overall it is a great example of a different type of RTS game.