Designing video games is not normally the sort of thing you'd expect the US Army to get up to, but in actual fact Full Spectrum Warrior was created specifically for use as training tool for US soldiers; it's only now that we civvies are getting a chance to have a go too. The full story is that the US Army had become a little upset that recruits to the Air Force already understood a lot of the basic mechanics and tactics of flying from playing flight sims but yet army recruits were learning nothing of use from ordinary video games.

In order to rectify this, Full Spectrum Warrior tasks you with control of a four-man squad of soldiers who are normally armed with nothing more than a machine gun and grenades. The first thing to realise is that you don't directly control any of the soldiers and are therefore not responsible for aiming or shooting, or even moving. Instead the game plays more like a real-time strategy, where you must indicate where to move and who to shoot at and let your grunts get on with the actual business of aiming. This makes for a uniquely engrossing experience and you do genuinely feel you're being taught something about real-world tactics.

The incredibly realistic graphics also help to completely immerse you in the game--whether they???ll make you more or less likely to eye up those TA ads is debatable, once you realise what a hard life soldiers really have. --David Jenkins

This game is so much fun! You are in command of two squads of elite military soldiers and you command them to move, shoot and cover through relistic war zones throughout the game. At first you HAVE to do about five training missions to go on to the main campaign which is a bit of a downer but the game more than makes up for it with its realism. You almost feel like your actually there commanding them!

Although you cant actually aim and shoot at enemies yourself the way the squads work just makes you forget this and it looks so good. You could actually learn to be some sort of clandestine army man with this game!

The graphics are okay but nothing special and it still manages to look very good. The sounds you get are immense. The gameplay is so fun you just want to do it again and again but it can be very difficult in parts. This game is a little short.

Ive read people's reviews and im thinking, "what do they all have in common?" They thought FSW was going to be an FPS!? What's that all about? If you want a realistic FPS army shooter then try the Tom Clancy range, but if you want 3rd person, command and squad based action then this is the real deal. I love the intuitive command system, point-and-go team based action, there is no other game like it where commanding a squad has been so much fun. Ok, so this game isn't for hardcore FPS fans or people who don't like the strategy side of warfare, but thats what makes this war based game so amazing. I can't help but think im in the movie Black Hawk Down with this game, because it has that style gameplay. The 'Delta Force' doing gritty urban combat in middle eastern streets fighting against a guerrilla army with the usual assortment of Black Hawk gunships, BMP and M113 tanks a-plenty. The graphics are superb in my opinion and it's like watching a movie rather then playing a game, which also some people might not like. This game requires strategy and puzzle solving abilities, although its a combat game you have to work out a plan of action to make sure your men dont get shot up, as it's quite realistic as 1 shot = death for a teammate (even tho at a medsite he can be "healed"). The levels are rich and simulation like, with burning cars and burnt out cars, shell ridden buildings which really engross you into the surroundings you've been put. I could go on for a long time with a list of decent attributes for this game, but i would imagine you have the gist of the game already. There is 1 downside i can actually see to this game and that is the lack of weaponary variety and it has a steep learning curve and is not happy-go-lucky. Deffinately worth the money if your after Black Hawk Down/ Three Kings style games, but are also very realistic!!

Commanding units to shoot and not shooting yourself is different to most games, but I think it works. It's easy to get the hang of the control system and how the game works.
The levels are pretty good, and there's lots of action in them, but they are also quite linear. There's alley ways and side streets to go down to flank enemy's, but where you can go in the level is quite restricted, forced down certain streets, so how much you can use your imagination to complete the missions is limited.
However saying that, it is alot of fun and you can use a couple of different tactics each time you play a level.

The story is realistic but maybe too realistic, as you know what happens next as it's just like Iraq. The story and levels dont last that long either as once you get a hang of it you can breeze through the levels with relative ease as you know how the enemys will react in almost every encounter. Once finnished, it is quite fun to go back and try a level again, but not that often.

Overall i'd say it's worth buying as its alot of fun and different from other games, but it wont last you as long as others.

Full Spectrum Warrior is based on a light infantry-training simulator designed by Pandemic Studios for the U.S. Army as a tool to reinforce Army doctrine and squad tactics among troops. Full Spectrum Warrior is a squad-based, tactical-action game that delivers the experience of squad level command in the heat of battle. The product was developed with expertise from University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, which worked with Pandemic to bring state-of-the-art technology to the game. Designed to simulate today's challenges of urban combat missions, Full Spectrum Warrior delivers a level of realism and accuracy that has never been seen in a military-based game.

When i first bought this game i thought what harm can it do to try it. and guess what, i was right. I became addicted to this game almost imeadiatly, and i havent stopped playin it since.
This is a got 2 buy.
Get off ure lazy behind and by this game, otherwise u wont know wat ure missin.