by PK Hufford on July 12, 2006

When Full Spectrum Warrior first came out, it revolutionized the tactical simulation genre. Working in conjunction with the United States Army to develop a training simulation in the area of MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain), Pandemic Studios highlighted the extreme dangers of combat in densely populated urban areas. As a crazed fanatic of these types of games, I excitedly jumped at the opportunity to play the sequel.

In Ten Hammers, you find yourself back in the fictional country of Zekistan as all hell is breaking loose again. If you’ve played the original, you’ll have no problem diving into Ten Hammers. The controls are the same with minor enhancements. You can now control an indigenous scout that spots enemies much farther than you can, without attracting unwanted attention. You have the ability to control armored vehicles, which are good for clearing out infantry. At certain points of the game you can now call in Apache helicopter strikes to take out enemy positions, and you can take control of British troops. As you proceed from checkpoint to checkpoint, you’ll order your troops from cover to cover. Certain types of cover are not permanent, such as vehicles, oxcarts, or boxes, which can be shot to pieces. If one of your fireteams gets pinned down behind these structures, you won’t have long to maneuver your other team to help out. The overall strategy is similar to games such as the Brothers in Arms series – find your enemy, flank them, and take them out.

Another enhancement is your ability to split your fireteam into two-man teams, which allows you to do some more complicated maneuvers when engaging the enemy. However, you do so at the loss of firepower. Also added is a new mode called Precision Fire, giving you the ability to take individual control of one of your team members to take out an entrenched enemy. Each member of your team has a different ability; your team leader and rifleman can snipe enemies when they pop their heads above cover, your grenadier can take out enemies with greater accuracy, and your machine gunner will lay down a hail of bullets at your target. Be careful; you can drain your gunner’s ammo quickly if you do it for too long. Precision Fire mode doesn’t actually give you full control. Essentially you wait for the enemy to pop up; when you see a red dot appear above the enemy, you have a shot.

Aside from these new features, I felt I was playing an expansion rather than a new game. The enemy AI is slightly smarter, although the usual AI flaws that one experiences with similar games plague this one, such as enemies running at your position for no explicable reason.

Graphically, the game manages to capture the gritty, war-torn urban cities that are now firmly implanted in our minds thanks to the news. Character models move smoothly enough and look life-like. The sound is excellent, capturing the ambience of battle as you hear gunshots from far away. The voice acting is decent, though a better job could have been done with the dialogue. If you don’t like to hear salty language, pass on this game.

This is not your traditional FPS shoot ‘em up. You actually have to use your brain and employ tactics if you plan to bring your fireteams home safely. If this is your first attempt at playing a game such as this, you may find yourself frustrated due to the lack of first-person gameplay. But for fans of Full Spectrum Warrior, this is a must buy.

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