Tom Clancy's: EndWar

This game is worth a lot more than the average star rating it has at the moment.
It seems to have got a lot of negative reviews from people who didn't realise that it is was a strategy game before they bought it.
Let's be clear this is not a first person shooter. You won't get to run or drive anywhere. You won't get to aim and shoot at anything.
Instead, of playing the role a single unit you play the role of the commander. You tell multiple units where to go and what to shoot at.
I enjoy strategy games. Being in control of my own army, and chosing the best strategy and tactics to defeat the army of my enemy.

Having read the other mixed reviews here I was wary of getting this game but I shouldn't have been. I love it. It adds whole new dimenstion to strategy game play. Instead of looking down from some imaginary point high up in the sky, you see the battlefiled from the perspective of the units in your army. Switching between units to see different areas of the city, airport or oil refinary you happen to be invading or defending at the time. As a result you see the battlefield in so much more detail. Features of the landscape, such as groups of trees or buildings stop being things you just drive over or around, and become strategic points of cover for your units. If you have a battalion of rifleman out in the open they'll be picked off easily by your enemy. Get them inside a building (where they will fire out of the windows) or in a group of trees and they suddenly become extremely hard for your enemy to beat. But you've got to get them to cover first and they're not very quick. You have to devise a strategy. They could go from building to building or you could cover them with some tanks or you could just ask them to make a run for it. But decide quickly. This is the essence of the game. Devising ways to get the upper hand in battle before your opponent does.
The enemy is advancing all the time. Seeing the battle through the perspective of your units as they move into position or exchange fire with an enemy gives the game a real sense of urgency and excitement.
Switching between the view points of different units creates a real feeling of battlefield chaos. You've got to keep track of where your units are or the enemy will suddenly take advantage of your weaknesses by taking key territory or catching your units exposed.
I keep talking about units. A unit is a group 4 fighting vehicles (such as tanks or artilary) or 20 soldiers. Each unit will perform your orders as a group.
Previous strategy games like Command & Conquer include loads of different types of units for the sake of variety. You don't get that in EndWar. Instead you get 12 standard unit types, although you can upgrade them in different ways as you go through the game. The variety comes from how you use them in the battle environment. No unit is supreme. For example helicopters can inflict a lot of damage on tanks but are really vulnerable to attack from transports, but transports are really vulnerable to tanks. Giving an order to a unit without thinking it through could be a fatal mistake.
If what you want is to run around aiming and shooting (which I often enjoy as well) don't get this game.
As I said it's all about the strategy. Strategy games involve more quick thinking than quick button pushing. I like strategy. I love this game.

... after 3 weeks of really enjoying this game I feel I need to update my review. I stand by all the above. This game is a great advance in strategy gameplay and I still love it for that. However, it isn't perfect. Think of the following issues as either reasons not to buy the game if you're not quite convinced or requests for improvements for EndWar 2 - which I would definately buy.
First, the plot is pretty shabby. It starts off well enough for the first 5 or 6 levels but is pretty non-existent after that.
Second, the mission briefings before each level are really repetative and vague. Although, to be fair battlefields and missions themselves have a good level of variety.
Third, the end-sequence/reward for completing the game lasts about 3 seconds. Capturing the capital of a military super-power really should be more rewarding.

My girlfriend got me EndWar for PS3 and a headset to go with it and I love it!

You play as one of 3 factions (the USA, Russia or the European Federation - a sort of, US of Europe) and each one has 7 types of units:
Riflemen (Soldiers)
Engineers (Anit-Air / Tank soldiers)
Transports (Anti-Air / Troops and for quickly moving troops)
Tanks (Anit-Transport)
Artillery (Long range, massive damage)
Gunships (Anti-Tank / Riflemen)
Command Vehicle (Handles Air Strikes etc)
All of these untis you can upgrade with various attacks, special abilities or extra HP etc.

The voice commands are simple and use a "Who, What Where" principle (Unit 2, Attack, Hostile 5) and picks up on 9/10 things you say with 100% accuracy.

The campaign is a good premise (WWIII) and fits in with what you are doing but after completing it as the USA I felt a little disappointed with the ending movie, although you actually PLAY the story rather than watch.

Loading screens last about 10secs each before a battle and there is no wait between insterting the disc and getting to blow stuff up!

This game would get 9/10 purely because I felt let down after the campaign ended, but the replay value is huge.

To the complainers: Try a harder difficulty or try the awesome online mode. This game is huge + enjoyable but you have to give it a chance!

Hope I Helped.

- d23

I really like this game after getting used to it. The voice command is a good thing to have but doesnt always work sometimes get mixed up with 7 and 11 but it is good to give off a quick order. Iv only played the first few levels of the story mode so far. I have however spent many hours battling for terrotries on the online ww3.
Firstly you choose a faction which is ethier american joint strike force, europe or russia. I am europe although russia are dominating. America and europe are neck and neck 17/11/2008. At the start of everyday there is a seize fire and the stats of all the games played decide if your faction can advance or not and the areas of battle change depending on this.
When you play you earn credits which can be spent on upgrades which is really good there are so many options that can help you win your matches.

If you like stratagie games this I would say is a good game to get I however dont really play strategy games so its also equally good for
people not used to strategy games.