Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

So I have to admit when I saw previews and read previews of this game it sounded fun. From the interviewers meeting "masked men" of the army and actual "Tier1" commandos explaining how the game is based off their missions I got excited. I thought the game would be a Tom Clancy game meets socom, meets call of duty. Yet that's not what we get. What we get is a mediocre rip off of another so-so FPS call of duty mw1 and 2.

Story:

The story is so-so it takes place during 3 days of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. You take on many roles from 2 different commandos from 2 different units and even play as a ranger. Yet the story is very lackluster and has the typical "government in Washington has no idea whats going on blah blah bull." I have to be honest I like the fact the game is based in Afganistan and not bad-landistan. You are fighting the Taliban not Talibadguys. Yet even that falters, but I will explain that a bit later.

Gameplay:

Have you ever played a FPS before? How about one that rhymes with modern warfare? See let me get this out of my system now. I don't like the CoD series anymore. I thought the last good CoD game was CoD2 and maybe maybe maybe MW1 but that's it. Yet I can't help but compare this game to MW1 and 2. It stole so many elements of CoD that it fails to be original. From fighting in a abandoned airplane stripping area, a sniping mission, that stupid its too dark put on your night vision and enemies can't see 1inch in front of them scenario, a sneaking mission, the "ok you take the left guy ill shoot the right guy thing" and Russians/Czechoslovakians.

The game basically feels like a half finished FPS. I will admit the first levels are a lot of fun. They are pretty simple objectives which I liked. For example your base is under mortar fire you and your squads have to go out and eliminate the teams. Simple, but realistic there are no nukes or super weapons here. Yet those are the first few missions the more you play the more the levels turn into a massive bland point and click game. Go here shoot there hide behind some rocks etc etc. Also the grenades and grenade tube are totally inaccurate they never work properly ever.

The game's biggest problem is its just bland nothing about it stands out. Maybe the fact that it occurs in a modern day conflict, yet it still is meh. Remember I said using the Taliban even though cool made the game falter a few paragraphs up? The reason I said that is because the game has this annoying tenancy to always have you "hold the line." What I mean is you and your team are ALWAYS pinned down by massive massive waves of Taliban insurgents. This to me makes no sense at all. The Taliban yes is a large terror faction, yet the waves you fight the war would have been over in these 3 days. The game went from a realistic seal team mission to a small band of 4 men against probably the whole population of Afghanistan on a mountain.

To me this is where the game falls. The game was marketed about the seals and their missions. They are one of the most ruthless killers, best track record, and fewest casualties in the American army. This game basically says "F-that" and fight waves of 4 enemy models over and over again. I really thought the game would be a more of a Socom, Tom Clancy approach. There is early on a cool sneaking mission. It felt real your commando buddy right next to you telling you to not engage and just wait. It was fun and I wished the game took this approach more and when you're the ranger make it a completely different gameplay experience and go into FPS kill everything mode.

Finally the gamewas rushed. From rendering problems(guns would render if you don't use them so you like using a M-16 yet take out a shotgun to try out the gun would render and no it wasn't my pc), from seeing enemies spawn, the knife/insta kill mechanic, ammo system (ask your teammates for ammo, but its just weird and not needed), bland characters, lame story, and just basically abrupt ending. The game should have been held back a bit more it still had issues to iron out.

Multiplayer:

Honestly don't bother there is only 300-500 people on it world wide. That is not a lot of people at all. Its just like the single player bland and nothing sticks out. Since its made by the guys who did Bad company 2 its a bit more enjoyable, yet feels like a crappier BC2. Try it if you want, but its not worth coming back too.

Graphics:

Besides the rending problems they really aren't bad. The only complaint is there is a total of like 4-6 character models for the bad guys like really?

Audio:

I had some weird problems with the audio. It was way too low I had to crank my speakers up and that's with the audio master controller on "high."

Pro's

The one sneaking mission, takes place in Afghanistan and you are fighting the Taliban not some made up faction, not going to lie some air strikes are fun to call down on, the first 1-3 missions are fun, you can get the battlefield 3 beta if you buy it..I think.

Con's

Bland mediocre ripoff of CoD, multiplayer, nothing about this game makes it stand out from the rest, rendering issues, shotgun is weaker than weak, rips off too many elements from CoD, it was rushed and you can clearly tell.

Overall:

Overall I got this game when it was on sale and to me its not worth it. All they had to do is approach this game at a different angle and it could have been a great game. Yet the game is nothing more than a rip off of the modern warfare series and sadly it seems its content with where it is.