Over the last few years, NovaLogic has carved a niche in the
first-person shooter market with their Delta Force series. Not quite
the ultra-realism and complexity of a Rainbox Six, but not the pure
adrenaline rush twitchiness of an Unreal Tournament or Quake III.
Plagued in the past by NovaLogic's beautiful but highly resource
unfriendly Voxel Space technology, Land Warrior steps up to the
plate offering full compatibility with today's 3D accelerators, while
still using Voxels to make possible the rolling hills and long range
action that Delta Force has become famous for. With plenty of
options for both solo and multiplayer missions, Land Warrior is
filled to the brim with tactical firefights, sniper's duels, and some of
the dumbest computer opponents ever.
Land Warrior drops you into combat as a member of the Delta
Force, an elite special forces unit specializing in commando
missions, counter-terrorism, and hostage rescues. Though Chuck
Norris and Lee Marvin were nowhere in sight, the game does
features five action movie refugees for you to play, with specialties
like sniper, medic, and heavy gunner, and names like Pitbull,
Snakebite, and Longbow. Each of the characters has a few special
abilities; the sniper can belly-crawl quickly, the medic can revive
wounded team members in multiplayer, etc. The highlight of solo
play is a campaign of 19 missions linked together by a story that
has you doing everything from painting enemy weapon stockpiles
for an artillery strike to disarming a nuclear device. There are also
10 quick missions that you can play if you just want to jump into
action, and missions completed in the campaign also become
available as quick missions.
Land Warrior also features a plethora of multiplayer games. The
single player missions can all be played cooperatively with up to
three other people, complete with scaled difficulty (read as: more
guys to shoot). There are standard Deathmatches, team and
free-for-all, with bonus points for headshots and knife kills. Also
included is the omnipresent Capture the Flag, as well as a similar
game, Flagball, played with one flag in the middle of the map that
teams scramble after. For people who like to blow stuff up, there's
Search and Destroy, a game that can only be won by destroying
specific targets in your enemy's territory, and Attack and Defend, a
timed version of S&D akin to UT's Assault. Last but not least is King
of the Hill, playable in teams or free-for-all; the winner is the one
who can hold hot zones for a predetermined amount of time. With
support for four teams and up to 50 players per game, these games
can get pretty crazy. Multiplayer games run either on a LAN or
online through an easily navigated interface in the game's menu.
Hosting is easy, and there are plenty of options, from limiting
weapons to setting a maximum number of lives, for customizing
your game. NovaWorld 2, NovoLogic's multiplayer service,
promises to have persistent online player names, and stat tracking
with military promotions and decorations earned only in online
play, but wasn't yet taking sign-ins at the time this review was
written.
Whatever the job at hand might be, Land Warrior's rich assortment
of real world, grade-A bang-bang is guaranteed to fit your needs.
Sniper rifles like the thunderous Barrett .50 and whispering death
of the PSG-1 are all you need to dial in a kill from extreme range.
For close quarters battles, you can't go wrong with light machine
guns, like the FN MAG and M249, or the man-stopping buckshot of
the Pancor Jackhammer automatic shotgun. Perhaps the right tool
is the balance of an assault rifle, like the stylish and deadly Steyr
AUG, the ultramodern rapid-firing G11, or Land Warrior trademark
OICW. There's even an anti-tank weapon, a repeat fire grenade
launcher, and an underwater rifle. Of course, no soldier would
dare go off into battle without a sidearm and trusty combat knife,
and a well-thrown hand grenade or a well-placed claymore mine
can likewise serve you well. There are 27 weapons in all,
including a pair of fixed weapon emplacements available in some
scenarios, and each has a distinctive feel that is nicely represented
in the game.
The newly hybridized Land Warrior engine does as advertised,
presenting amazing outdoor environments without bringing
supercomputers too their knees. The graphics are expansive and
smooth, though the textures are fairly bland; making swamps,
deserts, and forests all look like one set painted a few different
colors. Sound effects, from the distinctive sounds of each weapon
to the splintering of wood peppered by bullets, are top notch. The
voice acting is very solid, and sticking to the game's realism there
is no in-mission music. There is a 3rd person perspective you can
use, but since the control gets a little dicey and you can't use your
scope, this has little function other than to make pretty
screenshots. Land Warrior also comes with a reasonably
comprehensive mission editor for the mod community to play with,
and it won't be long before custom levels are springing up
everywhere you look.
But all the game options and extra goodies mean exactly jack
squat without good gameplay. While Land Warrior does stumble a
little bit in this department at times, the total package successfully
hits the ground running. The single player missions are diverse
and well designed, but where the real problems start is with the
laughable computer AI. On the missions where you're unfortunate
enough to have one of the computer controlled team members on
your side, they run off and get themselves killed 9 out of 10 times.
The good news is that I only found one mission where you have to
rely on them to do anything, and the rest of the time there's no
penalty if (when) they get killed.
The computer controlled enemies are just as much fun. If the
designer's goal was to accurately simulate the bad guys from the
movie Commando, the results were amazingly successful. Never
before have I seen a group of such worthlessly stupid, cross-eyed,
sub-humanoids. As if it wasn't bad enough that they're dumb as dirt
and can't shoot straight, these escapees from the cannon fodder
factory have reaction times that are just astronomical. When
they're "on patrol" they stand around, presumably captivated by
something shiny on the floor, or march around staring off into
space. When "alerted", they run around randomly yelling in a
variety of languages. Since I only speak English, I am forced to
infer what they're saying through their actions. Here's an excerpt:
"Oh my God! My friend's been shot! What to do, what to do…Wait! I
have a gun! How does it work again? 'Point away from face and
fire'? Sounds easy enough. I'll just kneel down looking away from
where the gunshots are coming from and hope for the best. Hey,
what's that in the sand over there? Oooh, shiny." As a result of this
behavior, single player games, while strangely entertaining, end
up being little more than turkey shoots.
Multiplayer, on the other hand, is extraordinary. Admittedly,
though, I was frustrated at first. Being so used to Deathmatches in
the style of Quake and UT, I had no way to approach the vast
outdoor arenas of Land Warrior. I ran around, looking for someone
to shoot, and was repeatedly cut down by unseen foes,
undoubtedly hundreds or yards away. Normal computer game
thinking does not work in Land Warrior. You can't take a rocket
blast. "Just rub some dirt on it and walk it off," ain't going to work,
coach. One bullet can ruin your day. Putting my initial failures
behind me, I tried my hand at a Team King of the Hill match, and
instantly fell in love. Running down a ridge toward the hotzone,
bullets kicking up dirt all around me, the booming of a Barrett from
the ridge above me as the snipers I depended on for cover
hopefully do their job. In front of me a teammate is cut down by
machinegun fire while breaking cover in an attempt to advance, to
my left another friend disappears in the flash of a grenade. They
say war is hell, and finally I understand what they mean.
Land Warrior has some amazingly visceral moments. Hunkered
down behind some sand bags, assault weapons blazing and
grenades exploding everywhere, you can actually hear the bullets
slamming into your cover or slicing through the air inches from
your head. Sitting at my computer, knowing it's just a game, I still
ducked once or twice. Multiplayer games were a blast, and it's a
shame that the poor computer AI relegates single player to little
more than open season on stupid animals. You almost feel bad for
them. There are some other little things, like trouble climbing
ladders and no display for pings when trying to find a game on the
Internet, that pop up from time to time and manage to take off a
little of the shine. Despite all the weaponry, I found myself wanting
for more Delta Force staples, like some sort of flash-bang stun
grenades, lifesavers in hostage situations, and smoke grenades to
give cover when crossing wide-open spaces. Still Land Warrior is
a fun, if very easy, single player game that can be played in tasty
bite-sized missions as a break. But multiplayer games are where
this game excels, working great with the game's inherently lethal
nature and support for so many people. It's intense, it's chaotic,
and it's something every shooter fan with a decent Internet
connection should try. Lock and load, boys and girls, it's time to be
a hero.
By: 
