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• Tom Clancy's EndWar
• Reviewed on: PlayStation 3
• Also available for: Xbox 360, PC, PSP, DS
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• The Good: Command system is user-friendly and works well with any Bluetooth headset; Fighting can be viewed from the perspective of individual units; Online skirmishes are great for quick battles
• The Bad: In-close viewpoints show weaknesses in graphics; Multiplayer campaigns lack any real co-ordination and co-operation; The Chinese really should've been among the superpowers
• The Verdict: You'll either love or hate this World War III simulation

Tom Clancy's name may be in the title, but EndWar is a big departure from the Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series' that we've been used to from Ubisoft. EndWar is the kind of game armchair generals might love for the simple fact that they can command and conquer using far more than a few solitary soldiers.

As a real-time strategy game, EndWar is naturally far more strategy than tactics. Unlike the clandestine missions and in-your-face raids conducted by the protagonists in the other Clancy titles, this one features generals and politicians deploying armies of infantry, tanks, helicopter gunships and even WMDs.

World War III

It's 2016 and oil is in very short supply, while missile defence shields more or less eliminate the threat of nuclear war. This combination leads to the U.S., the European Federation and a rumbling Russia tussling with each other over dwindling resources, along with European and Russian attempts to destroy the U.S. missile shield.

China's absence is felt here in a big way. I found it strange that EndWar was developed in Ubisoft's Shanghai studio, yet there is no Chinese presence in the game. As a global player in many respects, they're not even mentioned in the news reports and military briefings that juxtapose the battles.

After I got past the initial expository scenes, Ubisoft made the wise move of using the skirmishes that make up the war's prelude as the game's tutorial. Here, I could try out all three superpowers in different scenarios. When things got hot and the single-player campaign began, I chose to go with the Europeans. I expected that there would be different fighting doctrines and manoeuvres, but there really isn't much of a difference between them.

EndWar does away with the whole real-time-strategy business of managing resources and building up units and supply lines. Instead, this is all about going with what you have and outsmarting the opposing force, albeit with some reinforcements. The challenging part is in deploying your forces quickly and efficiently without exposing them too much. What happens is a rock-paper-scissors situation that comes full circle – tanks are effective against transports, transports are effective against gunships and gunships are effective against tanks. This sets the tone for how you order your units around.

Moving those units works on three basics: who, what and where. “Unit 4 plus 7, move to Foxtrot” is an example of a typical command. But they can go deeper, like when grouping units together or ordering only your tank units to do something. Commands can be issued using the controller or a Bluetooth headset. I used the same headset that came with SOCOM: Confrontation and had no problems. Using the controller solely would seem to be the best option to keep things quiet in the home, but the headset makes it a lot more fun overall.

A view of the action

I couldn't manage much aside from the fighting, but I did have the opportunity to upgrade battle-hardened units that survive by spending points I earned over the course of the campaign. The added experience can make units smarter, tougher and more adaptable to conditions on the ground.

This becomes crucial because there are key points during a battle where one of these units might be incapacitated. A support helicopter will swoop in to evacuate whoever's left, but if enemy forces destroy those units before the chopper arrives, then that unit and its experience are gone for good.

Your view of the action comes from the eyes and ears of the units on the map. Gunships play a key role in recon since they can scout ahead for enemies, while infantry-occupied buildings and towers can be effective for both recon and defensive positions. You can view a tactical overhead map by shaking the PS3's SixAxis controller, but it's not something you're likely to use often.

Taking the fight worldwide – literally

A game like EndWar seems so fitting for a global gamer war online. Like a real war, the conflict can rage day after day. There isn't much of a ranking system here, but the game will tally up results every 24 hours and assess the battlegrounds from there. There's a bit of a random method to how this works. I defeated one opponent in one battleground, only to be matched up against a totally different gamer in the next map. It was the same theatre of war and the same campaign, but it didn't mean that I would be fighting the same person in a massive one-on-one campaign.

I was fighting on the same side as many others, but there was no way of co-ordinating any kind of strategy. Imagine army generals executing battle plans without communicating. This is one of the reasons why this part of the game falls a little flat. I felt like I was fighting a few selfish skirmishes, rather than achieving crucial objectives that might relieve the pressure from friendly troops on another part of the map.

The points and upgrading system apply in the online realm, too. I didn't take too kindly to having some of my experienced units obliterated completely, but it only made me play better to return the favour.

Of course, you can abandon all that Theatre of War stuff and just play simple skirmishes online (or offline). Pick one battleground and fight with what you have and whoever wins, wins. Generally speaking, battles don't take that long, but some of these skirmishes can be over in a matter of minutes.

Good, but not great

EndWar won't win any accolades for its visuals. It's not that they're terrible, it's just that too many imperfections are noticeable when so much of the action zooms in close to the terrain. The sound also suffers a bit because you do most of the talking, but the cringe-inducing Russian and European accents don't help the cause, either.

This is one of those games that you'll either like or you won't. I don't see much of a grey area here, which is probably not that surprising for an RTS game. And while EndWar could be better, it still has a solid foundation that Ubisoft will surely build on. But even then, it will still be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game.