Close Combat: First to Fight Hands-On - Single-Player
Gameplay Footage
Not content to let the Army have all the action, the United States Marine Corps is working with Global Star and developer Destineer on a first-person shooter of its own, Close Combat: First to Fight. While the Marines intend to use the game as a training aid, civilians will be able to play the game in order to appreciate the dangers and difficulties that Marines face in modern combat. We've been following the development of First to Fight for quite some time now, but recently we had a chance to get our hands on the single-player version of the game and experience the gritty realities and challenges of urban warfare.
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Rather than creating a fictional Middle Eastern country, Destineer has set the game in Beirut, Lebanon, in the near future. After factional fighting erupts to once again tear apart that war-torn capital, NATO and the United States dispatch military units to stabilize the country. (Considering recent events in Beirut, this scenario isn't too far-fetched.) Your job, as a Marine fireteam leader, will be to lead your four-man fireteam through the streets, alleyways, and warrens of Beirut to battle insurgents and Syrian Special Forces and hunt for important enemy leaders (each with his own "most wanted" playing card, much like the ones distributed to US forces in Iraq). At the same time, you must avoid harming innocents and civilians, as well as the reporters and cameramen who tend to show up in situations such as this. As Marines never fight alone, you can draw upon the help of other Marine fireteams at times, as well as Marine air and artillery support, but more on this later.
When starting up a campaign, you'll name your Marine and select a difficulty setting. The easier difficulty settings are very forgiving, as each of your Marines will have a health bar and can absorb many hits before falling. You can also use first aid kits to restore health instantly, much like picking up a health pack in a regular first-person shooter. If you want a real challenge, though, you can select the simulation setting, which is what the Marines will use. Simulation is designed to be as realistic as it gets, so the key to surviving is to take things slow and use tactics, such as making sure you order your Marines to cover you while you advance and making sure to peek around corners to locate enemy positions. In contrast to the easier difficulty settings, simulation is pretty much one-shot, one-kill. It's a fairly unforgiving experience for the unprepared and unready, which is probably why you'll want to tackle simulation with other players assisting you in cooperative multiplayer mode. You really need to have each man in a fireteam in sync and working together in order to succeed and survive simulation, which is probably what the Marines intend.
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After starting up the game, you'll find yourself in the middle of a virtual Beirut neighborhood surrounded by your men. Immediately you'll receive orders over the radio. These orders will guide you through the level step-by-step. For instance, you'll receive orders to clear out the surrounding streets and alleyways. Once that's accomplished, you may have to clear out a nearby shop. After that, you might have to clear out a school. These tasks each present a tactical challenge for you to overcome and they're usually several ways to approach each of them. For example, if ordered to take down a building, you can try slogging your way through the heavily defended front door, or you may locate a back entrance or a fire escape to bypass the front door. After you accomplish a task, the game saves the checkpoint, so that if you die you can restart at your last checkpoint, rather than starting the level over from scratch. This is particularly helpful, because even at the easier difficulty levels you'll probably die a lot. In addition to the checkpoint system, you can save the game at any point in the PC version, though we found the checkpoints to be fairly well placed.
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