Desert boots and MARPAT utes provide Battlefront Software's redemption.
What is SFM? It's a module (addon) for the real-time pausable or turn-based tactical wargame, Combat Mission: Shock Force, scaling from platoon to battalion level. Units are individual vehicles, weapon teams and squads and are controlled via a 3D map and button-based interface. Battles range from 300 meter by 300 meter house-to-house brawls, to impressively large 4km by 4km armored slugfests. The setting is a hypothetical near-modern war between the US and Syria, but focusing on the amphibious landing and western drive of a Marine Corps task force towards the Syrian capital. The campaign has a few branches, but is mostly linear. There is an attempt to retain replayability by adding multiple AI plans to each battle, allowing for a different experience in each run through. However, in my experience there is one good plan, shored up by one or two merely adequate ones and possibly one heinously bad one that has the AI defeated in a fraction of the time limit.
Compared to some other real time games, the controls are rather clunky, but that can be forgiven due to the sheer variety of orders that can be given. On the bright side, scrolling around the map is a breeze with either mouse or keyboard. One major omission is the ability to remap keys. This has the effect of making a clunky interface even worse.
Graphically, SFM is adequate, infantry advance at a crouch, tracers criss-cross the battlefield, artillery impacts sends debris flying in all directions and vehicles rock, roll and recoil appropriately. Overall things look good, with no show-stopping graphical analomies, but looking at closer lends a mixed bag. The units are lovingly modelled and textured, with details like modelled interiors and functioning suspension system. The downside is that at higher settings, the larger, more crowded battles can be taxing to low- to mid-level systems. Alternately, the buildings are rather drab, largely blocks without much put into their presentation, trees look wonderful up close, but then turn to a green mess farther out, and some times the impassable/semi-passable terrain can be hard to pick out from solid ground.
The sounds are fairly realistic, with the music being a low point, but hardly a distraction, considering how little it's used. Played with volume loud and bass turned up, very few things beat the sound of an A-10 tearing apart Syrian BTRs with a vicious 30mm strafing run, the roar of a 125mm gun or a fifty caliber machine gun cutting loose into a cluster of trees.
Gameplay wise, SFM brings quite a bit to the wargaming table, but ultimately is limited in it's multiplayer fun factor by one side (the Americans) haveing most of the cool toys, while the other side largely functions as a essel on which the Americans can apply their destructive art. On the plus side, Blue versus Blue scenarios can be made, generally pitting the Marines against their Army brethen in what has to be some of the most implausible fun to grace the wargaming community in a long time.
In spite of the good-looking, fast and furious gameplay, the fidelity of SFM as a simulation is unprecedented. Explosive reactive, slat armor, remote weapon stations, precision guided munitions, infrared jammers, thermal-blocking smoke, and thermobaric weapons are all present and behave in a convincing fashion. Units are organized as they are in real-life, with realistic command-and-control setups, warfighting doctrine and employment. Trying to fight the Marines the same as you would an Army formation frequently results in disaster. Attempting the same with a Syrian insurgent network virtually always does. The mandate to use different playstyles with different forces is a turnoff for some hardcore wargamers, but it can be a refreshing change of pace for others.
SFM ships with approximately 20 new standalone missions and a new campaign. The missions are in large part higher quality than in the original Shock Force, with several being made specifically to showcase new Syrian toys for a more evenhanded multiplayer experience. Playing each of the new missions once will give you at least 30 hours of gameplay, well worth the investment made. The campaign is a love it or hate it affair. While not nearly the pushover mishmash the original Shock Force campaign was, SFM's campaign goes from challenging tactical situations to puzzle games on a battlefield. Admittedly, this probably appeals to many of the wargamers who don't enjoy a scenario they can win the first time around, but it definitely is a slap to the more casual player who doesn't feel like reloading multiple times to see how he can sneak an AAV past a T90 without smoke.
In a refreshing change from the original Shock Force's initial release, SFM is extremely stable and largely bug-free. For the few remaining issues, Battlefront Software is still releasing patches regularly, with two in the five months Marines has gone gold.
Overall, SFM is an excellent wargame, a worthy addition to the original Shock Force.