Fourth Game in the Series; better at some things, but still very frustrating to play

User Rating: 8.3 | Conflict: Global Storm XBOX
I just finally finished this 4th game in the series. Not an easy thing to do judging by the XBox Live Scoreboard feature that shows something like 6,600 people completed the first level, but only 330 people completed the total game 14 levels later. They probably gave up during some of the bland middle levels, which is too bad because some of the last levels were the most fun.

This series of games is definitly a love/hate relationship with me. I just love certain aspects about these games and get somewhat addicted to playing them, but I just hate how frustrating the game can be. I've bought and played all 4 of the games in the series, so I've seen the developers try and fail at different changes. I just loved the 1st game for it's wide open spaces and slow tactical gameplay, it's probably my most favorite in the series for gameplay. The second game was ok, the 3rd game sucked, and this fourth game is back to being ok again.

At least this fourth game is a step back in the right direction after the mess the 3rd game was. I couldn't even bring myself to waste the time to finish that 3rd Vietnam based game.

In this 4th game, they finally got the graphics, sound and most importantly controls down pretty good. Gone are those frustrating moments where you hunt in the inventory for a medicine pack and get killed trying. But they have been replaced by others like reloading your gun when you meant to jump over a wall because they are the same button. Also the fun of your stupid AI teamates killing you all by throwing a grenade that bounces back is still here.

I also hate that they kept in this 4th game the respawning enemys that they added to the 3rd game that made me hate that so much. It's just so obvious that you have to move forward past an invisible line to get the respawning to stop. It really cheapens the gameplay to realize that room that 40 soldiers just piled out from was just a closet! Ugh I HATE THAT!

But in summary, I liked the game enough to finish it and enjoyed the time I had. It took a long time for me to finish too, I'd say 30+ hours. I had to restart on EASY after 5 missions because the game was just too frustrating on NORMAL setting, not too hard, just too frustratiing.

They left the story open for a 5th game, so I'll be looking forward to that.