Sooo close to being a awesome game.
Upon putting the game CD into my 360, I figured I would spend a little time with the single player campaign. Not only do I like to get the story going, I like to practice a little vs the computer, I like to be familiar with the controls before diving into the online beat downs that were sure to happen.
Without getting to much into the story, the only thing you really need to know is that it's about WW III, and it started because nations across the world were fighting for control of oil, go figure!
Right from the start you are pretty much thrown into some pretty good, intense battles. Even though you are never really fighting a large group of enemies, they do a good job with level design to make it feel tight and intense. The bad news is, your AI counter parts are about as useful as a second toe. You will find your self doing all the butt kicking.
The big part that separates this game from other FPS is the number of weapons and vehicles you get to use. From the standard issue light machine guns, to the multiple remote control drones, you always have many options on how to bring the fight to the bad guys. To me, there is nothing better then using the remote controlled heli that is loaded with air to ground missles…. Fun fun fun, is all I can say. Don't want to run into a building because you are unsure what exactly in there? Launch the drone and fly through a window to scope out the situation. Got a nasty enemy tank around the corner and no RPG to use against it? Use the remote controlled demo drone to drive underneath it, detonate, and no more tank.
The two big things that took away from the single player campaign were
1) A VERY short story, only took me about 5 1/2 – 6hrs to beat.
2) Some graphics/frame rate issues. There were times when there was a lot of pop up, and freezing that would make things a little choppy. Not a lot, but just enough to be annoying.
Now, where this game should have shined, MULTIPLAYER.
Did you notice that nasty word I just used in the sentence above? That word is "should", With everything this game had going for it, online should have been awesome, instead it is more often a wasteland of battles that already took place. The maps are so big, and there seemed to be so few players that you spent most of your time just looking for a fight. Even when in a crowded server, the intense fights were few and far between. Not to mention the lag issues that start when more then 20 people get into a server.
Don't get me wrong, online is not a complete disaster, it's just not as great as I wanted it to be. Over all this game is fun, the graphics are decent, the story is good, and all the fun weapons are a blast to use.