Tom Clancy: Army Combat

Tom Clancy: Army Combat story is typical Tom Clancy stuff involving three campaigns in Europe, America, and Asia.

Players can choose to begin in either Europe or America, and within each crusade you have some choice in the order you tackle the dozens of missions.

This all adds up to quite a lengthy game that can be subtly customized to your taste.

Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has played a turn-based strategy game before.

There are two phases to each turn: move and action. You move, your opponent moves, then you attack, and finally your opponent attacks.

The playing field is divided into hexagons, providing more offensive and defensive opportunities than the square tile-based areas of Advance wars.

Adjacent allies will provide a support boost during skirmishes and you can block enemy units from advancing by placing your vehicles next to them with one hex in between.

A wide variety of units is available (land, sea, and air) to keep things interesting.

The requisite amount of strategy is here, it just isn't anything that hasn't already been done better.

The other area where EndWar is lackluster is the visuals.

Advance Wars: strike combat arrived early in the lifespan and it still looks a lot more impressive than this.

EndWar goes for a more realistic presentation in its battle sequences,

but the art lacks personality and what little animation is here doesn't run very smoothly.

Beyond the single-player campaigns are a head-to-head multiplayer mode for two commanders who own the game Tom Clancy: Army Combat and a map editor for creating your own skirmishes.

There are also achievements to be earned and officer ranks to progress through.

The developers really packed a lot of content onto this cartridge.