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27,000 NUCLEAR WEAPONS. ONE is missing. Such is the opening gambit to the game of the film of the book, The Sum of all Fears. Another winner from spy master Tom Clancy, SOAF is all about that very worst of our modern day nightmares - someone has nuked a major city, the deathtoll is in the millions and the Americans think the Russians did it. The world is on the brink of a major Nuclear hissy fit and life itself could very well be an endangered species.
That's where you come in. You are part of an elite counter-terrorist team, about to embark on a series of missions that mirror several of the events of the film/book as the good old US of A sets about righting the wrongs that lead up to this catastrophy. In reality, a last minute change was made to the original script (which was based on the book) to change the terrorists from Turban-wearing middle eastern types to a safer evil (considering the tragic events that conspired on September 11), that of the neo-nazi. This doesn't make too much difference to the game, especially if you weren't aware of it to start with, but it does seem a little odd - the concept that some band of modern, rich, hitler fanatics want to throw the world into anarchistic chaos doesn't quite wash. That said, what a plot for a game!
The gameplay style is classic Rainbow 6 style, based on the Ghost Recon engine. If you have played any of the previous games in the series, you can skip this paragraph. For the rest of you, here is how it pans out. The basic premise is quite straight forward - you are one of a team of specialist covert operatives, where stealth is one of your key assets.
The game is played out in first person perspective, where you take direct control of one of the operatives and indirect control of the others on your squad (only 3 people per squad). You can tell them to "breach" that door, "frag" that room, "clear" that hallway etc. You can also instruct them as to their attitude and position - i.e. "follow me close, recon" or "fan out, assualt!" - all via a simple interface which is brought up with by the ctrl key (default). It's a lot simpler to use than it sounds - seasoned FPS players should be able to waltz through the training to get to grips with the commands very easily, and FPS newbies wont find much harder here than just getting used to an FPS full stop.
Unlike any previous games, SOAF includes a little map at the bottom of the screen which pinpoints enemy locations. Not just when you spot them either, but when they are still unaware of you, in a different room which you have yet to breach. This takes away any and all surprise in the game, save the few exceptions when a sniper is far enough away from you to not yet appear on the map (as the map is too small). This makes the game a heck of a lot easier than any that have come before it and makes the inclusion of the ingame heartbeat sensor a total waste of time. This map also gives you a path from where you are to your next objective - there is no discovery here, it's all mapped out. The combined effect of these two features of the map mean that sometimes you find yourself running through an all new area with no fear gripping your heart, because you can see on the map that there is no one around to threaten you. |
