Tom Clancy’s EndWar is a real-time tactics game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and PC platforms. It is set during World War III being designed by Ubisoft Shanghai. The special edition of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 included a video with the first live gameplay footage of this game.
Plot
In 2011, the United States and the European Union sign the historic SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield) Treaty, agreeing to co-develop technologies for a comprehensive, interlocking anti-ballistic missile system. Left out of the treaty, Russia accelerates development of its own system. SLAMS is activated in 2014. The US and EU launch test salvos against each other, which the SLAMS weapons completely destroy. Emboldened by the success of the tests, the US and EU pronounce “the end of strategic nuclear war,” and the world celebrates a new age of peace and security.
However, in 2015 it is found that major oil companies have overstated the amount of recoverable oil reserves. Energy security becomes the explicit priority of governments around the world. Russia, being the world’s number one supplier of natural gas and crude oil, has its economy skyrocket up with the energy crisis, spending its oil profits on modernizing its armed forces and utilizing its new-found power to influence world events. A nuclear war occurs between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2016, killing 20 million, further compounding the energy crisis and greatly destabilising the nations of Europe. With crude oil now at 800 dollars a barrel, the alliance of individual countries of theEuropean Union are forced to band together to consiolidate political, economic and military power in the face of growing global security, environmental and economic concerns. Morphing to become the new superpower of the “European Federation” (EF) in 2018, most of the wealthy Western Europe is now recognised as an independent state in its own right. Britain and Ireland decline membership while Switzerland remains neutral. Relations between the US and EF are not exactly warm- each regarding the other’s power as a threat to their own, the now fractured former allies embark on a costly space arms race with each other.
The militarisation of space reaches its peak in 2018, when the United States reveals plans to launch the “Freedom Star” space station into high orbit by 2020, in an effort to regain its position as the premier world superpower. While partly designed for civilian research purposes, the station will also house three companies of U.S. Marines, who can deploy anywhere onEarth within 90 minutes. International reaction is extremely negative, to say the least. The EF and Russia in particular despise the development, seeing it as a way the US could use to neutralise their portion of anti-ballistic defences and upset the balance of power. They withdraw from the already divided NATO in protest, after which the organisation is dissolved. In 2020, when the final module of the Freedom Star is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center amid international outcry, it comes as little surprise when a group of terrorists attack the launch site. In investigating the source of the attack, the US, the EF, and Russia find themselves at odds, rolling with unstoppable momentum toward full-scale global war.
Characters
It is highly suggested that the game will serve as a tie-in with the events occurring in Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell. The website makes references to a “Ghost Leader”, “Crosscom”, “Splinter Cell” and an audio sample of the Splinter Cell night-vision activation sound effect can be heard, all being trademarks of the Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series. A TeamXbox Article confirms that Captain Scott Mitchell of the Ghost Recon series indeed survives the events of GRAW 2 and leads the JSF. Lead designer Michael de Plater has revealed that the Ghost Recon team will be the Special Forces team for the US faction, Rainbow Six characters will be promoted as special EF commanders, and Third Echelon will provide battlefield intelligence, along with special units such as snipers . The U.S. president in the novelization of the game is David Becerra who also happens to be the first HispanicPresident. During the Ubidays 2008 conference, it was revealed that units appearing in the upcoming Tom Clancy game HAWX will also be available in EndWar. In an IGN interview De Plater said the setting of EndWar (as a possible series) is a global battle, but this installment is focused on the North Atlantic theatre of battle, Europe, Russia and North America, but players will also hear reports of events in other parts of the world.
Gameplay
Electronic Gaming Monthly issue 216 contained an interview with the game’s lead designer, Michael de Plater. He confirmed the game to be a Real Time Strategy game, but not in the traditional sense. Units will gain experience as they are used in battle. The emphasis will be more on smaller scale battles rather than the overarching campaign. Clans will also be included in the game online for coordinating battles and creating a unified strategy for attacking or defending.
Factions
There are 3 playable factions in EndWar:
- The Russian Spetsnaz Guards Brigade, which is composed of veterans of Russia’s many regional conflicts, specializing in heavy weapons and heavy armor.
- The European Federation Enforcers Corps, which is made up of veteran elite counter-terrorist and peacekeeping forces from throughout Europe, especially skilled in urban warfare. While their weaponry may not be as precise as those of the JSF and their units are slightly less armored, their strength lies in electronic warfare, as well as non-lethal weapons technology and advanced directed energy weapons. Their ranks notably contain many previous members of the elite counter-terrorist unit Rainbow.
- The United States’ Joint Strike Force, which is led by Ghost Recon main character Scott Mitchell, is modeled after today’s Marine Expeditionary Units. The JSF is built around small, fast, and light units packing a precise punch, and is made up of elite soldiers from all branches of the US military. They also specialize in access to state-of-the-art stealth technology and battlefield robotics, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Automated Sentry Drones. It has been confirmed that in the single player campaign you will play as Scott Mitchell against the Russians: “Each faction has roughly 150 upgrades and units have six levels of experience. These upgrades are where the seven unit types can gain great variety and specialization through three different ways-experience, equipment and training, all of which have different effects and abilities. This allows many of the related unit types other games consider a different class have merely to be folded into one of the seven present in EndWar. For example, a rifleman may be upgraded to a sniper unit rather than having that unit type exists by itself.” There are about 40,000 lines of dialogue, 9,000 of which are “unit chatter” that will give a battalion its own personality. Each unit will have a specific voice to help the player recognize instantly which one is in danger, and these voices show the degree of danger they are in (such as the severity of an injury or the morale the unit has).
The player will not control individual soldiers, but much larger platoons and companies. The soldiers will behave realistically, using stealth and military tactics. Veterans will act based on their experience in previous battles. Says Robert Ashley, a writer for EGM, “Squadrons of heavily armed soldiers, when ordered to a cluster of firebombed cars, will automatically take cover in different ways, periodically taking potshots at the enemy through windows and over hoods. If a soldier gets shot, one of his squadmates will drag him back to safety. When the player orders reinforcements, the additional troops deploy from helicopters, rappeling down the ropes like old pros. When ordered to take control of a building, the troops will gather around the entrance and break in Rainbow Six-style-boot through the door and guns blazing. Then they will take sniper positions in the windows.” Craters, walls, debris, and buildings can be used for cover, and units can be pinned down by heavy enemy fire.
Voice
The game will feature optional voice commands so that the player may use a headset to give orders to their troops, although the troops will only react to valid and game-related orders in certain languages, but are able to understand many accents of those languages. It has been said by officials at Ubisoft Shanghai that, “You can control the whole game using voice controls if you wanted to.” Hearing enemy soldiers communicate gives the player a strategic advantage to counter their attack with one of their own
Point of View
The view in the game is from the perspective of one of the units under the player’s command. The camera can be panned 3-dimensionally and swapped between units but is not directly under the control of the player. Enemy units will only be detected if they are visible; doing away with the fog of war common in most strategy games; however, a player with enough investment into the space program can use satellite feed to see all units on the map.
In addition to the units’ point of view, there is also a tactical map, which shows the entire map with the locations of all allied and any visible enemy units and can be used for commands such as setting waypoints.
Trailer
The first EndWar trailer shows an overhead map of Europe with only Spain and half of France under US control, while the Russians occupy the rest of the continent. The camera then zooms to an ongoing battle in Paris, where a local Joint Strike Force commander, Major General Smith, directs the action from a mobile headquarters vehicle by touching and moving a holographic map display. Outside, US soldiers armed with modified M8 assault rifles, along with advanced M2 Bradley APCs, DPV jeeps and M1 Abrams tanks, attack Russian forces holding out at the Élysée Palace. Eventually, the US troops call in air support in the form of redesigned RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters and V-22 Osprey transports, forcing the Russians to fall back. However, the assault is short-lived, as in addition to a mechanized counterattack, the Russian forces launch hundreds of UCAVs that shoot down the helicopters right on top of the soldiers. Realizing the desperate situation, General Smith issues voice attack commands to a Kinetic Strike satellite hovering over Europe. Russian soldiers surround him as he emerges from his vehicle.
Just before the Russians take him in as a prisoner of war, the general says, “Now.” The satellite fires at least three kinetic missiles down on his position, obliterating himself and the Russians, as well a large section of Paris. Smith’s death would be mentioned in passing on the EndWar novel.
The trailer depicts several major cultural icons from Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, a heavily damaged Luxor obelisk in the battlefield of the Place de la Concorde, and the Louvremuseum.
Release Date
Endwar is set to be released in the third or fourth quarter of 2008(July-December)
Endwar was published as a novel, on the February 5, 2008 in paperback form. The back cover says “Based on Ubisoft’s bestselling game, Tom Clancy’s EndWar”, despite the game not yet having been released.
Xbox 360 Beta
A private beta test version was playable among Xbox Live Gold members. It included three maps and both 1v1 and 2v2 matches. The beta test began June 16, 2008 and ended July 9,2008. Participants were placed under non-disclosure agreement until the game’s first commercial launch.
