Close Combat: First to Fight - Review

Added April 14th, 2005 by Kisan Parikh

Introduction:

Close Combat: First to Fight, developed under the directions of the US Marine Corps, is the latest modern-day first person shooter to be released for Xbox. Controlling a four-man squad through the streets of Beirut, Close Combat allows gamers to be a part of an aggressive assault into the heart of a city embroiled in a fictional conflict. Attempting to find the perfect balance between strategy and straight up FPS, Close Combat has its share of innovative features, but with so many great shooters on Xbox, can this game compete with the big titles?

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Close Combat revolves around controlling the leader of a four-man squad as he attempts to complete the mission while keeping his fellow soldiers alive. Unlike Full Spectrum Warrior, this game is primarily a first person shooter, and doing your own part is more vital than issuing instructions to your team. The way to play this game is to balance giving your team orders and letting them do as they were trained. This is the same way as in real life. You use real life military techniques through RTFA (Ready Team Fire Assist), which is a four-Marine fire team with each member filling one specific position: Ready is the rifleman; Team is the team leader (which is you); Fire is the Gunner; and Assist is the Assistant Gunner. Your team will move while covering all 360 degrees, and will use Marine combat tactics to progress through different areas such as stairs.

As team leader, you are able to control your team in a number of different ways. One of the simplest commands in the game is the “Go” command, which you use to send your soldiers to specific locations. They may just simply run to a location, but when an enemy is spotted, they will adjust and use bounding over-watch. This technique involves running to a location while covering the enemy’s location. Other commands include covering an area, suppressing fire, regroup, and takedown. Takedown involves quickly storming into a room, and is the safest way to enter a room. You just jump into the line and take a position, and your teammates should adjust to you.

While all of these real life orders sound great, none are implemented well because of the horrible friendly AI. Your fellow soldiers, despite the game's claims as to their intelligence, are basically morons. Teammates will face a wall to “cover your back” while you are trying to take down a hoard of enemies. Also, when ordered to execute a grenade takedown, they stand in the center of the door, take a huge windup, and then, finally, throw the grenade. Then, you would be forced to waste a first aid kit on them due to their stupidity. While the game includes discipline and morale ratings it doesn't affect your soldiers’ performance for two reasons. Primarily, your teammates aren’t smart to begin with. Secondly, the game never put me in a situation where these ratings were low enough to affect the game. While the friendly AI is terrible, it may not be the game’s worst gameplay aspect. Let’s examine the enemy AI.

Believe it or not, your enemies somehow manage to be twice as dumb as your squad mates. Any idiot can tell you that climbing down a ladder in plain sight is not smart when you just witnessed the death of three fellow soldiers. Alas, said idiots are leaps and bounds ahead of this game's AI. The enemy will sometimes go so far as to be utterly oblivious to your presence, and this greatly takes away from the gameplay.

When the enemy does, usually by chance, manage to bring down a fellow soldier you must provide first aid to that soldier. If you do not he will eventually die and you will have to start all over. For some odd reason the game sometimes starts you off from the exact moment following the death of the marine (so you play with 2 marines), and sometimes you go to a checkpoint. Other oddities in the game include your marines sprinting faster than you when you give the “go” command and your speed is drastically increasing while climbing stairs. This lack of polish in the game is something that is recurring, and I feel that this game could have been a much better game if a few more months were spent tweaking it.

Missions in this game generally revolve around taking out enemies, securing locations, and traveling to different locations. The soldier you control does not have the opportunity to use many different types of weapons. The standard M16-A4 with grenade launcher attachment is one of the few rifles you are able to make use of during the course of the game. Sure, you can pick up enemy weapons such as the AK-74, but I wish you had more US weaponry available. Although, the “deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle”, I just wish that there were a few more rifles at your Marine’s disposal.

Despite the lack of rifles, the game allows a number of other tools to be used to eradicate the enemy. You can call for different types of support such as sniper, mortar, and gunship. I liked this feature because it demonstrated the fact that the Marines are not alone in the battlefield and they do work as a team with other facets of the military. Also, mounted weapons can be used to wreck havoc on the enemy.

All in all, the gameplay of Close Combat: First to Fight was a bit weak. I would have loved to see better AI, less glitches, and more weaponry. There were a few nice features such as RTFA, takedowns, and support, but overall the game lacked polish. With a bit more time, this game could have had much better gameplay. I hope this game proves that gamers, for the most part, prefer a completely finished game after the scheduled release date over an on-time game that feels as if it should still be in beta testing.

Graphics:

The graphics in Close Combat: First to Fight are one of the game’s strong points, but that isn't saying much. For the most part, the game is pretty strong visually. The guns look realistic and the character models look decent, despite the lack of variation. Also, the streets of Beirut are depicted well, but I would have liked the textures to be less vague. The game’s visual effects fall a bit short because explosions just don’t look like explosions at all. They seem to be just small “pops” instead.

Another weak point in the graphics is the awful lighting. Shadows are present, but manage to have “special” powers. Instead of appearing on the wall, they pass through the wall and appear on the other side. This can be quite distracting, because when going into a small hallway, you mistake these shadows for enemy shadows. Visuals are yet another aspect of the game that could use a little bit more polish.

Audio:

The audio in Close Combat is pretty cut and dry. The game has all the standard noises of war-torn streets and big guns, but music is only played during planned “exciting moments”. This could be an attempt to create a more realistic sounding game or simply yet another area of Close Combat that was rushed. The one thing that bothered me most about the sound was the alarms and sirens. Making their debut in one of the very first levels, these things shocked me out of my seat when I first heard them. I assume this was put in to immerse you into the game, but instead it will definitely annoy most gamers. On the whole the sound of Close Combat just isn't up to par.

Controls:

The controls in Close Combat: First to Fight became close to natural after a short while and were generally quite well laid out. They are a bit hard to learn because the tutorials went over topics without telling you what button should be used. For instance, instead of saying use the “A” button, the tutorial says use the “Go” button. It's unfortunate that they didn't make it more obvious as to which button to use. I also wish that there were in-game tutorials instead of just video. Otherwise, the controls are easy to use and work well with the game.

Replay:

The single player campaign will last about 10-15 hours, and I really don’t see anyone visiting it again. Fortunately, the game features a solid multiplayer mode. With three modes of play (Cooperative, Modified Cooperative, and Fire Team Arena), Close Combat offers gamers a reason to buy the game. The cooperative modes can provide many hours of great fun, especially when played strategically. By playing with humans, you can avoid the terrible friendly AI, but unfortunately the enemy AI is still bad. The other mode of play, Fire Team Arena, is an up to 8 players per team deathmatch. This mode of play was the most fun, but the multiplayer experience was hurt by slow load times and sporadic periods of lag.

Overall:

This game does not meet expectations. Close Combat: First to Fight was an enormous let down in most regards. Many well done elements and innovative features are present in this title, but they just aren’t executed well. If this game had been fine tuned and further tested I think that we could have had a big hit on our hands. Unfortunately, the AI really takes a lot out of the game and the glitches ruin everything. I would have much rather waited a few more months before seeing this game on shelves and played a more polished title.