Soldner: Secret Wars
Score: 54% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Encore Developer: Wing Simulations Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 32 Genre: First Person Shooter
Graphics & Sound: The Battlefield concept is quickly becoming the next big thing in gaming. For those unfamiliar with the idea, the basic idea takes the squad-based gameplay of Counter-Strike and expands the idea to include vehicles (in addition to the array of guns usually offered). Soldner attempts to get a piece of the action by offering the same basic concept, but falls short of the mark. Both the game's graphics and sound are uninspired and offer little to get excited about. Most structures you come across are very blocky and showcase blurry textures. Foliage also suffers from a lack of detail and comes off as blurry squiggles. Levels feature some nice draw distance and are deformable. Trees can be knocked down and structures can be leveled. Even the ground can be blown up, leaving nice holes that can offer some strategy when going up against a jeep. This is a fun addition, but it’s not quite enough to redeem other failings. It should also be pointed out that Soldner features some of the worse rain effects to ever grace any game. Picture someone throwing a handful of flour over your monitor, and you’re in the ball park as to what a rainy day looks like in Soldner. Character models are pretty good and showcase nice details. The animation can be a little "off" at times, but overall they work. Gun models, on the other hand, look very weak – especially when compared to firearms found in other games. Sound effects don't aspire to anything beyond what they have to. In fact, the only really significant sound effect in the game was the bored voice that feels the need to announce the game's title every time you start a mission, and the only reason I remember this is because it gets really annoying. I'm a fairly intelligent person and know what game I'm playing, so there's no need to constantly remind me. Also included is an annoyingly loud heartbeat that kicks in when you run fast. As for music… let's just say silence is golden.
Gameplay: Soldner: Secret Wars wastes no time on deep involving plots or story. Instead, everything you need to know is crammed into a paragraph. The year is 2010 and wars are no longer fought by big armies. Instead, everything is handled by small groups known as Soldners. At the start of the game, you are able to customize your Soldner to look however you want him to. This was one of the bright spots of the experience for me since I love when games allow me to personalize my experience. After crafting a character, you can choose from more than 60 weapons to outfit him with. Outfitting your character for combat is a bit of a chore. You’re given no indication as to the specs on each weapon, which means that most of the time you’ll end up taking the wrong equipment into battle. This lends an almost chore-like quality to missions because you always have to “make do” with what you have and hope it’s enough to get the job done. At least the opposition is a pushover, so that’s a plus. How you obtain these items depends on which game you’re playing. In the Single-player mode, items are doled out based on how well you do in a mission. In Multiplayer, both you and your team earn money which can then be spent on which weapons you want. Obtaining firearms is rather easy, but some of the high end merchandise, like tanks, requires that you tap into your team funds and have your elected commander buy them. The system is pretty similar to the one found in Counter-Strike. The single-player side of Soldner is best forgotten since the game was obviously built for multiplayer games. Those who choose to try out the single-player mode will be presented with random missions, all involving taking out a particular character or blowing up something. Buggy AI and terrible controls take away from an experience. Some Single-player missions will give you the option of AI controlled squads. Group communication is handled through an Advanced Gesture System which allows you to use more than 200 commands to order your troops around the map. While neat and somewhat innovative, the system is way too clunky to be of any use. Since Multiplayer is apparently the prime focus of the game, you’d expect it to work a little better. Eight multiplayer games are included, which include Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Bomb Run and Conquest. The latter is easily the more widely played of all the games. In this mode, teams capture areas and try to hold them for a set amount of time. One of the bigger problems with this mode is that very few people were ever playing the game, which meant that I never got a chance to experience a game with more than 16 people (if that many). Online games aren’t the most stable of games either. Connections are dropped frequently and I was also knocked out to my desktop at least once.
Difficulty: In single-player missions, the AI offers about as much resistance as a knife through butter, and spends a majority of the time running into walls and crashing vehicles. Any challenge that can be found in the game stems from the horrid interface or other assorted technical issues.
Game Mechanics: The one thing Soldner: Secret Wars has is big maps. However, with these big maps come big headaches in regards to travel. The default run speed is depressingly slow. Trying to get across even a portion of the map takes what feels like hours. The upside of the situation is that you have more than 70 vehicles to commandeer in order to get across the maps quicker. Driving is, of course, the faster travel option but it also comes with its own set of headaches. The driving mechanics are the root of Soldner’s control problems. While speedy, vehicles aren’t the most stable things on the market and will flip over after hitting the slightest of bumps and tend to spin out; flying isn’t much of a joy either since it requires a completely different set of controls, and will usually find you taking nosedives and spinning out of control. Some problems can be fixed by remapping the controls, yet they never feel comfortable, and will always present some hassle. Your best bet is to stick with the default settings and deal with it. No matter how you slice it, Soldner doesn’t live up to what it could have been. The concept is something that would have really worked, but performance issues of all kinds, even after installing the patch, and a bevy of technical issues, keep it from greatness.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/Me/XP; Pentium 4 1.4 GHz; 512 MB RAM; 1 GB HD space; 32 MB video card   Test System: Windows XP; Pentium 4 1.7 GHz; Radeon 9100 128 MB; 40 Gig HDD space; 640 MB RAM
Besieger Catwoman