Korea: Forgotten Conflict

Platform(s): PC
Genre: Strategy
Publisher: Cenega
Developer: Plastic Reality Technologies

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PC Review - 'Korea: Forgotten Conflict'

by Jordan Van Nest on March 7, 2004 @ 1:20 a.m. PST

t's raining. You're hungry, you're tired, you're wet and you're scared! Not only are you suffering physically, you also have the burden of being the Commander of a group of five military specialists (a medic, a demolition expert, a sniper, a scout, and you) during the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. Comprising 15 missions spread over five campaigns, each with its own unique setting, this group of soldiers is there to undertake those missions which prove too dangerous for most. Korea: Forgotten Conflict provides both real and original locations using approved military tactics, facilities and equipment. The environments are played through an original, scalable 'glass eye' view, which is easy to manipulate, as you decide your strategy and tactics whilst on the move.

Genre: Strategy
Publisher: Tri Synergy
Developer: Plastic Reality Technology
Release Date: November 19, 2003

Somewhere over the desolate war zone lies a land free for the taking. A land shrouded in silence and covered in chaos. A land where there are no rules, and no turning back. It is this land which ticks like a virtual time bomb, waiting to explode. A bomb that, unless diffused, will rip apart an entire country. The time is now. And even though the rest of the world may never remember, you must answer your call to duty. This is Korea: forgotten conflict.

Like many war games of it's time, Korea: Forgotten conflict attempts to add excitement and variety to the genre by setting the game in a never before seen location: Korea. But is a whole new idea and storyline enough to create interest in yet another war game? Maybe so...only time will tell.

The basic layout of the game will seem very similar to fans of the Commando's games. As a matter of fact, at many times in this game I felt myself wondering if this really was another game in the commando's series. However, any time I had this thought for a moment, it quickly disappeared as I realized the many differences between the two games. In this case, the differences weren't good. Comparing Korea to Commandos is unfair. I don't think these two games are anywhere close to each other in terms of quality. Being a big fan of the series, I was looking to see if Forgotten conflict would be able to meet and maybe even surpass expectations set by Commandos. Little did I know that Forgotten conflict wouldn't even come close.

This game consists of mission-style gameplay, much like Commandos, in where you are given control of a small unit of solders, and you must guide them through their objectives. The storyline is of course centered around the events of the Korean War, which in this case, adds to the style of the game. But an interesting storyline alone can't save a game with bad gameplay-such is the story of Forgotten Conflict. As stated before, this game looks a lot like Commandos. Actually, it REALLY looks a lot like Commandos. And if imitation is what you're going for, your game better outdo the original in ever sense. However, no such luck here. Forgotten Conflict is so full of bugs and frustrating mistakes that I guarantee you'll have pulled out most of your hair when you're done with this one. Just trying to get this thing to work is a task in of itself.

It all starts with a video showing the situation that the South Koreans and the Americans have found themselves in at the start of the war. Then, with no further instruction, you're tossed into a training mission, to teach you the basics. The tutorial is straight-forward enough, but will make many people quit playing the game right then and there. The tutorial basically introduces the player to all of the problems that they will continue to see throughout the entire game. For some people, this may already be too much. Right from the very beginning, you begin to realize that this is nothing more than a bad Commando clone. What's worse is that everything in Forgotten Conflict seems to be a few grades lower than in Commando's. Everything. This includes graphics, gameplay, sound, and the amount of fun you'll have. Which in the case of Forgotten Conflict, is little if any. With all of that said, I'll talk a little about the different options and the structure of the game.

Hey look at that, this game decides to go with a familiar top down view. Wait a second, have we seen that somewhere before? Hmm…interesting. As a matter of fact, playing through this game is like one big flash of déjà vu. There are a few options which add a little bit of variety to this game however. For one, you can pause the game to assign orders to your troops. While this sounds like it would be a pretty good idea, somehow Forgotten Conflict manages to kill it. Because of this option, the whole game just doesn't feel right. Pausing the game to give orders really screws up the flow of the game, and in the end this just turns out feeling like a turn-based game. It just feels very weird.

Another problem I had with this game was the scrolling feature. While many many games now utilize this great feature, some of them just don't get the speed right. And Forgotten Conflict is one of those games. At many times I found myself very frusterated by the extremely fast motion of the scrolling feature. Sometimes it seems as if it's impossible to find your men. In addition, there's a nice array of weapons at your disposal, which you'll most definitely need. Why? Well, the enemies in this game are literally insane. For one, they are unbelievable marksmen who will be able to usually hit you at insanely long ranges. While you may think there's no way that guard can even see you, he might fire off a quick shot directly into your heart. There will be many times where you will be extremely confused, disappointed, and angry, as you will have to start the whole level over again. In addition to being unbelievable marksmen, the enemies in this game are just generally crazy. Once you're in their sight, it's anyone's guess as to what they'll do. Some enemies upon seeing you, will quickly take care of you, while others won't even seem to care. They'll just ignore you and go about their business. You may even start to wonder if the mission you're playing is actually based in a mental institute or something. These problems suck, but wait, there's more! The inventory system is full of bugs, and grabbing and moving things can be very frustrating.

This game's strong point is definitely not its graphics. There's really not too much you will want to look at in this game, as most of the buildings and terrain are not very polished at all. You'd think that with gameplay as bad as this, the development team would have at least had some time to work on the graphics. Sadly, this isn't the case.

The sound in this game is average. The soundtrack to this game really doesn't add anything- it seems to actually take away. The pace of the music is very random as well, and doesn't seem to correspond with the actual events which are occurring on screen.

Final word? Leave this one alone. Even if you were a big fan of the Commando's series, you'll most definitely be disappointed with Forgotten Conflict. If you're looking for a game exactly like Forgotten Conflict that's actually fun to play, then check out Commando's. Then you'll actually have some fun, and hey, you'll end up keeping the hair on your head.

Score : 5.0/10


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