Genre: Action
Publisher: 2K Games/SCi
Developer: Pivotal Games
Release Date: Q4 2005

Whereas the previous Conflict games sought their inspiration in past theaters of war (Desert Storm and Vietnam), the new Conflict: Global Terror hits closer to home and puts the focus on current events. Even though it plays out in the near future, the theme of the game is terrorism, which we are unfortunately all too familiar with these days. The main story revolves around a Nazi group that fled to South America after World War II, and is now funding terrorism to destabilize the Western world and create a New World Order.

Unlike its two predecessors, which were always situated in one specific location, CGT will have you hop and skip all around the world. Wherever there is trouble, you and your team of elite soldier will get called upon, whether it is a rescue mission or in some distant jungle, an assignment to neutralize sarin gas in a Russian factory, or various other undertakings in snow-covered landscapes or local city streets, the least that can be said about CGT is that it has a wide variety of environments, eight to 13 in total. In CGT, you hook up with the original Conflict team: Bradley, Foley, Connors, and for the very first time, there is a female in your squad, a sniper.

The franchise is in its fourth year of existence, so Pivotal decided that the fourth title in the series would not just be another upgrade, opting instead for a complete overhaul. The graphics engine has been built from the ground-up to better compete with other titles in the same genre, and as soon as you get into the game, it clearly shows. SCi was more than eager to point out that the backpack has as many polygons as entire characters in previous Conflict titles. When using a sniper rifle to zoom in on one of them, you can see how much more detailed their faces are, down to moving eyes.

One of the big criticisms of the previous games in the series was the auto aim, which sometimes made them too easy to play, so Pivotal has replaced it with a less accurate aim assist. To compensate for the difference between the two aiming methods, the game utilizes a Resident Evil-like laser sight to help aid your aim. Should the laser sight feature make the game too simple for your fragging ways, you can turn it off. Furthermore, you will now be able to jump over obstacles and climb up or down ladders, two features that were sorely missing from any of the previous Conflict titles.

A rather useful change is the way throwing grenades has been adjusted. No longer will you have to account for gravity and guesstimate the throwing arch, as grenades actually arrive where you've aimed your rectangle. While it may be somewhat unrealistic, SCi's representative pointed out that, after all, you command an elite Delta squad, and when they throw a grenade, it will arrive where they want it to. Point taken.

Every developer always claims to have the best AI in the business, often falling quite short of initial hype and expectations. Here is where Pivotal might actually be on to something. The AI in CGT is totally unscripted; foes run away if they are hurt, outnumbered or feel threatened; or they will call for, or get, reinforcements. They will use any object in the environment as cover, from chairs to pillars to trees, and so forth. One section of the demo took us to a jungle map, where you initially faced a single enemy. When trying to take him out, he fell back, went for cover, and eventually ran away, only to come back a few moments later with reinforcements. Immediately, they also took cover behind trees, and it was nearly impossible to see them at all, unless they leaned out to take a potshot at you. When we rushed in and tried to overrun one of the enemies, he cleverly kept the tree between you and himself, whichever way we turned.

AI won't senselessly rush towards you to get mowed down, and Pivotal has also avoided the Conga of Death syndrome, in which enemies keep rushing through a door that you have clearly covered, giving them no chance of survival. The AI will adapt, notice bodies and either fall back, try to flush you out with grenades, or simply wait for your next move. When you throw grenades, they jump aside and even leap off higher ground, often falling to their death, just to avoid being blown to pieces. The game has also been made less linear, giving players more options and multiple paths of completing their objectives. You can now also peek around corners and fire at the same time, which should be a standard requirement in today's FPS titles.

Since CGT is a squad-based tactical shooter, SCi likes to think of it as a tactical Medal of Honor, and it is only normal that you can actually control the other members on your team. Apart from switching between the various members on the fly, you can also issue certain standard commands, such as "Follow Me," "Move to Position," "Fire at Will," etc. Pivotal made this extra easy by adding a menu option which can be pulled up by pressing the left trigger, and all you basically do is point and press the appropriate command. An often overlooked command is "shield," where you assign one member of your team to simply cover another's back, which is especially useful to combine with a sniper. You can also delay command, meaning you can plan ahead, tell your squad what to do, and then have them to execute your orders all at once. Health packs are a given in any shooter, but here, Pivotal added a little twist to the mix. When you, or any other team member, is critically injured, it will no longer be possible to self-administer, and you will need to call out for help, hoping somebody is nearby and will not get shot in turn, as it takes a few seconds to dispense the health pack.

CGT is played from a third-person perspective, but there is the possibility of switching to a first-person view at any given point. In addition to that, each weapon has its own degree of zoom, with the sniper rifle obviously having the best. In your arsenal of useful tools, you now also have thermal and infrared vision, its usefulness demonstrated in a scene where our character popped a smoke grenade in a hallway; turned on thermal vision to distinguish the enemies, got close, and put a few rounds into his head. What accentuated the graphics engine even more was the blood that splattered on the nearby wall actually faded out as it the blood cooled off after leaving its former, now lifeless, owner.

All platforms will have online multiplayer, including cooperative, with the PS2 having two-player split screen (where each controls two characters), and Xbox supporting up to four players. CGT will also feature a Lonewolf mode, where you select one of the four main characters and go the distance all by your "lone"-some.

While the Conflict series has been a rather successful franchise, especially in the UK, it has not been welcomed by most of the press. Past titles have received mixed reviews, but that has not deterred SCi, and although the third time's the charm, it is taking Pivotal one more to finally get it right. Being stuck in one specific location tends to limit the possibilities, so moving away from that into a global environment will surely please many gamers. With a much improved graphics engine, inclusion of ragdoll physics, and impressive AI, Global Terror looks to be the adrenaline boost the Conflict series needs.