GAME REVIEW WI
’ll never forget the screaming. We’d
just locked down checkpoint C, a
three-storey townhouse in a war-torn
village, and the six of us had taken
up positions guarding all windows
and entry points, waiting for the
counterattack. First a silence, then
a racket of assault rifle bullets and
panicked shouts. We were repelling
them. The timer had almost expired.
Then a squadmate threw a speculative
incendiary grenade at a doorway, and
the screaming started. The area was
being contested, and the insurgent
contesting it had just been set alight.
The round ended with six of us
watching in mute horror as he crawled,
wailing, through the fire, into the
hallway where he eventually expired.
This unscripted moment from one
of Insurgency: Sandstorm’s eight-
player co-op matches against waves
of AI forces really does speak to its
qualities. Not just the eerily convincing
soundscapes it conjures, full of dialogue
and terrifying reverberations, and
not just the inherent tension of its
control point-based modes. It also
demonstrates an ability to convey
the ugliness and horror of modern
military combat, without the need for
overwrought scripted sequences as
with Battlefield and Call Of Duty. Not
bad for a franchise that started life as a
Half-Life 2 mod.
Sandstorm is equally brilliant as
a co-op or competitive multiplayer
game, offering competent large-scale
16v16 fights featuring vehicles, but
really excelling at tighter encounters
on maps with fewer combatants. The
exact nature of the conflict you’re
fighting and dying for is nonspecific but
the reference points span Black Hawk
Down to Zero Dark Thirty via The Hurt
Locker. In among the men in bomb
vests sprinting at you and the RPG fire,
what stands out in particular is that
no one’s playing the hero. Instead,
every player-controlled and AI soldier
sounds terrified. They shout out when
they spot an enemy, when they need
to reload, or when an objective state
has changed, but they never sound
like they’re relishing the fight like Call
Of Duty’s psychopathic operatives do.
They’re bricking it, like any sane person
would be.The game’s soldiers have plenty of
reason to sound terrified in a given
match, treated to very few lulls in the
action and bombarded by surprise
attacks. Co-op consists of a series of
checkpoint captures, in sequence, while
AI combatants attack each one in waves.
Weapon behavior takes a bit of
getting used to, mind you. There’s no
extra layer of visual or sonic feedback
for successfully shooting an opponent,
so you’re sometimes at a loss as
to whether your long-range shots
connected or not. It’s a concession to
realism that Insurgency: Sandstorm
absolutely convinces you is worth
making. Eventually the absence of hit
confirmations becomes somethingYou can take pride in playing like a
professional soldier.
WHY
SHOULD
I CARE?+ You’re always
Oscar Mike
+ You actually
love sand
+ Tactical shooters
are your THANGInsurgency: Sandstorm
Eclipses blockbuster military shooters on a fraction of the budget.
DEVELOPERNEW WORLD INTERACTIVE • PUBLISHERFOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE
http://www.insurgency-sandstorm.comRight in the upper
thighs, just like
they teach you
at boot camp.VERDICT:
In this most well-
travelled of multiplayer
FPS paths, Insurgency:
Sandstorm feels fresh
and exciting at
every turn.^8you actively enjoy. The active reload
system is another thing you can take
satisfaction in mastering. Here, more
than anywhere except arguably Arma,
you can take tremendous pride in
playing like a professional soldier and
forgetting about your kill-death ratio.
If nits must be picked, it’s the vehicles
that stick out for their rough and ready
implementation. Even with those
creases, I haven’t played a multiplayer
shooter as exciting as this for ages, and
I’ll be coaxing friends into its co-op mode
for months to come. I’ll also try—and
fail—to describe just how good it sounds
from moment to moment to anyone
who’ll listen. See you at checkpoint C.
PHIL IWANIUKINTEL ON SANDSTORM’S COMBAT ROLES
COMMANDER
Stick close by to an observer
andyoucancallinartillery
strikes on the enemy.OBSERVER
TheLaureltothe
Commander’s Hardy. Gets
to radio in the big guns.BREACHER
Close-quarters specialists
who live and breathe
shotguns. Scary folk.