Throw a first-person-shooter and a real-time-strategy in a blender, mix ‘em up and put them through a strainer to get out some of the tasty chunks and you come up with a game like Raven Squad.
At the onset of the single-player game, you take control of a trio of mercenaries dropped into the Brazilian jungle to clear up some warlord problems. As the game progresses, you eventually take control of another squad of 3 infiltrator mercenaries. The story twists and curves like the Amazon basin that the game is set in and does get a little strange and more far-fetched later on, but I don’t want to ruin it for those who want to be surprised.
Overall, the single-player-story mode is a little short. Don’t be surprised if you finish it in under a day. I think it took me around 8-10 hours. You may get stuck in some areas, because the game has a habit of wanting you to do things, but not telling you what they are. It may also seem longer because of the slow-pacing.
The controls of the game are pretty standard for a PC, with the normal keyboard configuration. Switching between first-person mode and RTS mode is a little strange at first, but you’ll become used to it as you play the game a little more. I really did like having the option of playing it either way, although the single-player campaign does force you to take first-person control a few times. After playing through the game, I did notice that playing the game in RTS mode makes the battles easier. Almost all of my troops would make it through most scenarios in RTS mode without much damage. Playing in FPS mode would expose them to much more damage and did make the game a little more challenging. That could just be due to my skill-level in FPSs, however.
There is one thing that bothered me about the game in general, the inability to jump. These are supposed to be hardened mercenaries, but it wouldn’t be too un-manly of them to jump over an obstacle once in a while. I suppose that is just one of the tasty bits that got filtered out during development. Another thing that bothered me was, you don’t run out of ammo. Each character in the game has a primary weapon that has unlimited ammo and a secondary weapon that is ammo-limited and much more powerful. During the game you’ll find skill-ammo crates that will replenish their supply in missions. I found this a little odd because there weren’t that many times in which I HAD to rely upon the secondary weapons. If you are good enough in FPS mode you should be able to finish most missions with the primary weapons alone.
Graphics-wise the game is pretty good, although a bit cartoony. No matter what rig you have however, prepare your eyes for a drab color-scheme. There are a lot of greens and browns which is to be expected in a game set in the rainforest. Some color would have been nice, however. The character models are pretty nice, but become a bit static during cut-scenes and just stand around in the same stance that they would be in-game only their mouths are moving. Speaking of which, sometimes the mouth movements didn’t sync-up with the voice over work.
The voice over work is pretty average and so is the dialog they were given. If I hear “let’s move” one more time, I think I might shoot myself. The music in the game is also pretty average. In fact, I don’t remember it much at all.
In summary, I think the average gamer might like this due to the crossover value. The ability to switch between FPS and RTS comes at a premium with this game however as neither is stellar on its own. After the novelty of having a RTS/FPS wears off, most gamers are going to go back to basics and look for story, controls and content. This game really doesn’t deliver on those a great deal and thus the replay value is next to nil. Multiplayer mode is also pretty much the same thing. You can pick up a few other FPSs or RTSs that are much more fun to play than Raven Squad.
