Conflict: Desert Storm

I owned this game in 2004 when I was 14 years old and it was one of the most memorable games on my Playstation 2. Some people give it 1 star because they stick to the mainstream classics. Most people haven't heard of this game because it wasn't so hyped in its day. I sure did enjoy the hell out of this game. It was pure simple tactical fun. Each soldier in your squad (out of 4 soldiers) has their own weapon skills. Based on the amount you "play" as each soldier in your squad and the amount of time you spend with a weapon, your skill increases based on a star rating (from 0 to 4 stars I believe). I have just downloaded this game and it is bringing back great memories. It is by no means a perfectly well rounded game. Yes there are flaws, but it is what made the game unique in my opinion. If you're looking for a 3rd person tactical squad shooter that started around the time 3rd person shooters were becoming a hit then this is a game to play.

The Conflict series is okay..not great..just okay. Some entries are alot of fun and some are disasters. Conflict Desert Storm was the first. I own or have owned this game on xbox as well as pc. The game isnt abysmal like one review has said but once you're done with it there is nothing thee to keep you playing. I doubt there will be anyone playing this online but maybe now that its on GOG there might be a couple. Mission are okay. There is a sort of 'sandbox' approach to them but really the whole game is pretty linear. You have a basic squad interface and the A.I. of your squad is pretty bad. Movement and overall control of your soldier is acceptable but not exact. The PC version feels very much like a direct port of the console versions so it lacks all those extra little touches that pc gamers have come to expect (afterall thats why people game on pcs) If you look at the GOG page and advertisement for this game it says someting like "One of the most realistic military tactical games".... etc etc. That statement is a blatant lie...shame on you square enix...its the most arcade like tactical game ive ever played. Don't even try to compare it with a game like ArmA cold war assault which actually is the most realistic military tactical game ive ever played. To sum up the series the Conflict Desert Storm games were just okay..fun in parts but linear and shallow. I enjoyed Conflict Veitnam and Global Storm more (but they were still shallow. Conflict Denied Ops goes down in my book as one of the worst current gen games ever. A franchise killer and a total 'Cluster F*ck' of a game.

Caveat Emptor: I played this on XBox, not PC. Conflict: Desert Storm is an enigma of a game. It went an entirely different direction than the now wildly successful twitch shooters like the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series. Twitch shooters can be considered "tactical" to a degree, they're still largely first person shooters that reward fast reactions more than situational approach. Whereas Conflict: Desert Storm attempts to provide a much more thorough, strategic, objective-based gameplay style. I will say that the game attempts far more than it exceeds. But as a lover of the novel, I appreciate this perhaps more than most. Where some may see flaws, I prefer to use the term potential. There is a potential for a wonderful gameplay experience here, you just have to exert a bit of effort to find it. Unfortunately the game doesn't always respond like you want it to and you have to learn its language. But when you do, it's incredibly enjoyable. Setting up ambushes, coordinating strikes. It's all wonderful fun and well worth the effort. I cannot stress this part enough: play with a friend. Multiple friends preferably. Your experience will be enhanced twenty-fold, I guarantee it. I give it 4 stars because it actually offers a more in-depth experience than you'd otherwise fine, though perhaps not overly challenging. If you're looking for just a shooter pass this up. if you're looking for a solid tactical simulator. Well, it's mostly there.

Got it on sale for less than a dollar. I'd have brought it at the normal price, just because of the fond memories. It's a solid squad tactical shooter, a little stiff but solid. Hard to recommend casually, but I had a good time on the PS2 playing with my younger brother, both of us taking control of 2 of the 4 man squad. I'd take the heavy gunner and the medic, he'd take the rifleman with the grenade launcher and the sniper. The game is a military shooter with a tactical shooter/sim glaze lopped on top. Proper planning between roles and equipment and positioning to take on a small army is the way it plays out. That said, after less than a few minutes of playtime, I refunded it before getting out of the first training area. A game I got on sale for less than a dollar. Why? Because the game wasn't at all adjusted for the PC. It was a 30 FPS game on PS2, and it was just shat out onto PC with no attempt at making it run right on modern hardware. You look vertically at a speed that is unplayable. When you go prone and try to crawl, you go nowhere. The fix is to use Nvidia Profile Inspector to set a frame cap on the game + other options, but as I started messing with this I gave up. I should not be getting into this confusing muck and potentially messing with other settings by accident, when the issue could have been fixed easily by the developer/uploader/whoever. When they fix this, I'll pay the full price for it. As is, gimmi back my less than a dollar, I don't want this thing on my hardrive in this state.

I remember when I first played MOH:AA at one of the first cyber-gaming cafe type places in my hometown. They had their own servers with the game running in multiplayer mode. I had to get it and play the campaign. I loved the historical references, and accuracy of the storyline, and I even liked the multiplayer shoot-em-up. The Conflict series was similar for historical and technical accuracies, which made the campaign that much more intriguing. The historical parody gives it a sense of realism. Of course, like MOHAA, if you run around shooting everything that moves, you're as good as dead. The difference between this game and MOHAA is that you are required to foster cooperation between squad mates, and you are required to gain proficiency with all of them in first person mode, each one taking the lead at different times to tackle different obstacles. MOHAA was more about timing and aim, rather than strategy of a team. Conflict: Desert Storm pushes you to deal with obstacles as they arise, with limited sets of gear, strategizing how to use each weapon, at the right time and in the right amount of force, in order to be capable of surpassing other obstacles later. Sometimes you have to improvise and use tools beyond their recommended purpose, which adds to the realism and the feeling of accuracy in the chaotic nature of warfare. This isn't a first person shooter, per-se. I'd add a new category called the strategic squad-based shooter. On top of the standard bells and whistles and those above, the cooperative modes on consoles allowed players to select their person, and work together to accomplish the missions, which made it easier, and often changed the "impossible" feeling about an obstacle into just "Difficult". At times you need to move one squadmate at a time into position. Be ready for long play missions.