Categories: Top ::

Day by Day: A Quick Review of Field Commander for Sony PSP
Wed, 31 May 2006 Field Commander

May 22nd

Few things are better then the smell of freshly cut grass or the spring breeze in your hair; the tree and bushes have been neatly trimmed, the grass edged, the railing brushed, sanded and rust-painted. Last and most importantly, the barbecue - like the Death Star - is fully operational so I sit here smugly before you after the first burger-and-dog weekend of the season.

A week passes; no time to finish that blog post but no way I'll let a Deathstar reference slide into bit-bucket-oblivion.

May 31st

The tired mind wanders, but it is thankful that life has more or less gotten itself under control again.

As Popeye might say (were he not up on steroid charges), I yam what I yam. And whats I yam [sic] is someone who once played far too many tabletop wargames as a kid and as such must pay taxes to Sid Meiers for Civilation at every opprtunity; life being what it is, those opportunities are months or years apart so I'm always hoping something will come around and let me scratch the old itch - but sadly without the need to get together a crowd of people over a table in a dank basement, or consume 12 hours of time per game. I'll buy every new version of Civilization that shows up (and yay for Galactic Civilization II my friends) and dream about finding a group of people for Axis and Allies, but we all must settle for the table scraps we can get. So a moment of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri here, or Thief III there.

Field Commander for Sony PSP

As all know, mobile gadgets will always have a special place in my heart (I blame Batman.) and the Sony PSP is no exception; sure, while I wish my Treo 650 could simply do everything, no PDA or smartphone to date can really pull off mobile-gaming so we must always fall to carrying a Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS or PSP around should we wish to indulge on the go. (I do enjoy sticking it to the man once in awhile by cracking out Sega Genesis emulation on a Zodiac during a meeting.)

Field Commander, the latest rock-paper-scissors game, scratches the itch.

The game is apparently similar to a Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS series of games known as 'Advance Wars', though I've not played them. (GBA emulation even on the speedy Axim X50 is too slow to be useful.) To me, this is a new experience in handhelds, one I've been awaiting for some time.

Gameplay

A simple turn based wargame here -- as the player you go through a single 'turn' wherein each unit you control may do or or two things in order - i) move, and ii) a special (fire, drop off units being transported, capture a facility, etc.) Some units are buildings with special functions such as producing units of varying types (land, air, sea) or act as gates to missions (capture to win, as with the Enemy Headquarters.) Once you've moved or passed on each unit, your opponent gets his opportunity; rinse and repeat until someone wins. All of this takes place on small square grid-based maps like a chessboard featuring terrain (grass, trees, mountains of various densities) where each square provides more or less cover, impedes movement, and such. All in all the environment certainly feals like a classic wargame distilled to its core, with a distinct edge towards keeping things shorter and sweeter - perfect for the mobile experience. While I must pass on a 12 hour Civilization III or IV game, a quick game of Field Commander against provided AI will take you only half an hour or so. Units are placed just-so in handily crafted maps to force you into quick confrontations. Perfect.

I suppose its important to note the unit designs are modelled after relatively believable technologies -- grunts and missile launching special operatives, battleships and troop transports, jeeps and anti-aircraft guns. No elves or lasers here as far as I can tell. Sony wants it all in shiny 3D and to maximize the difference in appearance to Advance Wars (which is more manga-cuteness), to hide the fact they likely copied the design. Naturally, they're all just boiled down essence of Squad Leader.

Play modes and multiplayer

All of this tactical gameplay (this is low level strategy, not provincial or economic or the like) would be nothing if there weren't AIs to play against. So here we've got a few single player modes of operation - a campaign series of 30 or so battles; a quick-battle mode where you can pick 'ready to go' missions, and they've gone so far as to include a mission editor so you can prepare new battles and post them (straight from your PSP!) to a Sony server where other Field Commander players can suck them down. Way groovy. The game's been out for a week or two and already a small pile of ready to go missions have been prepared by armchair gamers.

Multiplayer is supported in ad-hoc (sitting nearby), infrastructure (playing across the net), and what really hit a home run for me -- 'play by email' transmission mode. Theres no email involved (!), but the spirit is right -- a player can start up a game to his chosen map and specs and push it up to the Sony server whereby another play can subscribe to it. From that point on, players can swap turns at their desired speed -- do your turn a few times a day, or a day or week later.. whenever you've got time. Even after you've beaten the single player campaign and other missions, you will always be able to download or create new missions, play in real time (in turns still) with others, or play in non-real time turns with others. Thats about as close as you can get to tabletop wargaming without buying the potato chips and Coke.

Presentation

The graphics are good but not great, featuring animated battles as one unit attacks another, presented in flat-3D; you can rotate the image around as if looking from a satellite to the ground and flip to an abstract tactical display for quickly zooming around. Good enough for a wargame, but its not going to assault your eyes. Audio is decent, with good voice acting and varied tank-tread noises. All in all a good presentation but nothing to take screenshots home about. Mind you, this is a tactical wargame .. its not supposed to survive purely on looks, and the looks it does have are pretty good.

Overall -- if you like turn based wargames boiled to essence, then this is a 9 out of 10. Fantastic replay and multiplayer options, a good single player campaign, and decent presentation. If you want 3D racing sims, this isn't likely for you :) Me, I picked it up the day it came on sale (a week or two back), and am pleased as punch.

Theres a ratings board; I'm way at the bottom since all the 12 year olds have more free time. Look for Beowolf if you've got Field Commander .. I'll explode all over you!

[ Category: / entertainment / gaming / psp ] [link] [Comments]