Recently the sequel to the squad based action strategy game Full Spectrum Warrior hit store shelves. Based on the demo, I had high hopes for the actual game. I had pointed out a few control issues from the demo that had existed in previous console versions and had small hopes that they'd be improved for the release. I would have never guessed that it would be the retarded save game system that would eventually do it in. The lack of control and visibility, the lack of responsiveness of player controlled characters and silly artificial intelligence made it impossible to even stomach the game long enough to get past the same level that was included in the demo.

The game starts out with a pretty decent storyline of a reporter that's following a fresh unit that hasn't seen combat action yet. There are a few interviews of soldiers that add character to the game, then they throw you right into the action. There's a tutorial period where they introduce you to the movement mechanics and commands. But the first time you actually have to fight anyone it all breaks down.

The first thing you'll notice is that you can't see where you're going because they don't let you raise the camera above eye level and pick your next movement location at the same time. Without a bird's eye view, you really can't effectively maneuver your teams around. It may be realistic, but it's also quite unplayable.

The second thing you'll notice is a lack of responsiveness. When you use the team leader's Precise Shot for example, there's a horrible lag between when you pull the trigger and when the shot's fired. When moving, the response time to cancel a move order or change directions is unbearable. They bumble around and bump into each other, get reorganized and then finally comply with the new commands. In a pinch, this is useless and you just end up with casualties.

The next thing you'll notice is the silly AI. It's not an issue of tactics because the game actually tells you what you're supposed to do: Keep one team in position and use the other to flank some enemies that are dug in behind cover. You peek at the map and see a path to right where you could get around them. So you leave one group behind cover and start to work the other around to the right. At this point it's obvious that the AI is broken. While waiting for a break in the firefight to bound to the next spot of cover, a single enemy insurgent leaves his cover, runs straight at the fire team, runs past them and takes up cover some distance behind me. This happened without my fireteam ever firing a shot. After I got wiped out, I loaded the save game and the AI did the same thing. Finally, I tried a different tactic. Since I knew where the guy would most likely run to, I took up a position there and waited for him. It's stupid, but once I killed a few retarded kamikaze enemies, I'd thinned them out enough to make a decent advance.

After figuring out how to survive the first part of the flank, I had to fight my way through some other guys (these ones couldn't be flanked given the terrain) and finally got around the first guys we encountered. Once we had them flanked, we made short work of them and I got a chance to medevac my wounded. The only problem is that at the same time, the game decided it was time to save and transition to the next set of triggered events in the level.

This is where everything really went south. I died, which is no freak occurrence in this game, and was infuriated to find that when I loaded the game I was in an impossible situation. Immediately after loading the game a fireteam that I wasn't using at the moment gets completely gunned down by enemies I can't even see yet. It's mission failure in less than ten seconds. The only way to survive the saved game was to immediately switch to that unit, send them running and accept the fact that two out of the four team members would get shot in the back.

After that you get to drive a Bradley Fighting Vehicle around and blow some shit up. The idea of a Bradley is that you can blow up buildings and knock down walls. While I can't fault them for not implementing destructible buildings, I certainly can take issue with the fact that firing the main gun into the room where the enemies are spawning from doesn't eliminate the spawn point. I learned this the hard way when I went to try to rescue the poor victims of the messed up game save. I ran out thinking the Bradley had them wiped out and got gunned down like it was nothing.

I finally just gave up on trying to rescue them and focused on completing the mission. After several attempts to take out a prick with a rocket-propelled grenade, I finally achieved success and cleared everyone out. The only thing left to do was to gather everyone up at the checkpoint and get the next mission objective.

The second I got everyone together though, a random explosion (I think it was from a rocket launcher?) killed everyone that had gathered at the checkpoint and sent me back to the original broken save point. That was it for me. I took the disc out of the tray put it back in the case and dropped it in the nearest hole I could find.