Conflict: Desert Storm

• Developer: Pivotal Games
• Publisher: SCi
• Platform: PC
• Release Date: 2002

• Features a 15-mission campaign and training camp
• Command a four-person squad while completing multiple mission objectives
• Use a variety of weapons to take out enemy resistance
• Call in artillery or air strikes
• Heal wounded soldiers or risk permanently losing them
• Earn experience for each soldier by successfully completing missions
• Includes multiplayer support for up to eight players
• Choose from five multiplayer game types on six maps

• Managing Director: Jim Bambra
• Director of Development: Nick Cook
• Technical Director/Software Engineer: Alex McLean
• Project Coordinator: Louise Anderson
• Senior Artist: Kevin Ayre
• Senior Software Engineer: Annette Bell
• Software Engineer: Jonathan Booth
• Senior Software Engineer: Tim Cannell
• Software Engineer: Paul Carpenter
• QA/Production Assistant: Alan Clark
• Artist: Steve Crocker
• Game Designer: Marc Curtis
• Senior Software Engineer: Paul Dunning
• Game Designer: Steve Dunning

Take control of the British SAS or U.S. Delta Force squads in this tactical shooter designed by Pivotal Games. Each squad under your command is comprised of four operatives, including a team leader, sniper, heavy weapons specialist, and combat engineer. Your goal is to complete objectives across 15 missions that will take place in urban, desert, and indoor environments.

Combat Ops attempt at realism is conveyed through real-world physics and ballistics models as well as an artificial intelligence that is designed to behave using actual squad tactics. To complete your objectives, you can call in air strikes, commandeer vehicles, and sabotage enemy targets. As you progress, your squad's expertise in each field will improve over time, making them more effective in combat.

Specific orders that you can give to your squad includes ordering a specific soldier to halt or follow, hold position, fire at will, and stand down. You can also issue global commands so that all soldiers to go prone, hold their position, or follow. The game can be played from either a first- or third-person view of the battlefield.

Design

The single-player game is comprised of a training camp and campaign. The training camp is where you'll get acclimated to issuing commands, use of medical kits, moving soldiers, using weapons, calling in artillery or air strikes, and driving vehicles. The campaign offers a choice of three difficulty settings (easy, medium or hard) and a choice of uniform (Delta Force or SAS).

Each mission in the campaign begins with a briefing on your objectives displayed on a map. From this point on, you will be dropped off at a specific landing zone and must attempt to complete all mission objectives before moving to the extraction zone and advancing to the next mission in the campaign. If a character is wounded during the mission, he can be healed, but if he is killed, he is permanently removed from subsequent missions and replaced by a rookie soldier in the same role.

Successfully completing a mission will earn soldiers medals and potential promotions. Promoted soldiers will receive increased experience and weapons skills, with their overall statistics tracked throughout the campaign so you can monitor how each member of your squad is performing. Experienced soldiers will become less susceptible to wounds in combat, more accurate, and have improved reaction times.

Conflict Desert Storm also supports multiplayer action via LAN or Internet. Up to eight players can participate in one of the following game types: Recovery, Team Deathmatch, Assault/Defend, VIP Assassination, and Deathmatch. Players can set the match length (from five minutes to no time limit), the map (from a pool of six), and whether to allow friendly fire, respawns, artillery support, and various other features.

System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista
• Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
• Memory: 512MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
• Hard Drive: 2 GB free space
• Video Card: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
• DirectX Version: 7