I did my adventuring mostly in the snowy mountains of Korea with a rifleman and a Grenadier, dropped in to take out an enemy communications center. Its a rough game, with somewhere around fifteen soldiers to take out, and a satellite dish to destroy and a bridge to blow. The setting itself is quite dramatic; here is a screen shot from the opening scene just before we head up the snowy mountain road to the gate.

The first obstacle is a guard at the gate. He's standing but he's a rather good shot, so we approach at an ambling crouch and then hit the dirt when in range. I use my 2x scope to dispatch the guard. I yell "Move up!" to my partner and we make our way toward the gate.

Guards usually come in pairs, so as we get near the gate we hit the ground again and then crawl. Sure enough, someone is taking pot shots at us from behind a concrete structure. He's also yelling in a language I don't understand, but it sounds Chinese. My partner takes him out with a round from his machine gun.

Background When I first learned of this project some months back I didn't take much interest. Frankly, it sounded like another DOOM or DUKE NUKEM, a first person shooter with a military theme. However, while researching the Spearhead title I began to take more interest. First, the originator of the game and co-founder of Zombie Interactive is Mark Long, who is an ex-Army officer and is Ranger and Airborne qualified. Second, Marks approach is unique. He intentionally took a risk in initiating a simulation of this type that is less arcade than realistic. Third, the graphics, animation techniques, and AI are unique to Spec Ops. Using a proprietary engine and inventing some new techniques, Zombie has aimed at unprecedented realism in a massive environment. What do I mean by unprecedented realism? It sounds like nice journalistic jingoism... How about crickets and birds chirping, crunching leaves as you step forward, birdcalls from teammates. How about 500 distinct sounds including 100 exclusive sound fiiles from a special multi million dollar simulation system? But thats not all. Research included attending "live fire" drills at nearby Fort Lewis. A former special forces instructor was consulted on the project and has been the subject of several motion capture sessions. And thats another topic in itself. Every character in the game is made up of polygons which are textured using photographic data. Actually, everything in the WORLD is photo-textured for realism, even enemy faces. Motion capture for the game was done using two real soldiers, a US Army Ranger and a member of the US Army Special Forces. More than 250 movements were captured at BioVision Studios, inlcuding military type actions such as low crawling, kneeing and firing a weapon, throwing a grenade etc. More than 100 moves will be available at each level of the game. What about AI? Both Mark Long and his partner Joanne Alexander have extensive AI backgrounds. "Potential fields" and "strange attractor" AI is at the base of Spec Ops. Alexander breaks down the AI in a comparison to two big magnets, which either repel or attract objects to each other. "Strange attractor" as Alexander calls it, implements chaos algorithms that underlie on-screen character motions. This will increase replay value, not to mention adding incredible and almost human variety to the reactions and interactions of characters. In Spec Ops a mission starts off with you flying in by helicopter and you have four sub-missions. Mark Long: " In the Aurora mission, you have to find a biplane, try to rescue the two pilots that are in there, remove the data module, release it via an air balloon and then an AC-130 comes in and picks it up. Then you move on to two other sub-missions, and the guys that are on the Aurora are Russian special forces guys. You have to fight them off, get into the Aurora, then fight your way back out and make your extraction point later on."

Crawling and all other movements look very convincing. Use up a clip and try to shoot and you will see yourself mount another clip. This is a bad idea when someone is running toward you...!

On one run through of this scenario I called "Move up!" when I was too near to the edge of the road that cuts along the cliff face. My buddy ambled up alongside me and then tumbled over the edge! I decided to see how close I could get and crawled toward the edge. Eventually I spilled over also, and I watched myself ball up and roll! Wow.... Took me a bit but I found the road and headed up with my partner again. However, you can get killed doing this so I don't recommend it!

So far I haven't discovered any unfriendly animals in this snowy wonderland, but I have to say it is QUITE beautiful! I live in southern British Columbia in between two mountain ranges, the Rockies and the Purcells, and I know rock and snow. This is as good as it gets.

Using a 2x or 4x scope is fairly simple. Initially I thought it would drive me nuts until I discovered that holding down the SHF key while using arrow keys makes the movement finer. Shooting in general is also quite simple: just point your Ranger in the approximate direction and pull the trigger (CTL key). Depending on the distance you may have to do this a few times. And even when you hit your target you won't always take them down the first time.

In the sniper shot at middle left you see what sometimes happens when you call "Move up!" Your eager partner sometimes gets in a bit too close, and sometimes will cross your line of fire. Its not that hard to put a few rounds in his back. He'll complain, of course, which is only fair....On higher difficulty levels doing this means you get to finish the mission on your own.

Speaking of difficulty, EASY is a good learning mode. You will be able to hold enough lead in your body to poison a small city. But take about ten rounds and its all over anyway.

The missions are played on a timer, so you can't crawl all the way to the target area. You have to crawl when necessary, crouch for a good shot and to make yourself a smaller target, and run the rest of the way. Sound in general is very good. A rifle sounds like a rifle, an explosion like an explosion. Frag grenades are fairly powerful but they won't necessarily stop a truck. But then thats why they give you the Claymore!

No, Princess Di wouldn't like it. It takes a bit of getting used to for the average flight sim fan as well. But quake heads looking for greater realism may be pretty turned on to this one, and with the diverity of missions and geographies, it will make for an engrossing experience.

As you can see from the screens the polys that make up the rangers don't compare to Tomb Raider II. But they do the job and the attention to detail in the environment is impressive. I haven't had snow dump on me when crawling under a fir tree yet, but look at these tracks leading toward my next victim.

By the way, don't assume that all the enemy soldiers will pleasantly stand up and take pot shots at you. These guys will crouch, crawl, roll, throw and hide behind and under large objects. They behave much the same as your buddy, and his behavior is quite sophisticated. In general they are also darn good shots!

I've barely scratched the surface with this beta. Settings include Russia, Korea, Columbia, Honduras and Afghanistan. The Korea mission is in four phases: disable the KPA Comm Center, raid the KPA air base, destroy all Scud C Tels, and sabotage the chemical plant. There are also nicely done briefings prior to each mission, including still shots and/or AVIs.