Field Ops Preview

Devastated. Distraught. Bemused. Angry. That just about sums up how I felt in the five minutes that immediately proceeded England’s inevitable exit from the World Cup on penalties. But, if you’re French, and the guys at Freeze Interactive are, jump forward three hours and the emotions are reversed.

Yes, France went through. Anyone who watched the game will have noted something quite pertinent in-between admiring Zinedine Zidane’s bewitching touch and applauding Thierry Henry’s finish. The French were ambitious. They took the game to world champions Brazil. They were not afraid of their limitations and punched above their weight. What we devastated England fans, heart broken from the drama of the searing early afternoon, saw on that pitch, I witnessed in a quiet pub in Chiswick only days before. Where this time it was Henry and Zidane on grass, then it was Field Ops on a laptop.

Field Ops is perhaps one of the most ambitious games I have played in recent memory. Although far from complete (Freeze Interactive are aiming for an early 2007 release), or bug free (moving troops whilst keeping them facing a designated area didn’t work, for example), the game confidently demonstrates why the word ‘ambitious’ is apt. It’s an FPS and an RTS – all in one.

A gimmick? Perhaps. Half an hour into the demonstration, I began wondering what I might include in this preview if Field Ops was devoid of this feature. If I’m cynical, I might say the game is unremarkable and uninteresting apart from this fact. Let’s be cynical then, for a couple of paragraphs, just to get it out of the system.

You take control of a group of US Special Forces troops and lead them on 16 anti-terrorism missions across four locations – Ukraine, New York, Afghanistan and Cuba – in a war-torn but not too distant future. There are three classes of troops – the medic, special operations and sniper – the physics engine is a joy, and your men are lovingly motion captured for added terrorist-killing realism.

On first glance the game sparks memories of Cannon Fodder, the Sensible Software RTS classic, except without the humour. You control a small number of troops in classic RTS style – click, drag, click etc. Troops in Field Ops, like Cannon Fodder, gain experience as you take them through missions, increasing their rank from private upwards. And, like in Cannon Fodder, once they die that’s it. It’s the graveyard and some solemn music for them.

But where Field Ops gets interesting is in its ability to switch seamlessly from RTS mode to FPS mode, and vice a versa. Once troops are in cover, for example, and the computer is controlling their fire, you can, with the press of one button, enter into a Battlefield 2-like FPS mode.

The point? Firing your soldier’s gun yourself is infinitely more accurate than letting the computer do it in RTS mode. You can take a troop and go solo in an attempt to complete missions Rambo style. You might even want to utilise the physics engine, which I was told had its own team of developers exclusively devoted to making it shine, and shoot up some cover, thus moving it into a position that allows your troops to safely move across a street in RTS mode.

But is it fun? It’s pretty cool for about half an hour. I’d go as far to say it’s compelling. The camera swoops down from above and into the head of the selected soldier with suitably dramatic effect. But the novelty quickly wears thin. Freeze Interactive have done a sound job on both RTS and FPS modes, without really excelling at either. Break it down, and, in single-player mode, Field Ops is part average RTS, part average FPS.

But that’s single player mode. Field Ops was always going to live or die by its online offering. This is where I start to get excited. Although the Freeze Interactive guys only had videos available to demonstrate how the multiplayer works, it was enough to suggest the game might be able to attract some curious online cats.

Online, Field Ops will support up to six players and 32 units. Each player can switch between RTS mode and FPS. The cool thing, and the feature I’m most looking forward to, is having a friend in RTS mode co-ordinate an attack from players in FPS mode. Other interesting possibilities will inevitably arise from players who favour one mode over the other. RTS vs. FPS shenanigans will perhaps settle some classic gaming arguments once and for all.

That still leaves me with the problem of settling the argument over whether we should be excited about this game. For single-player enthusiasts, I’d say no. But for online players, who are fans of either genre, I’d say yes, because Field Ops is an interesting proposition – one we haven’t seen before.

Credit where credit’s due – Freeze Interactive have done a great job on making switching between the two modes as seamless and easy as possible. It’s just that there are other games that do FPS or RTS better than this. But, when you think about it, this might not matter. The game’s success really hinges on whether or not there’s an actual fun and functional reason for being able to switch between two classic and well worn PC gaming genres within the same game.

If it turns out that it’s just a gimmick, an idea that sounded good in a brainstorming meeting but doesn’t really have a point in practice, then Field Ops will go down in history as an over ambitious title from a small-time publisher. But if Freeze Interactive pull off a victory, like their national team did against Brazil in the quarter finals of the World Cup, then we’ll all be praising them for their bravery and genius in the face of an ultra conservative gaming market. Perhaps, come Q1 2007, they’ll be lifting their very own Jules Rimet trophy.

In development at Freeze Interactive, and to be published by Digital Reality, Field Ops is due for release early in 2007. For more information check out the official Field Ops website.