Close Combat: First to Fight Review
The Close Combat series has been around for some time now, although it’s been a few years since we’ve seen a new Close Combat game. The series returns from its hiatus with Close Combat: First to Fight, a game that takes two major departures from the Close Combat games that preceded it. The first is that the game is not set in World War II – in fact, it’s not set in a real conflict at all. First to Fight takes place in Beirut in 2006 at a time when Lebanese rebels, Islamic extremists, and Syrian Special Forces have turned the city into a battleground. The UN decides to intervene and the US Marines are sent in as part of a peacekeeping force designed to quell the violence.
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| Urban combat, Middle Eastern style. |
This where the game takes its second departure from the Close Combat games of old. Rather than putting you in charge of several squads of soldiers from a top-down view perspective, you are in charge of a single fire team and play the game from the perspective of the team’s leader. That’s right, Close Combat has gone from RTS to FPS. Although the company has only made strategy games in the past, the result of their foray into the world of action games is not bad at all. While not a marquee shooter, First to Fight can be enjoyable in its own right.
First to Fight is a squad-based tactical shooter in which you are the leader of an RFTA (Ready Team Fire Assist) squad consisting of four Marines. The RFTA squad is in its element in urban combat and its men are trained to provide each other with 360 degree protection in this claustrophobic and very dangerous environment. Working in concert the squad is a formidable force and can eliminate opposing forces (OpFor) many times its size. In addition to your own weaponry, you also have the assets of the USMC at your disposal and will be able to call in help from mortar batteries, snipers, and helicopter gunships when things get a little too hot.
By selecting the appropriate difficulty level you can play First to Fight as more of an arcade shooter or as more of a sim. In the former case you’ll be able to take a fair amount of damage before dying and you’ll be able to patch yourself up as good as new with the first aid kits you’ll find around the map. Crank up the difficulty setting and you’ll be in “one-shot kill” territory, making the game very difficult and forcing you to take a very slow and methodical approach to each mission.
The other three men in your squad act autonomously, but you’ll have access to a small command set with which to issue orders such as “hold” and “form up” to your squad. There will also be context sensitive commands available in certain situations indicated by a change in color in your targeting reticule. For example, as you approach a door your reticule will change to blue as it moves over the door. A right-click of the mouse will then bring up an order list that allows you to issue a breach command with or without tossing a frag grenade in first. Your squad will carry out your orders competently and are an asset in most situations. However, there aim is not that good and you’ll find that you’ll score the majority of kills for your squad.
The context sensitive order system is also used to call in support assets. Hold your reticule over a target such as an APC or machine gun nest and you’ll have the option of calling in an air strike or mortar barrage. This is an effective way to take out an enemy asset that is giving you some trouble, but the number of times in a mission that you’ll be able to call in help will be limited. Also, the game takes the decision away from you as the best asset to request in each situation. The context sensitive menu will automatically display the appropriate asset so there’s no challenge in determining the type of help that you should request.
