War is something that most of us should never have to experience, nor is it something that many of us ever wish to experience. It’s not glamorous, it’s not pleasant, and it certainly is not fun. So, naturally, hundreds of games developers insist on creating interactive wartime experience with the purpose of giving the player a supposed taste of real life combat. The more realistic said combat is, the more verbal ammo developers lend our friends at the Daily Mail – so is it really worth the effort?

With Close Combat: First to Fight, we have yet another first person military shooter based on – wait for it – ‘a training tool developed for the United States Marines’. Bet you didn’t see that one coming! You command a crack team of four soldiers through a series of mundane, supposedly lifelike environments, clearing out rooms and taking out enemies one by one. It feels like Rainbow Six 3 – albeit without the care and attention that the acclaimed franchise received. The visuals are a vibrant amalgam of brown, grey and beige, completely devoid of imagination or flair. Your squad members are identical to both your foes and the set-pieces – with an absence of both personality and intelligence. The only sounds you ever hear are the chatter of gunfire, some occasionally rousing music and dialogue that feels so forced you’d swear the voice ‘talent’ were just asked to read their lines straight off the script. The entire presentation of the game is completely lacking, and you’re left wondering why the developers didn’t try to make the game as visual striking as other recent war-sims. It’s like going to an exclusive club in torn jeans and a scummy T-shirt (all beige, of course) - and when this particular club is playing host to the likes of Full Spectrum Warrior and RS3: Black Arrow, the developers should have perhaps considered a night in front of the telly instead.

And I haven’t run out of ammunition yet. The controls are clunky and unresponsive, lacking the precise, sensitive feel of more refined FPS games. Everything feels slow and awkward, including movement and aiming. While the rest of your squad moves fairly realistically, you never feel that control over your character is precise enough to take full control of any situation. It doesn’t help when your enemies don’t react to trivial things like headshots, either. There are many occasions in which you and your team are swamped by numerous enemies, without cover or a snowflake’s chance in hell of taking out the insurgents. You feel let down by a horrible combination of shoddy controls and team mates that are incapable of taking out the swarms of foes you encounter.

Multiplayer with three friends can be decent fun (especially in co-op), but in the end this game doesn’t deliver enough entertainment value to even hold a candle to the likes of Rainbow Six 3. What it does deliver is a tedious, unexciting, clunky and dull FPS experience that doesn’t deserve to be played.

But then again, maybe the developers are trying to prove a point. Maybe they’re trying to make war games as terrible as war itself. It’s the only excuse I’m going to allow. If I’m wrong, give me real world conflict over this any day.

James Hamilton