By polishing up some problems with the original, Ten Hammers is a decent experience, albeit not as intriguing as before.
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers places you in the war-torn fictional nation of Zekistan. From then on, you will be placed right into the action. Since Ten Hammers focuses on a realistic approach, this is not your typical first person shooter. You are in control of a four man squad that must use tactical methods to eliminate the opposing force. All you are inclined to do is target a specific location with your reticle, press the button to issue the command, and your squad will move to that position and await further orders.
While in combat, you have a variety of ways to take out the opposing force. The best and safest way to do this is to allow your squad to take out enemies with a more realistic approach. Such as real life, if you go out into the open demanding yourself to shoot whatever enemy comes to you, you are surely to be killed. Instead, you can command your team to fire at a location by pointing the reticle at a specific area and then issue the command to fire upon that sector. Doing this will give you an advantage over the opposing force, and also denying the fact that you won't get obliterated in the process.
Ten Hammers introduces quite a few gameplay mechanics. One of the major additions is the ability to split up fireteams into groups of two. On top of that, each fireteam member has a unique attribute. For instance, the leader and rifleman can be designed as a sharpshooter to take out an immediate enemy that is taking cover. The M203 gunner can use his little special grenade launcher to eliminate enemies from behind cover, as well as fire grenades into building windows to smoke out other enemies. The SAW gunner can suppress fire on an enemy location so the rest of the team can advance. To finish off the pie, these are just some of the actions that you'll need to utilize in order to succeed.
A big step up over the original is the ability to access and control multiple teams. With this, you are able to suppress different locations and then advance. Another supplement is vehicle support, although essentially they are just yourself but with enhanced speed. You can control a vehicle, and then designate a location to move your team to while in the vehicle. These vehicles are armored, or otherwise known as armored personnel carriers (APC), but like I stated, they are a neat addition, but not much more beyond that.
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers comes with an adequate amount of weapons, which includes the M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), the L85A2 Assault Rifle, and the popular AK-47. A rather important problem that has probably been addressed many times before is the weakness of both a frag grenade and the M203 grenade launcher. To cut the book short, both of these grenades don't have the sheer power that it would in real life. Since Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers is all about realistic combat, it is very strange that grenades in this game are completely prostrated. It almost feels like you're throwing a firecracker, and it's a big problem that needs to be taken care of.
Switching over to the opposing force, the enemies you will be facing are both bold and spruce. On the highest difficulty, the enemy will take precautions and will do everything in their power to take out your team, not just you. On some of the tactical squad based games I played, the enemy would focus on you before it would focus on your teammates, basically negating the use of a squad. On Ten Hammers, it is glad to hear that the game is not entirely up to you. Your squad members have the same intelligence as your enemies, but they both aren't without faults.
I had two significant problems with the A.I on both sides. One, the opposing force tends to always hit your teammates more often than not in one form or another. While this may just be an excuse for difficulty, it is not quite realistic for Ten Hammers, as not everyone has superior aiming capabilities. Two, your squad members must have had experiences of the paranormal because they seem they can go through windows. This is not rare, but it's not often as well (think of putting a big dot between the word 'rare' and 'often').
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers provides online multiplayer for those interested. It supports a co-op mode, which allows you and an online fellow to take part in the single player campaign. You will control one squad of members, while the other person controls his/her own squad. It's a fun way to work through the campaign, but it's quite repetitive when it gets too effortless that you can breeze right through it given the circumstances. However, Ten Hammers also supports mission and objective based multiplayer modes to keep the team work flowing.
The graphical work of Ten Hammers is solid on the frontline. Peeling through, however, unloads some troubles. On the defensive, the setting looks excellent, just like a war torn nation would look like. Character models have a tense feel to them, and the cut scenes couldn't look better. Too bad that I had to undergo some glitches that plagued the game. While Ten Hammers is intense and gritty, you should be able to bypass some of the glitches since they won't terribly annoying you.
What I enjoyed about Ten Hammers and the original Full Spectrum Warrior was the audio. The sounds of explosions aren't too shabby, but the voice acting is well done. Your teammates will chat about random events, from their families to the mission they are partaking in. You will also encounter a lot of cursing in the game, but that only enhances the realistic feel. Sounds of your weapon firing is decent, but in a war torn nation, the setting sounds too peaceful and quiet.
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers has a grand total of twelve missions, but while that may seem short, it is of decent length. There won't be much replayability once you trounce through the campaign, but since Ten Hammers comes packaged with solid online multiplayer with up to eight different players, that will hold you over if you're a huge fan of tactical shooting games. If you like a challenge, the campaign will give you just that on the higher difficulties, but multiplayer is the better alternative.
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers is not for everyone. In fact, it should not be for everyone. Strategic maneuvers are inevitable when you play the game. If you have a huge problem with that, then Ten Hammers is not your game. But for those with an interest to something other than run and gun, Ten Hammers can cure that interest. Some problems have been amended, such as having more control of your squad, but there is some noticeable issues with the A.I. and the power of grenades. This is a game where you have to work for your achievements. By polishing up some problems with the original, Ten Hammers is a decent experience, albeit not as intriguing as before.