The Sum of All Fears Review - VGLN.com PC Reviews

The Sum of All Fears is one of the few games that actually does its movie license justice. Considering the amount of silverscreen based software that has utterly disappointed, that is high praise indeed.

I can't begin to express the feeling of despair I get when I get an announcement in my e-mail proudly announcing a game based on a major motion picture license. There's a good reason for that though. When a game is based on a move license, 9 times out of 10 you can expect a steaming pile of a game packaged into one tidy disc ready for you, the consumer to digest and consume and more often than not the consumer will do it willingly because they loved the movie just that much. Need I even bring up the infamous Home Alone series of games on ancient SNES?

However when I got the announcement for The Sum of All Fears, the feeling was different. Not because The Sum of All Fears was such a great movie, since I have not yet seen it, but because of who was making the announcement. Red Storm Entertainment is one of those companies who just know how to make games, and not just any games, but great games. Not only are their games well thought out in design but they usually offer something new and different, which in this time and age of DVD based, polygonal monster, consoles is a lot of ask for apparently. So for The Sum of All Fears, I dropped my stereotypes about games based on movies and went into this review with an open mind. Boy am I glad I did.

The game scores its first points because it’s based on the same gameplay premise that Red Storm’s first hit, Rainbow Six, was based on. Admittedly, this journalist is a big time Rainbow Six fan, and once introduced the gaming series to a whole high school once upon a time. Rainbow Six, for those who have lived under a rock for the past 4 years is the cream of the crop when it comes to realism in first person shooters. One shot, one kill, no exceptions (thank you Tom Berenger). It was the first counter-terrorism simulation of its time and gave you a cold reality check if you thought first person shooters were all similar to Quake However, that alone couldn’t make the game an instant hit. Simply being a copy of Rainbow Six wasn’t the mark of a great game. What makes this game great is the focus on making the gameplay experience as seamless and smooth as possible.

As a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, you have access to a variety of high tech weaponry to help you accomplish your mission.

When I had the chance to preview this game at E3 before it was released, I spoke to Greg Stelmack, one of the lead engineers of the game, before I tried it myself. Greg has worked on every single Rainbow Six game to date, so naturally I assumed his insight into this new game would be broad. I asked him, “What exactly makes this game different from any of the other Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon games.” He replied, “We tried to make it easier for new people to play who were not used to playing the original Rainbow Six.” It definitely shows too. The game itself is very easy to get into, whether you are a veteran of Red Storm’s games or if you are a newbie to the whole thing. For instance, Rainbow Six was known as the thinking man’s game because of the meticulous nature of planning out a mission. You had to set waypoints, tell your operatives when to stop, when to shoot, when to guard, and when to extract. On some of the more difficult missions, it was overwhelming even for the best of us. The objectives were also amazingly difficult in the old Rainbow Six games. In this new game, that has all been eliminated. In fact, The Sum of All Fears already has the best plan visible on your mini-map, and all you have to do is follow the waypoints and shoot the bad guys. Now that might seem too easy for Rainbow Six veterans but the difficulty settings can change that. You don’t have to follow the plan at all, and can formulate your own way on going about solving a mission.

To bring down the power grid in this mission, the answer is all too obvious.

Another new option that is good for both newbies and veterans of this type of gameplay is the new quick commands. You can now communicate what you want your A.I operatives to do by simply pressing the CTRL button and clicking on a few buttons. Some of these commands include, clearing a room, throwing a flash into a room, and even throwing grenades into a room. You can also tell your operatives to be quiet and holster their weapons or you can tell them to be aggressive and shoot everything they see down. Another added value to this system is when you press CTRL to execute those quick commands, time stops and you can compose your thoughts. In multiplayer however, time does not stop, and your “human” adversaries may not be so kind as to allow you to think about your next move.

The friendly A.I has improved dramatically and your partners won’t get themselves killed nearly as much, which was a complaint in Rainbow Six and to a lesser extent, Ghost Recon. However you still have to give them logical commands for them to survive (fragging a room they are in doesn’t qualify as logical). I can’t count the many instances where I noticed my guys doing something very smart to avoid getting shot. Strafing through doorways wasn’t an uncommon sight; neither was looking before entering a room. These last points might not seem like a big deal but this is one of the first games of the genre to get it right. Many have tried but I believe Sum of All Fears actually has a working A.I system that works like it’s supposed to. Red Storm deserves kudos on that point alone.

The Sum of All Fears allows up to 12 A.I helpers for those daring and exciting raids we're all so used to on the show "Cops".

Graphically the game is using the same engine as Ghost Recon, however it’s tweaked for indoor environments rather than outdoor levels which was the case in Ghost Recon. These indoor levels are absolutely stunning and show off the impressive detail the graphics engine is capable of. The levels are well designed but are also pleasing to gaze over. Whether it’s the inside of an Austrian bank, or the outside of a tropical hacienda, the game’s levels look gorgeous. Good level design has always been a trademark of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, and that trend doesn’t stop here.

The Sum of All Fears is a great game overall but it isn’t perfect. First off, and perhaps most glaring is the game is short. The game’s storyline, which runs parallel to the movie it’s based on, spans only 11 missions. Those are slim pickings, especially for such an enjoyable game. It ends before you can really feel your trigger finger warmed up. The game does offer a diverse multiplayer mode that includes playing through the missions cooperatively, as well as Lone Wolf, Tango Hunt modes, and the standard death match and team death match modes. However, a slightly longer campaign mode would’ve made this game near flawless. Perhaps as some consolation, the game is readily available at major retail chains around the $30 range which makes it cheaper than most new releases out there, even for the PC. However, we have a message to Red Storm, “We would have gladly paid $10 more dollars for 5 more missions.” That’s just how good the 11 missions are in the game. Another gripe that some people might have is the game requires a strong machine to play smoothly at the higher resolutions but that is quickly becoming a trend for all PC games, so the problem isn’t just isolated with The Sum of All Fears.

So does The Sum of All Fears measure up? Well let’s just say for the price of admission, notwithstanding the rather famished single player campaign, The Sum of All Fears delivers a very exciting and fun experience to a variety of players and skill levels. If it’s calculated action you want, but without the frustration of overly difficult and precise objectives that take you twenty tries to finally accomplish, than this is the game for you. It’s also one of the few games that have actually convinced me to see the movie it was based upon and that certainly has to be considered high praise indeed.

--- Jolex Del Pilar, VGLN PC

	Gameplay: [8.0] Non-stop action for as long as it last...which isn't very long unfortunately.
	Graphics: [8.5] Excellent visuals, especially in the level design. Great work!
	Sound: [9.0] Bill Brown's music is ever present. He adds a nice touch to the game. Ambient sounds are as good as they ever were.
	Presentation: [8.0] Standard Red Storm setup and menus, the voice overs are great.
	Replay Value: [8.0] Multiplayer mode will serve as a great game between friends, even with the small amount of missions.
	Global Score: [8.3] A great action game that manages to fit like a glove for action gaming newbies and veterans.

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