I love this game, but it just plain doesn't run on Windows 8 or Windows 7. I really wish they would patch it so it would run on the newer OS' or better yet create some sequels.

For anyone worried it works fine on my windows 8 so dont see why it wouldnt on others and its a sick game even if you never did play it back in the day!
10/10

This is a very tentative recommendation. I really want to love this game to bits. It creates a really interesting small scale tactical experience that I've never seen in another game. It is not a shooter. Don't expect something like Conflict Desert Storm.

The problem is this game is fairly broken. There's horrendous performance issues and the sound is bugged to hell.

The performance issues are largely caused by the game constantly trying to contact a server that no longer exists. To find this you can add the following line to your hosts file: "127.0.0.1 fswpc.available.gamespy.com"

If you don't know what a hosts file is you probably shouldn't try to attempt this. It's a system file and that means it's serious business.

The sound problems have no simple fix. You'll just have to live with constantly glitched sound if you want to experience this game.

A perennial favorite, FSW has always been dogged by being a game that is difficult to pigeonhole. Is it a third-person cover-based shooter? Is it a strategy game? Is it a puzzle game? It is a unique combination of all three that combined forms a whole greater than its parts. Unfortunately, gamers expecting a single genre tended to be discouraged by this unusual mix and the game never got the recognition it deserved.

Despite its age - and all the technical difficulties that entails running it on a modern PC - the game's visuals remain surprisingly attractive, and it is not difficult to lose oneself in the fantasy of a fighting through the streets of the war-torn Middle East. There numerous incidental animations - be it a civilian scurrying for shelter, birds scattering as you approach or the laundry flapping in the wind - make the game's world seem alive and keep you on your toes at the same time.

But it's the gameplay that is the real star; leading my two squads through the dangerous, twisting streets of fictional Zekistan felt more realistic and true-to-life than all the Calls of Duty - or even Arma - games combined. Your crew's limited toolset - a handful of movement and attack options - are more than sufficient to engage and defeat the enemy if combined with a bit of cunning. It is almost puzzle like; "If I move fireteam Alpha /here/ and then toss smoke like this, the enemy will react like /that/, allowing me to maneuver fireteam Bravo into position /there/!" Figuring out the optimal method to not only kill the enemies but also do so in a way that minimizes casualties and ammunition use is amazingly satisfying (fortunately, for those less talented, you can often "brute-force" your way through most challenges). The game's difficulty curve is gradual and never overwhelming.

The AI is not particularly skilled but can at times be gratingly tenacious, and failing to keep your team in cover will often result in the quick loss of several soldiers. Fortunately, the tangos' skill set is even less complex than that of your troops - mostly they just hunker down behind some cover and take potshots at you, although a few do use grenades - but they make up for this deficit with numbers and being well placed. Attempt to maneuver around them and they often - but not always - will seek new shelter, requiring you to trap them between your two teams coming at them from different directions. The occasional heavy weapon (rocket launcher or machine gun), tank or technical adds to the challenge and variety. Unfortunately - and this is the greatest fault of the game - the initial locations of the enemies is hard-coded into each level, which greatly reduces the replayability of the game. Best of all, once the mission is over, you can watch a replay to relive your successes (or failures), and even - should you chose - jump into the action at any point. Would that other games offered this feature!

Released in 2004, Full Spectrum Warrior can be difficult to get working on modern computers; in my case, I had to edit my HOSTS file, tinker with the soundcard settings and muck around in a configuration file before I got acceptable performance from the game. Even then, the dialogue was filled with pops and crackles. Nonetheless, the quality of the game was well worth the effort.

Full Spectrum Warrior remains one of the forgotten classics of gaming and those willing to go into the experience with an open mind will be well rewarded with a challenging and exciting game.

One of the best damn military games out there.

The original pulisher use to be THQ but it was mostly sold off towards the new owners Nordic Games. So far there has not been any attempt to provide an official forum sticky of contacting for support regarding games they now own the best way to contact them is to reach them via the store page and look under info. I' am operating with Win 7 Home edition. The game works alright but just a warning this is an older title so this will not be the "best" in sound or video by todays standards. There are common reports of audio "clicking" or the game completely unable to start. So please make sure to check with Nordic Games about issues with graphics, OS, or any other problem. This game is ONLY compatible with Windows XP, 2000. So even if you run this program in compatibility mode it still might not work. I use to play this game on the original Xbox back in 2005 I believe.

I had alot of fun when I played this before and for me this game had alot of replay factor. I still have not played the 2nd one yet but I do own both. I found that using a controller was easier for this game's mechanics involving orders and camera movment. It is not so bad using the keyboard and mouse, just have to get use to it.

As this title is around 10 years old, I would recommend you look elsewhere for a newer game. Your time (and money) will be better spent.

In the end the choice is all up to you. Thanks for reading!

Jay

8,5/10 (wihtout the bugs)

+ original gameplay, has not been done before so extensively, tactical, whatever you do has consequences, beware no shooting at all (no fps elements i mean)
+ great atmosphere, good presentation, although there is no way in my knowledge to run in widescreen
+ you are rewarded if you master the gameplay and it feels good

- may not run on your system, i have 2 pcs, it runs great in 1 of them without any fix
- even if it runs the performance is not good
- may be too unforgiving gameplay wise, but that's the fun of it i guess

I played the expasion pack for this game called Ten Hammers - which was really cool and I liked it - so I decided to buy the orginal one "FSW" and I'm not dissapointed at all. I recommend this game every person who like tactic games.

i hate strategy. i love this game. 10 years it's still awsome, although i had to tinker a little to make it work

I bought this game when it came out on CD. I have tons of hours playing it. But, I got it here cause I was having some problems installing it with the CD. Anyway, This is my favorite RTS game ever. This is the style of RTS I like.

The game that the U.S. Army commissioned as a training simulator and then never actually used.

a super spectate game, Let the soldiers do what you want. You're the boss. if you like it to be the boss, then I recommmend this game :))

Ah, the memories. The first in the Full Spectrum Warrior series and it is a pretty fun game. Less hardcore than the second but still very strategic. Command 2-3 squads depending on the missions. Command, point fire, suppress, flank, eliminate enemy, the basics of the game. Shows you how soldiers perform on the battlefield. It's a pretty fun overall game. The story is not as intense as the second one but still a pretty good story. This game is just too much fun. It is faster than the second and very playable. The tactics is just so much fun!!!! You better own it! 9.5/10!!! Get it!!!!!!!!

It's a good game, althrough it's quite hard and has some strange controlls that take getting used to. The only real problem is that it will not work, if you have internet.... I know it's strange, but you have to shut off your internet to play this game. This problem somewhat depends on your system, but for more recent setups it doesn't work.

A 3rd person RTS, if you like RTS games, give it a shot.

Need a "filler" game to play while waiting on other big titles to come out? Invest in this game..you'll get some solid hours before getting bored to tears. It's a unique style of gameplay and the graphics are good for 2004. Give it a ♥♥♥♥ing try.

this game is a classic for ps2 but worth it to buy it again on pc if you want better grapics and quality on the sound but valve should make the steam os system that it can get this game and make the controller settings on then this game would be back =D

This game is riddled with issues due to it not being updated in years, good luck trying to run it on a modern PC. Chances are you will have unplayable FPS, fear not though, that happened to pretty much everyone and there are plenty of fixes. Problem is none of those fixes worked for me, maybe it will work for you I don't know but even if you fix the framerate which is already annoying enough as is you'll still have to deal with other issues like audio stutter and clipping in cinematics. And god forbid you decide to try out playing online or even LAN.

As it stands the game is nigh unplayable and should be avoided. It's a shame though because it's a really good game.

A great strategy game which is completely different to the majority of other military tactics games, unfortunately due to my PC's emulator the frame rate rarely got above 10 FPS

fun used to play this on my ps2 in ye olden days