This is a 1st person shooter style of game. It is set in the present day. You are the newest member of the elite British Special Air Services (SAS) force and ready to go into action. I like the British and especially their military expertise and knowledge. Also they have one of the coolest accents on the planet. So I looked forward to trying this game out. Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. I was not too impressed with this game and hope it is not being marketed at a premium price. But if you are cruising the bargain bins and looking for a slightly different twist to a Tom Clancy style of shooter, this might suit your need.
Following are the reasons behind my rating which include various modes, movement, graphics and the general interfacing of the game. The first point I looked at was stacking on doors. They place emphasis on stacking but I have trained stacking doors and clearing rooms in the US Army and some differences are apparent. In this game environment you are designated a place in the stack, which usually is in line with the door when it opens and chaos erupts, hence your need to get through the ‘fatal funnel’ as quick as possible and try not to flag your buddies who may be firing in front of you. You are in the line of fire from when the door opens, which is bad mojo in my opinion. But I remind myself it is only a game.
Next, there is no health or energy meter to determine when you need rest to restore your energy. Also there is no medic or bandaging supplies available to heal. Apparently you heal by resting. It is unclear and I just kept going until I was dead. I believe there was a version of Call of Duty that did this as well where the health meter was not apparent and your vision would narrow along with the ability to move as your body slipped into unconsciousness. This game does show when you get hit with flashes of red in your peripheral vision, but how much you can take is questionable and I could not find a balance. It would have been helpful to have a bit more information in this department.
You do have the option to hot weapon swap when you come across a cache. I did like the movement through the corridors and various venues. This is what left me reminiscent of the Tom Clancy series of shooters. Though pales in comparison.
Also your buddies (mates) track really well with you. Sometimes you cannot move forward until you are all arrived at a way point. So if it seems you are stuck, back track and find your buddies, they may be hung up somewhere. Once they get to where you all need to be, the game proceeds. Also, when tracking with your buddies, I would sometimes negotiate a corner and what looked like a friendly turned out to be a foe as he would unload on me. It was difficult to discern a lot of foes from your buddies.
The graphical rendering was not too bad, although when viewing the cut scenes people looked like some kind of foam was in the corners of their mouth. It made me think of Castle Wolfenstein when the renderings showed people with extremely white teeth. The graphical interface was very simplistic which can be a plus having a less inhibited view. Less drop downs and fading menus interacted really well. It was missing some key components as previously mentioned, that are necessary to any 1st person shooter.
Game sounds were as to be expected for weapon discharges, brass falling, fires burning. There is music during cut scenes and when loading screens to draw the player in, but non-existent in game play. I can see that it is a plus when operating as a stealth agent not to have music playing in the background. This is a plus in the development of the game.
SAS Secure Tomorrow does feature a multi-player mode of up to 16 players. Rating is for mature audiences for its blood, strong language, and violence. It works on a relative small foot print as far as a new game is concerned. Requiring at minimum Windows 2000/XP, 3 GB of hard drive space, 4.2 Ghz processor, and only 512MB of RAM. Not too bad given the state of common games today, this is on the relative low end.
Final Verdict
Well I suppose I had better stop there before I really aggravate some real SAS and they come kick in my door. I do respect what they do, and consider the publisher City Interactive, probably projected this game on a relatively low budget destined for the bargain bin. It will eat up some time but I do not see re-playability on a large scale or this coming out in sequels.
Score
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