The best non-shooter military shooter gets a sequel.

Full Spectrum Warrior was not what a lot of people expected. On the surface, it looked like a tactical squad based shooter. In reality, however, it was one of the most innovative real time strategy games ever made. In it, you commanded two squads, Alpha and Bravo, as they tried to quell bad situations in far away countries. Most was most ingenious about the game was its innovative control scheme. Switching between teams and issuing orders was a simple on-the-fly system that was easy to learn and hard to master. Now with a sequel on the horizon, THQ and Pandemic have shown us Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers.

The two most significant, and welcome, additions to the game play are the new squads and the new precision aiming system. The new squads are actually fun to play around with, as they are a Sniper (for the long range love letter) and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The Sniper is a lone unit; capable of taking out enemies from a long range and covered in a cool camouflage grass. Unfortunately, he is alone and only has the rifle and a pistol, so keeping him safe is a key part of his use. The Bradley, on the other hand, is a mobile support unit; capable of acting as makeshift cover as well as launching devastating attacks at targets you’ve painted. Noting is really as fun as painting a target and watching it explode. The new precision aiming system essentially allows you to take direct control of a soldier’s eyes and movement. This way you can manually aim his shots yourself. However, if the soldier isn’t properly covered his effectiveness may be compromised, and your shots will be lousy.

Another set of additions is the appearance of Charlie and Delta units. Occasionally, you will either be join by two new units (Sniper and Bradley, for example) or you will split your two existing teams into two more. Now you can give commands to secondary teams while keeping your view squarely on your primary team. So you can, for example, be commanding Alpha squad, when some terrorists come running out of a building intent on causing you harm. After ordering Alpha unit to take cover behind some friendly scenery, and WITHOUT switching to another squad, you can order Bravo or Charlie unit to come in flanking the enemy.

Multi-players has both lost and gained new features. Now they’re no longer any co-operative play online. Instead you can choose to be American Soldiers or Insurgents, and fight in objective based mission gameplay. Sometimes, it may be as simple as a skirmish where opposing sides appear on different ends of a multi-player map, and other times you may command a Bradley tank trying to destroy other Bradley tanks. Still others may have you trying to escort a mixed crew of American Soldiers out of the center of a large map while Insurgents converge on your position. Of course, all of these will be playable over Xbox Live, which will make for some great trash talk.

FSW: TH looks to expand on the concepts introduced in the first FSW, while expanding on them and becoming more fun to play. Keep your eyes on XboxAdvanced.com for our review.