Conflict: Desert Storm (T)

War game may blur line between reality, fantasy.

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About Our Ratings
Common Sense rates it
3
Played the game? Review it
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details
  • Publisher: SCi Entertainment Group
  • Genre: Video Games - Role Playing Games
  • Release Date: 10/16/2002
  • Platform(s): PlayStation 2, Xbox
  • ESRB Rating: T
  • Price: $39

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this is a war game, even though it emphasizes commanding solders and completing tasks while trying to keep people safe. There is violence in each mission, and missions are completed more quickly when players kill enemy soldiers. The fact that this is linked to a real historical event blurs fantasy and reality, which should be discussed with kids who play this game.

Families can talk about war. How do you see the difference between a war game and real life? Families can also talk about the historical aspects of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf.

Message

Social Behavior:

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Educational Value:

Very little other than representing Desert Storm as an historical event.

Violence

Graphically depicted shooting and death. However, death animations are not overly explicit. The depiction of war could be scary for some kids.

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Erin McCoin

While the U.S. military was gearing up for a battle in Iraq, CONFLICT: DESERT STORM's developers were putting the finishing touches on what turns out to be an engaging but slightly generic game. Although the game is set in Iraq during the first Gulf War, it has little to do with the actual conflict or with any of the historical events of the war. The player is dropped in the desert alone and must elude or kill multiple Iraqi soldiers before rescuing a soldier from an Iraqi prison. That soldier is the beginning of a four-person team that will go on to other missions.

In training mode, the player runs through drills to become familiar with gameplay elements as a drill sergeant barks orders from a platform above. Iraqi soldiers become increasingly clever as the action moves from the desert to the urban environment of Baghdad. Learning to control the other players becomes a crucial skill to survival in the urban missions.

Is it any good?

3

The control scheme is unusually difficult and the game is tough to master. Load times can be long. Due to the design of mission one, when playing in the two-person mode, player number two will not be able to play until the prisoner is rescued from the prison.

Overall the game is an absorbing simulation of the skills and wits needed to command a squad of soldiers in a hostile environment, but it fails to offer any educational value. Although the game is set during a historical period in world history, it fails to offer anything that makes it unique to the Gulf War of 1991. The game could quite easily be set in any environment and it would alter none of the game's value or strategy.

How to play

  • Playability: Easy to pick up and play. Difficult to master the controls.
  • Reading Required: NA
  • Graphics: Average.

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Parents and kids say

All Reviews

There are 6 reviews.

5


Posted on 04/12/08 by pascal Kid contributor, age 14

conflict owns

its difficult but if you can complete it the rewards are awesome buy it
Age 17+
5


Posted on 06/18/07 by sanandreasfreak Adult contributor

great

This is a great game but i think that this is a very MATURE game!
3


Posted on 07/25/05 by ski123 Kid contributor, age 13

4

Posted on 06/02/05 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 13

Fight the first IRAQ war.

Conflict Desert Storm is a cool game. There is blood in there, and a little language, but it is fun, and a good multi-player. This game also is the easiest game to control, it even aims for you!!
4


Posted on 06/21/04 by mikee990 Kid contributor, age 13

11 or 12+ Depends on there maturity

It's prety hard but fun -- you need skill and to be a good gamer. Worth buying.
5


Posted on 06/20/04 by msp23 Kid contributor, age 13

A friend and I rented it for a week and are still playing!

The graphics could be alot better for sure. And they are better on the X-Box then on the GameCube and PS2. Although when you kill someone they do a little death dance and then fall over, it's nothing real gory. There is some blood in a pool around a dead person but besides that it's not that bad. I think they have given this game rather harsh reveiws as well as most other of the violent games. Because for 1 violence is already all around us (I mean look at New York City, it's a freaking mess!!), in the news, music, everywhere! A little more isn't gonna kill us.<p> The game itself is a little unrealistic in parts because you can heal a dead person that is in your squad and it takes a couple bullets to kill you. I do agree with commensense's review on the part where they say it might scare litte kids. Becuase you are walking around with a huge machine gun and some c4 along with a rocket launcher and some other people are in tanks tryin to kill ya. Yea it will scare small kids but I'd say 12+ would be fine with it. It does teach you a bit about Operation: Desert Storm but not much to get it soley for that purpose. Not that I'm saying the kids would mind if they played it in Social Studies but yeah. Overall it's a good game, not as gory as most 1st person shooters, fair graphics and fun missions. I give it an A+.

Adult Reviews

There are 1 reviews.

Age 17+
5


Posted on 06/18/07 by sanandreasfreak Adult contributor

great

This is a great game but i think that this is a very MATURE game!

Kids Reviews

There are 5 reviews.

5


Posted on 04/12/08 by pascal Kid contributor, age 14

conflict owns

its difficult but if you can complete it the rewards are awesome buy it
3


Posted on 07/25/05 by ski123 Kid contributor, age 13

4

Posted on 06/02/05 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 13

Fight the first IRAQ war.

Conflict Desert Storm is a cool game. There is blood in there, and a little language, but it is fun, and a good multi-player. This game also is the easiest game to control, it even aims for you!!
4


Posted on 06/21/04 by mikee990 Kid contributor, age 13

11 or 12+ Depends on there maturity

It's prety hard but fun -- you need skill and to be a good gamer. Worth buying.
5


Posted on 06/20/04 by msp23 Kid contributor, age 13

A friend and I rented it for a week and are still playing!

The graphics could be alot better for sure. And they are better on the X-Box then on the GameCube and PS2. Although when you kill someone they do a little death dance and then fall over, it's nothing real gory. There is some blood in a pool around a dead person but besides that it's not that bad. I think they have given this game rather harsh reveiws as well as most other of the violent games. Because for 1 violence is already all around us (I mean look at New York City, it's a freaking mess!!), in the news, music, everywhere! A little more isn't gonna kill us.<p> The game itself is a little unrealistic in parts because you can heal a dead person that is in your squad and it takes a couple bullets to kill you. I do agree with commensense's review on the part where they say it might scare litte kids. Becuase you are walking around with a huge machine gun and some c4 along with a rocket launcher and some other people are in tanks tryin to kill ya. Yea it will scare small kids but I'd say 12+ would be fine with it. It does teach you a bit about Operation: Desert Storm but not much to get it soley for that purpose. Not that I'm saying the kids would mind if they played it in Social Studies but yeah. Overall it's a good game, not as gory as most 1st person shooters, fair graphics and fun missions. I give it an A+.
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