Conflict: Desert Storm (PlayStation 2, Xbox)

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.

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.