Review by: Daniel King
Published: November 1, 2002

This year has seen the continuation of one of gaming’s major trends. Team-based first-person shooters are steadily gaining popularity. Battlefield 1942 and Unreal Tournament 2003 are great examples of 2002′s progressive additions to the genre. 7FX – a Czech company – has even released their own multiplayer-oriented title in hopes of competing with EA and Epics’ offerings.

Like Counter Strike before it, US Special Forces: Team Factor tries to realistically portray armed combat between terrorists and counter terrorists – the latter being US Special Forces in this case. The game adds a third team to the mix: Operatives from the Russian Spednatz. Though you’d expect each of the three sides to employ radically different methods of combat, your strategy and tactics won’t change whether you’re a fanatical terrorist or a patriotic American Ranger.

In addition to choosing your team, you’ll need to pick a class before jumping into the fray. The four options available to you are generic: The Sniper carries a rifle suitable for battle at a distance, but his lack of a rapid firing weapon makes fighting at shorter ranges a dubious enterprise. The Soldier is the class most players are likely to pick, as he’s the most versatile. His assault weapon allows him to engage the enemy up close or from far-off effectively. The Heavy Weapon specialist carries a light machine gun designed to rip apart enemies at close quarters, although a stealthy Sniper who’s miles away can pick him off easily. The final class is the Support Scout, equipped with a submachine gun that does a smaller amount of damage than the other weapons, yet he’s faster than any other class, allowing for a speedy escape when it looks like the conflict is lost. Every class can make use of pistols and knives for emergencies, while some are given grenades.

Team Factor contains 22 maps ranging from the heat of Lebanon to urban Sarajevo. Rather than giving players different gameplay options like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag, each map comes with objectives for all three sides, such as capturing critical intelligence, hacking a computer or defending an area. You also can win any mission by eliminating all of your opponents.

Like its competition, Team Factor‘s gameplay is customizable: It can be played in either Arcade or Simulation mode. Arcade mode gives players crosshairs that’ll make shooting opponents a great deal easier. Placing those crosshairs over an opponent will instantly tell you the team to which that player belongs – a useful feature, as distinguishing between the similar uniform types can be difficult. If you’re killed while playing in Arcade mode, you’re given the opportunity to check out the remainder of that round’s action using a camera that can go anywhere on the map. No matter which mode you choose, you’ll also have to set a time limit for each match. Should time run out, then the team with the defensive objective wins the round.