Introduction

Publisher: Ubi Soft
Developer: Sinister Games

Not dead yet

In Ubi Soft's new foray into squad-based strategic combat, you play a group of hired mercenaries known as Granite. As the game opens, you're heading into a mission in Angola, when suddenly, all communications and support are cut. Left to die in a foreign country, a few of your squad survive, and - here's the part I don't get - hire themselves out again? Apparently, these are hardened warriors, who look death in the face after a tie game and ask for a rematch.

Shadow Company is developer Sinister Games' first title, and it makes use of their new proprietary engine. We're not quite sure what's new or interesting about the engine, but whatever it does, it "sets the standard for the new genre of squad-based 3D action." Methinks the PR people went a little rabid on this one.

Guerillas in the mist

Your team starts out foraging for equipment among rebel army camps, but doesn't stay poor for long. After each mission is successfully completed, your team is given a cash reward (generally a pretty paltry sum, considering the risk involved; per-mission prices the operatives charge range from 4-7 thousand dollars). The cash is then used to hire operatives and buy equipment for the next mission.

The missions are non-linear, with different outcomes and progressions depending on how you handle yourself. At least, that's what the literature says. Given that you have a specific set of objectives every mission and the fact that there are only so many ways to kill people and blow stuff up, we never found much in the way of choice.

Pre-mission, though, you are given a lot of choice, both of who you're taking into the field, and what they'll be armed with. Do you want an excellent sniper rifle and cheap sub-machine guns? How about assault rifles all around? Perhaps one man with a knife and silenced gun for sneak attacks? The choice is yours, commander.

Camping trip or rebel hideout?

Note the invisible ladder