Ubisoft's attempt to foray into the RTS genre was a careful one, intending to utilize the popularity of the titular series as a brand of excellence and to garner a sizable playerbase with relatively small investments in advertising. Ultimately, the plan flopped, as RTS veterans and Tom Clancy fans alike recognized the amateur level of design put into EndWar.
In EndWar, you have 2 factions, but the faction differences are purely superficial. The units either possess are the same in utility and function, and are equally few in number. You have 3 units to control in this game. Yep. THREE. Be careful counting them, it's quite a hefty number to wrap your mind around. You can control engineers (ground infantry), gunships (choppers), or ground armor (usually something between BMPs to Light tanks). You order in these units via menu reinforcement support, but once they're in, the headaches begin, despite the game being simple enough for a toddler. I think that is actually the problem: you cannot play this game if you are a RTS veteran who likes to be in control. Immediately lop off all your fingers and just run your face over the keyboard to succeed and prosper.
You'll find immediately that despite being limited by a crippling population cap, 12 units to be precise (infantry squads count as 1 unit), you will be sympathetic towards the reasoning behind the design, as EndWar is a RTS created with console players in mind and their problems stem from this foundation. Official reviewers, such as IGN/Gamespot/Gametrailers rate the product from a console viewpoint, and absolutely adore the game, lavishing at the brilliance of a voice-command interface, streamlined action, and the vivid closeup visuals. But of course they'd fawn over it, as being console players, they are unable to appreciate a game with sustenance, depth and a respectable skill ceiling. Instead, with terrible standard control schemes with analog sticks and a very limited set of command hotkeys, they'd see Ubisoft's latest 'voice command' gimmick as a godsend. Using voice command, a player can issue orders to their units, like 'Squad 4, attack Hostile 3'. Perhaps this puts into perspective why there is such a limited number of units to control, as well as actions to assign. Just imagine trying to say 'Rifleman squad #654, utilize grenade launcher upgrade and lay suppressive fire on hostile infantry #352, 366, 775 until hostile light armored vehicle #445 arrives, then switch to mortars and armor piercing rounds, but individually retreat to LZ positon #34 before your health is diminished below 10 units.' Just imagine trying to issue micro commands with your voice on the fly. With fewer units to control, and a very limited set of possible commands to issue, it makes it easier for console players and their retarded voice command interface. It has all the problems of that AVGN listed about the Konami Laser Scope. Your mouth gets tired, everyone around you finds you annoying, and you feel like a total dork. And you should, for playing this piece of crap.
But you can still choose to turn off the voice command interface, and resort to conventional controls, but you're still severely crippled by absurd command limitations I briefly mentioned above. This is the first RTS I've played where your units cannot be told to move to a location. You did not misread. Selecting your units and right clicking an open area in the map... And nothing will happen. In catering to console players, who do not have the freedom of clicking all over the map like PC players can with their mice, EndWar forces players to move units by either tying it to specific targetable areas or units. That is, if I want to move my gunships anywhere, I have to give it an order to attack something. If there's nothing there, I won't be able to send it anywhere, except for specific 'capture' locations on the map. Just imagine playing Starcraft, but you cant move your tanks unless you have something to attack, or if there's a map object like a mineral to target, yet any of the terrain ANYWHERE are not possible movement zones. It's like playing World of Warcraft, but you cant click anything, or use WASD. You have to use tab to cycle to something you want then type /attack and watch your character auto-path its way to the target. Seriously? Who fucking thought this was a good idea in a RTS? So Gunships don't move anywhere without a valid target. Neither do vehicles. Squads of infantry can take cover behind specific map entities like bunkers (they're a part of the map... You don't build them.) but otherwise can only move in the same way the other units can. How are you supposed to employ strategy when the movements and pathing of your units are so limited? EndWar is literally a RTS on rails, and IF they had rally points, that would already conquer what minuscule challenge exists in this game.
The camera is also terrible, and again, unsuprisingly a fault of trying to cater to console players. Staring at a mass of small individual units is understandably tough on a console player's eyes, who could be trying to squint at their TV across the room. To compensate, Ubisoft places you nearly at street level, with an individual tank taking a massive amount of the screen real estate, which is compounded by the fact that it's no longer a birds eye view camera angle, but a forced tilted angle that's useful for nothing but scenic photography. Pictures explain better than words, so I'd like you to analyze this:
EndWar... This is with the camera zoomed out and tilted as much as possible.
Now, the tanks in the distance don't look huge, but look at your workspace... A thin strip of screen real estate on the lower quarter of the screen, yet above the UI. And with this tilted angle, you can see how impossible it is to select one unit from another. Anything further in the distance is too small to manage, so you need to continually move your screen just to see whats going on in a single skirmish. Why must they have such a stupid ineffective camera angle? Is it a strategy game or a I-like-staring-into-the-sunsets-lulz game?
Barely recognizable as a RTS, EndWar attempts to solidify its position by laying its groundwork with a supremely basic rock-paper-scissor counter system. It is hard to stress how basic the counter system is, but considering that there are only 3 units in the game, it's pretty easy to guess that tanks counter infantry, infantry counter gunships, and gunships counter tanks. There is absolutely no strategy either, you just radio the counter units to what your enemy possesses the most of, issue an attack command and then repeat. If you're slow with your reflexes, there's no need to fret! The counter units take an ETERNITY to kill an opponent, even if you outnumber the target or flank them. I could go take a piss and come back and STILL have enough time to reinforce the squad with units that can counter whatever I'm being attacked by. I get bored idling around watching the battle unfold predictably, seeing a whole set of health bars slowly diminish. Want to be pro at this game? Have an Actions Per Minute of 3. If that wasn't slow and shallow enough for you, there's no need to construct a supportive unit or use skills with cooldowns or even micro your existing units. More accurately, there's no way to do that even if you wanted to. There are no supportive units, there are no unit skills, and you can't issue movement commands, which basically kills any of the usual things you'd expect in a RTS.
EndWar turns extremely aggravating in about 5 minutes of play as you realize, the more effort you invest to manage your units, the more futile and infuriating it becomes. I best describe EndWar as a Chinese fingertrap; don't bother trying to overcome it's crippling mechanics, just put hot irons in your retinas and sign up for a lobotomy, then sit down and enjoy. It's not even close to being acceptable as a RTS; I find a children's Fit-The-Shapes-Into-The-Slots game more strategic.
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