Listen up, soldier, this is the United States Army and around here we do things a lot differently than the other armed forces branch you’ve all seen out there. This isn’t the Boy Scouts and this isn’t a day of shooting bottles with your drinking buddies. This is the genuine real deal because this is America’s Army: Rise of a Soldier, an Xbox game that happens to be considered the official U.S. Army game. What’s that you say? You wouldn’t have it any other way? Well, heck, that’s what I like to hear … now drop and give me twenty.

The military themed first-person shooter is no stranger to the Xbox and neither are the realistic tactical shooters that give gamers a look into the tactical training and situations our fighting men and women face defending freedom. From Delta Force: Black Hawk Down to Full Spectrum Warrior the genre has seen the best and worst but it’s Ubisoft’s first-person shooter that has earned a stamp of approval from the U.S. Army and why should it be? After all, the game used actual military tactics thanks to the input of some real Army soldiers.

America’s Army concentrates on a single soldier you get to name, nickname and add specific information such as what State the created soldier comes from and what specialty he would like to concentrate on during training. You start the game in boot camp, first going through an obstacle course that serves as an introduction to the game’s controls and movement. You will start the game’s Career mode as a low ranking rifleman and, depending on your performance on the field, earn different ranks until you become leader of your squad as a Master Sergeant. You’ll even get a taste of other specialist roles from grenadier to sniper.

Beginning with a few training exercises that include a fully functional squad, you’ll soon find yourself in a combat situation. Taking place in a section of the world that is obviously Iraq, disaster strikes on your way to your first post. With enemies surrounding the area, you and your squad fights for survival. It is here that you earn skill points based on how many enemies you bring down to healing squad members who are too injured to continue. At the end of each mission you can use the skill points to upgrade your soldier’s skills (leadership, marksmanship, conditioning and stealth just to name a few). You can even fit certain weapons with modification upgrades.

As I mentioned above, you can also take on a few other roles but first you go through training and qualifying rounds before you take on the four missions for each specialist role. Sniper, for example, starts you off at the firing range learning the basics of sharp shooting and then reporting to a superior officer for qualification. You’ll then go on missions that require you covering your teammates using a powerful sniper rifle with a good scope. As a grenadier, you’ll specialize in grenades and other explosive devices and then as Fire Team Leader you’ll get a chance to issue commands.

As far as the game’s controls are concerned, though, America’s Army is an acquired taste that might not suit the casual first-person shooter fan. For one thing the game attempts (and succeeds to some extent) to depict realistic shooting. As a result aiming becomes a lot harder so you’ll often be pointing the sight at a distant enemy but hit nothing at all. The auto aim feature allows you to point your weapon in the right direction of the nearest enemy but it is up to you to really focus the sight. Pull the left trigger too hard and you will overshoot your target. It’s tricky stuff but after playing awhile you’ll get the hang of it.

The game’s second problem comes in the form of the enemy AI. The enemy can fire their weapons and on occasion they can toss a mean grenade but when it comes to taking cover they’ll rather stand around waiting for a grenade to blow in their faces. You won’t see the enemy duck when your troops are firing back nor will they often pull back. Shoot an enemy that was dumb enough to enter an occupied room and you’ll think his friends learned their lesson but they don’t.

At least there’s Xbox Live online multiplayer and with mission based battle mode that allows up to sixteen players on screen.  The game pits one team against another and you’ll even have your own role to play in the skirmish so you can be a medic or a sniper if you wish. You’ll even get to earn skill points to upgrade your online soldier. The game runs at a steady framerate so that’s not bad at all.

Sadly the game’s visuals lack the incredible detail found in most Ubisoft action games. There are areas that look decent enough but then again there are some rather plain-looking areas. The sewer mission, for example, is just awful. Nothing good can be said about the character models that move really oddly. Worse yet is the facial details during conversations and the fact that there is no lip movement when someone is speaking directly at you. The visual effects, particularly the explosions, aren’t bad but they’re not great either.

At least the game’s sound is better than its visuals … but not by very much. There’s militaristic music during your upgrading and that’s also mixed in with licensed tunes from Saliva and Incubus as well as hip-hop. The voice acting is handled well enough and there’s hardly a moment where the voices sound like they’re trying to imitate soldier-speak. The sound effects aren’t flashy, though, and that’s just too bad.

America’s Army: Rise of a Soldier had all the right elements that would have made this an amazing game but with some weak spots here and there the game just lacks polish and looser shooting action. Feeling too strict for its own good, some of the more impatient gamers will want to abandon the game while the more experienced and hardcore first-person shooter will find a real challenge. The enemy AI is poor but at least the game adds solid online multiplayer. A rental is definitely in order either way so give this one a shot, soldier. 

Gameplay: 7.0
The controls are familiar first-person shooter fare but the added realism just makes the shooting all the more difficult for those use to the loose style of FPS like Far Cry Instincts or even the Rainbow Six games. There are some good levels thrown in there that are great at showing off each specialty and the game is great at depicting the trials and training that go into shaping our US soldiers.

Graphics: 6.5
On the one hand there are areas in the game that look pretty good and some locales are impressive. Then again, the character models aren’t so great to look at and their movements are so unnatural that watching them crawl on their bellies look like sand crabs in movement. The visual effects aren’t even that great either.

Sound: 7.5
There are some licensed tunes that play in the game’s main menu and its recognizable artist list includes tunes from Incubus and Saliva. The rap isn’t so bad, especially the tunes from real-life Army soldier Corporal Orlando Lang. The rest of the sound effects are not that bad either and the voice acting is pretty accurate when it comes to standard military jargon.

Difficulty: Medium
The game’s missions add a nice variety of challenges when it comes to the mission objectives. The real challenging part, though, comes in the form of the game’s realistic aiming that makes it hard to target distant enemies. Then again, the enemy is so dumb that all you really have to do is wait for them to blindly rush you.

Concept: 7.5
The game’s Career mode allows you to customize your soldier through experience points earned on the battlefield and strengthen his Special Forces specialty skills. The game allows you a good look at different roles so you’ll have a chance to live out your sniper fantasies and experience what it’s like to be a rifleman. There’s also online multiplayer for up to 16 players.

Multiplayer: 8.0
While not as brilliant as other Ubisoft online multiplayer modes, this game is no slouch when it comes to bringing a smooth Xbox Live experience with up to sixteen gamers. There are different roles you can play and you can always gain new skills as you play so you’ll be able to upgrade.  Team up with others to take on rival teams on the battlefield.

Overall: 7.0
America’s Army isn’t a bad game at all but it certainly does lack the style and finesse of other games in this genre.  With weak enemy AI and a few so-so missions, the real treat here is how well the game handles true military tactics and the things our fighting men and women have to go through to make it in today’s Army. I highly suggest you rent this one first before considering a purchase.