Carrier Command splits itself between a real-time action and strategy game, where the overarching objective is to conquer and control islands. In this game you get two modes; the strategy game which is very similar in style and mechanics to the original game and you’ve got the campaign, which is story-driven and essentially a one long drawn out tutorial. And believe me, you will need to play the campaign first. With the huge amount of information to absorb, from customising your units, ways to fight the enemy and how to build up resources, production lines and defense, you’ll need to understand all of this if you’re to win.
Sadly they decided to start this mode with a horrid FPS section which gives off an incredibly bad first impression. The controls are very stilted and way off the smooth and tight controls that we’re used to. The soldiers’ AI is poor, the reticule doesn’t change colour to indicate enemy or friendly units, the interaction and direction prompts are pretty much non-existent and you can’t sprint or jump. Quite simply, any progress that’s been made over the past decade in the FPS genre has been ignored here. Thankfully this doesn’t last for long before you’re stepping into the aircraft carrier and start commanding units. This mode generally plays the same as the strategy mode but easing you in with the controls and you’re just directed more in what island to take over next, therefore I’ll skip onto the meat and bones of this game.

With a 33-island archipelago to battle over, the central point of this game is your carrier, from which you can deploy and dock up to four aerial units and four amphibious units. With full control over any vehicle at any time, you systematically work your way through each island’s mission to take them under your control. But you do need to plan what island you want to take as each has various perks and benefits that will help you build up your strength. These come in three forms: islands containing resources which in turn will help the islands with the factories build units. These production line islands will then be protected by the islands that offer defense. What you don’t want to do is take just take over factory islands, as with no resources you’re not going to be able to replenish your lost units and you’ll fail.
You also get to make decisions about your development priorities, for example, do you focus on improving your units weaponry or armour? What supplies do you give your units; something to the hack enemy command structure or perhaps a scanner to detect enemy forces? What will most effectively dispatch the enemy; rockets or lazers? You have a huge array of options available to you, almost overwhelming actually.

Score: 7/10

Tags:Action, Gameplay, Islands, Review, Xbox360

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