Game Review - by StormDaemon
The world of third and first person shooter games has a refreshing new addition to its lineup with Army Men 3D. You'll take control of a plastic soldier as he tries to fight other evil plastic soldiers in a world where the combat is real, but the soldiers are not. With great graphics, fun gameplay, and lots of things to blow up, this game is a hit that challenges not only the trigger finger, but also the combat strategist in all of us.

Storyline:
You are Sarge, a Green Army Sergeant who has been tasked with carrying out special missions against the evil Tan Army. Throughout several different regions, you'll go up against many soldiers in order to complete your orders and hopefully strike blows against not only the Tan army, but also the Grey's and the Blues, who are allied with the Tans.

Features:
Army Men 3D feature 3D graphics, 3rd and 1st person perspectives, lots of guns, lots of vehicles to drive, strategic combat, and 2 person multi-player. The graphics themselves have lots of details and look authentic, except for the plastic soldiers and vehicles, which look and act exactly like they should. The perspectives are a great addition and provide for varying degrees of control over Sarge and his weapons. The sheer amount of weapons and vehicles really make the game fun and allow for many different approaches to combat each time the game is played. The weapons range from rifles to flame-throwers to mortars, and the vehicles range from trucks to tanks and a whole lot more. The combat itself is not merely point and shoot, but requires more strategy in order to survive. Sarge himself can be moved and control in many different ways, which allows for that strategy and even some stealth when needed. The multi-player is original because of its deployment editor, which allows for control of the players' units placing. In order to truly go over all of the features, several more pages would be needed.

Gameplay:
Army Men 3D is even more fun than it looks, which is a whole lot. From right in your face action to strategic long distance mortars, the game combat varies as much as possible. Though the enemies are not very smart and have the same reaction just about every time, you can take many different approaches to getting through the missions. All of the different weapons and vehicles make for authentic and detailed combat, and make finding a new weapon to play with like getting a toy on a holiday.

The missions in each of the campaigns are actually hard and take some thought to accomplish. Running head on at an enemy usually gets you blown to pieces, so a lot of the time it will take either good shots with the rifle or good throws with a grenade. The objectives for each mission are also as varied, ranging from just blowing stuff up to catching spies.

The weapons and the vehicles have to one of the best parts of the game. You can get flame-throwers, grenades, mortars, jeeps, half-tracks, tanks, and many more. All allow for a wide range of control and destruction. Some weapons are more powerful than others, but may be harder to use and much more scarce. All in all, the weapons are very balanced for the game.

Graphics:
The 3D graphics do their job and look nice while doing it, but on a TV screen it doesn't look that great. Nevertheless, the graphics are realistic, and there are no bugs at all. The view behind Sarge is actually intelligent and will move above terrain if it gets in the way instead of looking through it like most games. The details in the graphics are also rather good as you can watch the dirt, flames, and smoke fly as something blows up or watch a soldier burn and melt as you incinerate him with a flame-thrower. The smoke that comes from an explosion actually looks like smoke, but it never changes. You can tell though, if you've hit something by the bigger explosion and burst of smoke, which helps out a great deal.

The weapons and vehicles are very detailed and look as realistic as plastic weapons and vehicles can get. The effects from them are nice and 3D looking, considering that most games skimp out on weapon effects. Army Men 3D really does give a nice dose of 3D graphics that only has a drawback with the lack of a true first person view. The combat cam puts you over the shoulder, but not through the eyes, which, if coupled with a targeting reticule, could be very useful at times.

Sound FX:
The game's sound effects are all mainly centered on the sounds of weapons and combat and little else. While nothing particularly special, they sound fairly realistic and provide for a feel of plastic combat. The sounds are very detailed, but they are not bad at all, and are at a bare minimum expected for a game of this type. This doesn't mean anything bad at all, it's just that the designers did not seem to do very many special things with the sounds. Everything sounds like it should, from the footsteps and movements of the soldiers to the sounds of a mortar launching. Since they are not bad, but aren't the best, I gave the sounds an average score.

Overall:
Army Men 3D was a good game overall. The gameplay was challenging and fun and required some thought, which can not be said about a lot of games. The graphics were pretty good and made everything look good, but the sounds were rather average. The large amount of things to shoot and drive really added to the game, and the premise behind the game was good too. This is a good game most people will enjoy.