Conflict: Desert Storm | Nintendo GameCube

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Lead a small team through the Gulf War

Conflict: Desert Storm is a squad action game built around a four-person special forces unit during the first Gulf War. You can lead the British SAS or American Delta Force through missions behind enemy lines, with specific objectives giving each operation its direction. The GameCube adventure combines individual movement and shooting with responsibility for the whole team. Reaching a target is only part of the task: you also decide which soldier should handle the next problem and where the others should be while that happens. Its central appeal is managing several useful specialists within one continuing mission.

Know the four specialists

The squad consists of Bradley, Conners, Jones and Foley. Bradley leads the team, Conners handles heavy weapons, Jones specializes in explosives and anti-tank work, and Foley provides the sniper role. These differences give the characters practical identities beyond their names. Switching to another soldier changes which equipment and skills are immediately available to you. A distant threat, a demolition objective and a vehicle encounter can therefore suggest different choices. The game asks you to think of the team as a collection of complementary tools, while remembering that each tool is also a soldier you need to keep involved.

Give orders and take direct control

You can issue orders to teammates and move between direct control of the different soldiers. Follow and hold commands help determine whether the squad stays together or waits in position, while individual placement lets you establish a more deliberate arrangement. Ordering the team to open fire provides another way to coordinate an encounter. These controls make preparation part of the action: where someone waits can matter as much as where you move next. The command interface rewards familiarity, especially when several decisions arrive together. Learning it early makes the shift between leading the group and handling one soldier easier to understand.

Use the perspective that suits the task

The game offers both third-person and first-person views. The third-person perspective keeps your soldier visible within the surrounding space, while first-person aiming gives you a direct view along the weapon. Those options serve different purposes during movement and combat. You may want the wider relationship between your character and nearby scenery while repositioning, then a more focused view when lining up a target. The GameCube controls combine movement with camera adjustment, weapon selection and team commands, so the experience involves more than aiming alone. Becoming comfortable with those separate functions is an important part of settling into the campaign.

Follow objectives through changing situations

Missions use concrete assignments such as rescuing an ally or destroying an important target. An early operation combines the rescue of the sniper Foley with a bridge demolition, showing how a mission can ask you to change priorities as it develops. A training section introduces movement, vehicle use and squad commands before the campaign puts those actions together. That structure gives you a place to understand the basic controls before trying to coordinate them under pressure. The objectives provide a useful thread through each environment, helping distinguish progress toward the assignment from simply engaging every enemy you can see.

Vehicles change the team's arrangement

Some missions allow you to drive military vehicles, including jeeps and tanks, while other squad members operate mounted weapons. Moving into a vehicle changes the relationship between the team and the battlefield: the driver's movement and the gunners' positions become connected parts of the same action. On foot, buildings, wreckage and other structural features give the environments their shape and provide places to take cover. The campaign therefore moves between personal movement, team placement and vehicle-based action. Those changes add variety while keeping the same concern at the center: using the available soldiers and equipment to complete the objective.

Experience gives survival a lasting purpose

The soldiers improve as they gain experience through the campaign. Their developing skills make them more effective at the jobs associated with their roles, such as steadier sniper aiming or quicker work with explosives. This gives a successful mission an effect beyond reaching the next assignment. Keeping the team intact lets you continue with soldiers whose abilities have grown, adding continuity to a game organized around separate operations. It also gives repeated use of the squad a sense of familiarity. The names become associated with capabilities you have learned to rely on, rather than remaining interchangeable figures in uniform.

Share the squad with local players

The GameCube version supports local cooperative play for up to four players, with each participant controlling a member of the squad. Dividing responsibility changes how you coordinate: another person can handle a specialist directly while you concentrate on your own soldier's position and equipment. The team can also share items, and fallen soldiers can be healed, so assistance remains part of the game alongside combat. This makes communication useful during a shared session. Agreeing on who will move, support or recover a teammate gives the different roles a clear purpose without changing the campaign's underlying mission objectives.

A mission-focused presentation

The campaign moves through desert terrain and built-up locations, using military equipment and spoken orders to establish its setting. Mission briefings and short acknowledgments support the feeling of directing a unit, while changes in scenery give you different spaces to navigate. The visual presentation belongs to the original GameCube release, with the emphasis on recognizing soldiers, vehicles and the layout around them. Conflict: Desert Storm is best approached as a game about managing a small team through linked objectives. Its solo control system and local cooperative option offer two ways to take responsibility for that same squad.