Metacritic Games

Army Men: Sarge's War (Xbox)

On the verge of a long-awaited peace between the Green and the Tan, rogue elements of the Tan Army draw Sarge and his men out into the field. Out in the field, Sarge discovers a new and diabolical enemy—Colonel Malice—equipped with weapons that threaten the very existence of the Green Nation. With his squad destroyed, Sarge becomes a one-man army out to stop Colonel Malice at all costs. Defeat your eternal foe the Tan Army with authentic weapons such as carbine rifle, assault rifles, shotguns, bazookas, sniper rifles, grenades, flamethrowers, time-bombs, mounted machine guns, and more. Deconstruction effects allow you to specifically target certain environments or body parts of your foe for exciting gameplay. Blast a leg off of a Tan soldier and watch as he hops around trying to kill you. Also, as toys, melting and chipping effects are central to the gameplay. [Global Star]

Global Star Software
Third-Person Shooter, Action
Players: 4
T (Teen)
Developer: 3DO
Released August 2, 2004

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

44 / 100

Critic Reviews

78 XboxAddict
The game is fun in its purest state.
67 3DAvenue
Fun to play in small doses. Once the repetition sets in during long stints the game's flaws become more and more apparent and it can lose the action packed feel which comes across during early stages.
60 MS Xbox World
It looks nice, it plays nicely and it’s short BUT it is a budget title and at £20 it is a steal.
60 GameZone
Blasting holes through soldiers is great, but everything else falls short.
58 Jolt Online Gaming UK
Cheap and cheerful would be stretching it, but as far as budget shooters go, it’s not too bad.
52 GameSpot
Considering that there are literally dozens of better third-person-perspective, run-and-gun shooters on the market right now, it makes it pretty tough to recommend Sarge's War.
52 RealGamer
The game also lacks any real variation as you pretty much do exactly the same thing throughout, prolonged play quickly becomes tiresome and the game starts to feel, dare I say it, like a chore.
52 Xbox World Australia
The game is plagued by faults in the control setup and AI deficiencies as well as a limited online modes.
50 AceGamez
The disappointing weaponry visuals are complemented with equally hum-drum sound effects. The assault rifle sputters rather than chattering away and sounds more like a rapid-fire spud gun than a machine of death.
50 Game Informer
I'm sure Microsoft fans are thankful for the chance to experience the painfully simple level designs, erratic targeting, inane storyline, and hideous graphics of Sarge's War for themselves. [Oct 2004, p.140]
50 Gamestyle
Along with "Army Men Tactics" its certainly one of the better releases in the series. Admittedly, this for some (including Gamestyle) is not saying much at all, but more than anything it shows that with a little more thought, development and invention these green men could be so much more.
45 IGN
And if you play enough, I'll bet you'll even want to slit your own throat. I almost did. But the knife, thematic apropos, was plastic. Sob... Sarge's War is relatively competent, but so dull and dumbed down that it feels like it was designed for the inept gamer.
40 Gamer.tv
Disappointly average visuals...Suffers from erratic controls and tired gameplay.
40 GameShark
The only thing that saves this game from a [20] score is the fact that Global Software did recognize they had a weak title and priced it accordingly.
40 Extreme Gamer
I think blowing little plastic chunks off the enemy is great, and if done right would be a blast. There is some mojo to be found in the plastic patriots, but a serious overhaul if overdue.
40 EuroGamer
It's not thunderously bad, but it is offensively plain, and there are some really daft design decisions lurking among the ridges of this DVD.
40 Thunderbolt
There's no attempt here to take a risk and try something new, which may have turned the whole series around...If they couldn't be bothered to make the effort and create a decent game from the plastic soldier concept, why should we be bothered to play it?
40 Cheat Code Central
Even longtime fans of the series are bound to be disappointed with the premise and the gameplay.
40 VideoGamesLife
Yet another crap Army Men game, only about as good as all of its many predecessors put together. It’s quite ugly, hard to control and really easy: it’s like your first girlfriend. You’ll have fun with it for a couple of hours but after a day or so you’ll change your phone number and hope it doesn't go psycho.
40 Team Xbox
The gameplay is horribly repetitive and dull, the controls are twitchy, the visuals are bland, and the audio is laughable.
40 Boomtown
The breaking of the missions into arbitrary short sections doesn’t work for me, as I would prefer to see a large mission with sub-goals rather than what feels like lots of really short missions.
30 Xbox Nation Magazine
When all the bullets are spent and the smoke clears, you're left asking, "Sarge's War, what is it good for?" The answer is, well, you already know. [Oct 2004, p.97]
28 TotalGames.net
The controls are all over the place, the collision detection is laughable, the missions are dull and it is the biggest waste of time and money since that thing KLF did ages ago. By no means be fooled into buying this, nah, you won't be, no-one is that stupid.
20 Sydney Morning Herald
Apart from the obvious flaw of a kids' game with enough violence to command an M15+ rating, this is an inexcusably formulaic and tedious shoot-'em-up.
10 Gamers Europe
A dull and unimaginative affair and if you are unfortunate enough to receive this as a gift, you should start thinking about what you did to offend the person who gave it to you.
10 GameSpot AU
They say that war is hell -- but trust me, you'd rather be burning in the fiery pits of Dante's worst nightmares than play through Army Men: Sarge´s War.