Conflict

British studio Pivotal Games launched the series in 2002 with Conflict: Desert Storm, a third-person tactical action game where players commanded a four-man squad during the first Gulf War and could switch between soldiers at any moment. Unlike most war shooters of the time, it emphasized switching between controllable soldiers, each with a specialty of their own - sniper, machine gunner, engineer, a commander with special gear - and favored tactics over a lone-hero charge forward, requiring players to assign tasks to whichever soldier suited them best. Battlefields also featured destructible cover, vehicles such as armored personnel carriers that squad members could man, and an overview map for quickly issuing orders to the rest of the team, setting the game apart from simpler action titles of the era.

The sequel Conflict: Desert Storm II expanded the story into further phases of the Gulf conflict, added new weapons and improved AI for both allies and enemies, while Conflict: Vietnam carried the same four-man command system into an entirely different setting - the jungles of Vietnam, with dense vegetation, traps and tactics adapted to limited visibility. Thanks to its accessible two-player cooperative play and focus on squad tactics, the series stood apart from competing war-action games of its day, even if it remained more of a favored alternative to the bigger brands than a genre leader. An emphasis on authentic period weapons and equipment gave all three games a military feel bordering on simulation, even if their tactical depth didn't match more elaborate competitors built purely around special-forces operations.