A grey-brown WW2 military cover-based TPS… and I actually bought this? Am I going crazy? Well, it’s mostly because I heard good things about it from the gentlemen on the Hate Bit Podcast and I found it for 20$ even though it’s a new 50$ game (it came out in May)… So I figured I’d check it out and make a blurb review for it.
So what’s the appeal here? Well, it’s, technically, a stealth-based game where you play as a sniper in WW2 and you have to take out multiple targets as you traverse different areas. It features a variety of gadgets, possibility for strategy (you can, say, place land mines on dead bodies to kill whoever would go check on said dead body, or place trip mines at doors to prevent people from entering the building you’re in) and realistic physics when shooting with the sniper rifle (where you have to take wind and gravity into account when shooting).
Well, after playing a few missions, I saw that the game has a whole lot of potential, but it was lacking in many elements that make the experience as a whole disappointing. My big problem is that the stealth element is basically not there. You can generally only kill a person or 2 without being detected, but that’s pretty rare. Add to that the fact that most areas have snipers who will see you no matter what (that is, if the non-snipers don’t see you before), and that your sniper isn’t silenced so shooting anyone means you will be found instantly… The stealth is rather weak here. It almost always degenerates to an all-out gunfight and there’s rarely anything you can do about it since the game relies heavily on open areas with no place to hide. Oh, and the fact that enemies are just as accurate with machine guns as you are with a sniper rifle at the same distance… it’s a really unbalanced experience overall.
You can’t really plan out your attack/escape plan, it’s just shoot stuff in a very enclosed area and then follow arrows to the next objective. You can technically stealth through a few select areas, and you can even hide bodies to lower the changes of getting caught, but that rarely comes into play, with the emphasis being on shooting stuff…
Verdict: Lots of potential, but it failed to really grab me. It feels too basic to me, a bit too much like, well, the average cover-based TPS that I tend to not enjoy. It could be a lot more than it is, the base mechanics are definitely strong enough to make for a more interesting experience. But this, sadly, falls short.
Blurb reviews are short 1-2 paragraph mini-reviews of games I’ve played and don’t feel like making full reviews of for various reasons
jobocan blurb review, Console, Games, impressions, PC, ps3, Review, xbox 360
