- 13,827
- Down under
I was looking forward to playing this game, and after a bit of time at the controls, I dont know whether to be happy or disappointed with it. With some many WWII themed FPS shooters out or some to be released, it has high standards to maintain to cut the mustard. For the sake of a benchmark, i will compare it to Moh:Frontline.
On loading the game, one is confronted but an unusually long developers intro, consisting of 3 "intro" screens by the programmers etc. Thankfully one can skip this in order to save time and sanity. The games intro is pretty slick with realistic representations of battle and human movement and appearance. The music is a good, if not exceptional. MoH's soundtrack was one that made the hair stand up on your arm; a hark back to unsung hero's and the bitterness of battle. This one is all a bit........contrived. It is appropriate for a game of this genre for sure, but it doesnt capture the solitude of single man battle as MoH does.
The startup menu is pretty bland when compared to MoH. It is a simple, 'Options', '1P' or 'Multiplayer' menu screen. Options have the usual difficulty, translation, auto aim, control select etc categories, and the first thing that caught my attention for later irritation, was that the control cant be customised. There are 5 configurations one can scroll through, including a 'lefty' option - but they are all pretty similar.
Selecting one player, we have the traditional, yet somehow unauthentic mission briefing. The game is structured so that the user does three campaigns, one in russia as a russian soldier, one in a British campaign as a British soldier and one as an American in an American campaign. The first campaign is the Russian, and you as a new recruit, are to begin the recapture of Stalingrad. A tip: be sure to take subtitles off, it distracts on during the game. The first mission begins with you in a troop boat crossing the Volga, being subjected to a tirade by a Commander. The crux is fight or be shot by the Russians (realistic, as that happened) but what left a bad taste was the repeated instruction to kill Germans at all costs. I know that is what likely happened, but it could have been done in a better manner. Of course, there are attacks during the boat trip to which one is helpless.
The missions brought with it a nasty surprise - the unfriendly nature of the controls. MoH has easy to use, well thought out controls, whereas this has complicated, troublesome ones. The fire, aim, reload and swap weapons buttons are flung apart like ground after a grenade explosion and an odd feature is the crouch-crawl-stand buttons. Unlike MoH where one could switch between crawl and walk with one button, we have one button now to activate walk-crouch-crawl and one to go crawl-crouch-walk. Complicated and confusing indeed. The human movements and appearances are quite convincing though and are a plus to the game. A negative is the sound and weapons.
The background noise lack genuine atmosphere, and doesnt come across as convincing when compared to MoH. The actual weapons are difficult to aim accurately, and dont sound as realistic as MoH either. There are a wide variety of arms though, each with its own pros and cons. What sucks though is one can only carry two weapons (which i suppose is realistic), but MoH had more enjoyment with up to 5 weapons allowed to be carried. One can drop a current weapon for another type left behind by "departed" AI soldiers, but that means giving up lots of ammo for the swapped weapon, so it requires some thought. Unlike MoH where throwing a grenade is easy and one can alter throw strength and 'cook' it, here the throw strength is the same always, and i have yet to figure out how to cook it. The buttons are also complicated to get one away without blowing oneself up. Overall, the weapons lack feel with the sound and action of the weapons being generally similar. On cant help but feel like the developers missed a trick. So many weapons to chose from, yet many of them are so anonymous to fire with.
Lastly on the gripe front, unlike MoH, there is no direction meter telling you where weapons fire is originating from. So some soldier can be hosing you with a Mp40 and as you cant tell which direction it is coming from, it is likely you will buy the farm and have be begin the long mission all over again.
On the plus side, all missions involve a squad based approach. You cant communicate with your travelling squad, however they do a handy job of defending you and cleaning out nests of AI soldiers. There is also a never-ending supply of them, so as the get downed more appear.
The game may develop more as mission progress, however it lacks the slickness in control and atmosphere that MoH has. But the human characters are probably the most realistic I have seen in a PS2 game and the missions themselves do a fair job of replicating the historical battle on which they are based. An enjoyable game for sure, but it somehow doesnt keep you wanting more like MoH. With the next MoH game due out in the next few months for the PS2, it will make a good time filler. And a good bookend when MoH is released.
Pro's
Many weapons to chose
Squad based missions
Realistic human movement/characteristics
Realistic missions/settings
Con's
Awkward controls
Background sound not what it could be
Soggy weapons sounds
Not direction-fire meter
On loading the game, one is confronted but an unusually long developers intro, consisting of 3 "intro" screens by the programmers etc. Thankfully one can skip this in order to save time and sanity. The games intro is pretty slick with realistic representations of battle and human movement and appearance. The music is a good, if not exceptional. MoH's soundtrack was one that made the hair stand up on your arm; a hark back to unsung hero's and the bitterness of battle. This one is all a bit........contrived. It is appropriate for a game of this genre for sure, but it doesnt capture the solitude of single man battle as MoH does.
The startup menu is pretty bland when compared to MoH. It is a simple, 'Options', '1P' or 'Multiplayer' menu screen. Options have the usual difficulty, translation, auto aim, control select etc categories, and the first thing that caught my attention for later irritation, was that the control cant be customised. There are 5 configurations one can scroll through, including a 'lefty' option - but they are all pretty similar.
Selecting one player, we have the traditional, yet somehow unauthentic mission briefing. The game is structured so that the user does three campaigns, one in russia as a russian soldier, one in a British campaign as a British soldier and one as an American in an American campaign. The first campaign is the Russian, and you as a new recruit, are to begin the recapture of Stalingrad. A tip: be sure to take subtitles off, it distracts on during the game. The first mission begins with you in a troop boat crossing the Volga, being subjected to a tirade by a Commander. The crux is fight or be shot by the Russians (realistic, as that happened) but what left a bad taste was the repeated instruction to kill Germans at all costs. I know that is what likely happened, but it could have been done in a better manner. Of course, there are attacks during the boat trip to which one is helpless.
The missions brought with it a nasty surprise - the unfriendly nature of the controls. MoH has easy to use, well thought out controls, whereas this has complicated, troublesome ones. The fire, aim, reload and swap weapons buttons are flung apart like ground after a grenade explosion and an odd feature is the crouch-crawl-stand buttons. Unlike MoH where one could switch between crawl and walk with one button, we have one button now to activate walk-crouch-crawl and one to go crawl-crouch-walk. Complicated and confusing indeed. The human movements and appearances are quite convincing though and are a plus to the game. A negative is the sound and weapons.
The background noise lack genuine atmosphere, and doesnt come across as convincing when compared to MoH. The actual weapons are difficult to aim accurately, and dont sound as realistic as MoH either. There are a wide variety of arms though, each with its own pros and cons. What sucks though is one can only carry two weapons (which i suppose is realistic), but MoH had more enjoyment with up to 5 weapons allowed to be carried. One can drop a current weapon for another type left behind by "departed" AI soldiers, but that means giving up lots of ammo for the swapped weapon, so it requires some thought. Unlike MoH where throwing a grenade is easy and one can alter throw strength and 'cook' it, here the throw strength is the same always, and i have yet to figure out how to cook it. The buttons are also complicated to get one away without blowing oneself up. Overall, the weapons lack feel with the sound and action of the weapons being generally similar. On cant help but feel like the developers missed a trick. So many weapons to chose from, yet many of them are so anonymous to fire with.
Lastly on the gripe front, unlike MoH, there is no direction meter telling you where weapons fire is originating from. So some soldier can be hosing you with a Mp40 and as you cant tell which direction it is coming from, it is likely you will buy the farm and have be begin the long mission all over again.
On the plus side, all missions involve a squad based approach. You cant communicate with your travelling squad, however they do a handy job of defending you and cleaning out nests of AI soldiers. There is also a never-ending supply of them, so as the get downed more appear.
The game may develop more as mission progress, however it lacks the slickness in control and atmosphere that MoH has. But the human characters are probably the most realistic I have seen in a PS2 game and the missions themselves do a fair job of replicating the historical battle on which they are based. An enjoyable game for sure, but it somehow doesnt keep you wanting more like MoH. With the next MoH game due out in the next few months for the PS2, it will make a good time filler. And a good bookend when MoH is released.
Pro's
Many weapons to chose
Squad based missions
Realistic human movement/characteristics
Realistic missions/settings
Con's
Awkward controls
Background sound not what it could be
Soggy weapons sounds
Not direction-fire meter
