Enemy Front. All Quiet on the Western Front
The theme of World War II will live forever. There were already all conceivable variations, we played for different sides, saw alternative realities and even shot Nazi zombies. But for some reason, WWII in general and the Great Patriotic War in particular remains a very popular setting for shooters. A fresh look at the events of half a century ago was, shall we say, unusual. And the Poles from city interactive didn't get smart about anything. We are offered everything the same that we have seen more than once. Because of this, it is instantly forgotten; after passing, you ask only one question: what did the seven hours of the campaign take?
The protagonist is used to injuring not with a gun, but with a feather. Robert Hawkins is a military journalist who has been pretty shaken around occupied Europe. The curve led him to the Polish resistance, where our ward settled for the duration of the main events of the game. We learn about his past merits from flashback missions. The slurred narrative had a bad effect on the storyline: you can easily lose the essence of the story, and then try to remember how you ended up in the snowy mountains from sunny Poland. The geography of missions jumps from one country to another and tries to be as original as possible. Sometimes it works out, but we somehow saw all the tasks in other shooters. Shooting snipers, destroying planes with a turret, blowing up a bridge, eliminating VIP Nazis ... Run any one and you will see about the same thing.
The developers clearly wanted to give the locations a scale. At certain points, we are even allowed to make a conditional choice: to go left or right. Most of all, the approach resembles , but in a meat shooter epic games the forks were really diverse, offering different gameplay. There is no such thing here, the gameplay does not change a bit. The locations themselves are quite spacious, you can find a bypass road or climb through the window and go in from the rear. It is a pity that there is almost no destructibility: it would be great to undermine the wall and shoot dumbfounded opponents at close range.
Hawkins can not only scribble on a typewriter, but also shoot from all types of weapons. Oddly enough, a sniper rifle is often more useful than machine guns. With a well-aimed shot, the camera even demonstrates a flying bullet and the hit itself - just like in . Enemies cautiously approach the hero, but hide very crookedly behind boxes and barrels. The head is almost always visible, into which the bullet asks. Individual Germans show courage and climb ahead. Getting around and taking them by surprise is elementary thanks to the mini-map, where everything is in full view. Without it, it would be a little more interesting, but the developers clearly had an idea to focus on stealth.
Cheerful shootouts and explosions are now out of fashion: in many shooters, covert elimination of opponents is strongly suggested. The one mentioned at the beginning sinned this, but not as much as. Playing with artificial intelligence will not work because of its stupidity, and throwing a stone the size of a fist to attract attention has never helped in passing. It is possible to neutralize a couple of Nazis in a quiet way, but it does not make much sense. The hero will still be noticed, because there are too many enemies for stealth. And it looks absolutely ridiculous to be able to shoulder a corpse and hide it somewhere away from German eyes. Interestingly, the most effective weapon at medium and short distances turned out to be ... a blow in the stomach. It works flawlessly, opponents fall in piles from an ordinary butt poke. As long as the German turns in your direction, while he shouts something and aims, you will have a couple of seconds to easily knock him out. The best mockery is to drive the Germans to the spot and finish off one by one, while they are trying to point their weapons at you.
In large-scale attacks, switching to close combat will not work: they kill quickly here. They save mainly shelters and sluggishness of enemies. They may not see you point-blank, but when they notice, they shoot right on target. Grenades are occasionally thrown, which, fortunately, can be picked up and thrown back. The worst thing is when the endless hordes of fascists begin. They are rare, but if at this moment you missed the essence of the task, start wondering what they wanted from you. And at this time, the Germans all continue to appear from somewhere around the corner and run along the beaten paths.
city interactive has long been entrenched in the niche of mediocre shooters and feels comfortable there. - an attempt to take a new height, but it turned out not so well. A secondary "single" without a drop of fresh ideas, ill-conceived stealth, rough graphics even with a powerful engine. The efforts of the developers are taken into account, but this is not enough to make the game interesting.
A march across occupied Europe is not bad, and nothing more. The history of a military journalist is boring, the variety of gameplay is sucked out of your finger, but intense firefights are sometimes invigorating.
