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The Polish studio City Interactive, mainly specializing in shooters, has released outright slag more than once, but sometimes it also pleased us with pretty good games. Last year's Alien Rage, although rather controversial, still stood out from the studio's previous projects. And now, after some time, the next creation of City Interactive - Enemy Front, is released, the actions of which take place during the Second World War - a setting that has recently been gaining popularity again.
The main character is Robert Hawkins, a military journalist who joined the Polish resistance in order to write a sensational article. Yes, mainly for the sake of the article, and he was not guided by any patriotic motives, although he still had personal motives. But this does not mean that the entire game will need to sit in cover with a notebook in hand. No, quite the opposite - we have to take a direct part in many hot battles, since Robert Hawkins is also an excellent fighter, who has repeatedly held a weapon in his hands.
We gradually learn about his past from flashback missions, which, unfortunately, sometimes only get in the way, confusing an already not the best story. But still, whatever it was, the missions themselves are quite diverse. We will visit picturesque Polish villages, snow-capped mountains, and even war-torn Warsaw. The only pity is that the developers did not add anything original to the missions: most of the gameplay elements we somehow met in other games. Also, it will not be superfluous to mention that the locations themselves are quite extensive, and sometimes there are even forks, which adds variability to the gameplay.
But for many, the main thing in shooters is not the plot, but the gameplay, in particular the shooting. And here at Enemy Front everything is not so bad. The game features a lot of weapons from the Second World War, which looks and behaves realistically. The main thing is that the shooting itself is felt, and you don’t get the impression that you are holding a cheap model in your hands, only remotely resembling the original. But the sound of shooting frankly let us down, seriously spoiling the overall impression of the shootings. The enemies in the game, as you might guess, are the Germans, or rather the Nazis, who, by the way, did not have any incidents with their appearance: the form is really historically accurate and looks a little worn, which looks quite realistic.
Sometimes it's interesting to just watch the enemies, listening to their conversations, jokes or disputes - in general, as you can see, the developers tried to make the opponents as alive as possible. But when it comes to skirmishes, the artificial intelligence of the enemies drops significantly: some Germans simply stand still, not deigning to hide in cover, some do the same, but already crouched, and those lucky ones who nevertheless hid almost always stick their heads out for showing. But do not think that because of this it will be extremely simple: enemies almost never miss, and it’s worth gaping a little, as you already admire the inscription “You are a corpse”, after which you can throw it far back, thanks to inconveniently placed checkpoints.
And in the game there is stealth, but, unfortunately, absolutely useless. No, well, a few Germans, most likely, will be able to be killed quietly, but sooner or later you will be discovered anyway, because there are too many enemies, so there is not much point in using this particular style of passage, it is much more fun to mow the Germans right and left in the old fashioned way .
The game uses the incredibly powerful graphics engine CryEngine3, and the idea of the graphics should be amazing, but it was not there. I don’t know how, but the Poles managed to screw up here too, because this engine is capable of the most. Yes, there are beautiful places in the game that just ask for a picture, thanks to an excellent lighting system, but basically the graphics are frankly disappointing. And even despite not the best visual component, the game sometimes slows down even on powerful hardware, but I generally keep quiet about weak hardware.
Also, the game has an unforgivable number of bugs. Just imagine: you shoot, you mean, at the Germans, you shoot, but they all do not end, a rod and a rod, and only after a few minutes you begin to understand that something is wrong, it turns out that the script is bugged, and you tried in vain not to die, in vain I have been shooting at these for more than twenty minutes... So, you load the last checkpoint and everything is fine, after a couple of minutes of shooting, the mission continues safely. And bugs with physics… in what positions local enemies do not die, sometimes even heroically hovering in the air. And, of course, getting stuck in the textures is not difficult.
Frankly, last year's Alien Rage was a flop. Boring, monotonous, in some places unnecessarily complex - in general, a failure is a failure. Luckily, the guys at City Interactive did a good job of fixing the bugs in their new creation, Enemy Front. Yes, this is an ordinary average shooter with stupid opponents, a not very interesting story and monotonous gameplay, captivating, perhaps, with peppy gunfights, but as for a Polish shooter, it’s very good.
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