Honky dory TAB

Ok.. yet another WW2 shooter from EA. Lets get it out in the start. It dosent suck. Its not a big woop either but there is a bit a fun to be had in this game. The new "feature" this time is that you start your mission from a airplane and that you drop down onto a map. Yeah, the consept is that the whole map is open so that its up to you to choose where to land and start you mission. Its a great consept but dosent really add anything to the overal game-experience. Its way better then the liniar scripting that has plauged the franchise so far but you still have a set amount of objectives to go trough. And once you get the hang of steering the parachute you quickely discover that you cannot land exactly where you want. But cudos to EA. The parachuting is a fun minigame when you die and was new enough to hook me in yet again. *throws fist in air* The game is afot EA, the game is afot...

This game is powerd by the Unreal engine and it looks good but just good. The levels are way to static and alot of seen it before scenarios. Its all very grey and brown. Like most "realistic" games nowadays. What irritates me the most is that most items in the world that you incounter is deadstuck in the scenary. The effects of books and halfbroken bookshelvs flying trough the front door after you lob a grenade in to the room is nonexistent. Instead you get some smoke that clears up within 1-2 seconds. There is the occasional nazi-helmet flying through the air after a clean shot but thats about it. Its a shame that they dident include destructible enviroments or at least the ability to knock over cover. Another thing is that enemies have a tendency of spawning right infront of you. This dosent happen alot but its noticable. The physics on the soldiers is completly bonkers. You hit a guy in the toe with your M1 Garand Rifle and the german flys over the entire level. When are they going to work with "euphoria"!

. The game also suffers from bad/lazy level designing as I could easilytry to land somewhere I wasent supposed to and just sail straight-through the map

AI is another issue. Even the enemys from delta force 1 was better then this. They arent very smart but at least they are agressive and nade-happy, resulting in alot of frantic battles. Hit detection is extremely bad here as it tok several shots before they even registred. While theirs are top-notch and can hit you from the other side of the map with any gun whatsoever. You cant sneak up on the guys either. Its impossible!. Its like they have a eye in their back or something. Also attacking them from the rooftops is pointless since the they see you as soon as you see them. Event though you only see their backs. What kind of world do we live in where you cant sneak up on a german? Your team comerades Ai is sometimes useful, but other times they don't do anything at all when fired upon and often just get in your way blocking your view. The aiming is also for some reason hard to get used to. This plus the fact that the enemy animations blend together sporadic makes it more difficult then it should be.



The new cover mechanics works best on 360 where you have the pressure sensetive thumb-buttons. On pc you dont. This dident ruin anything for me while I was playin on the pc. It just made me stick my head out more then I wanted

Sound is decent. Some of the guns have a distinct sound and really sounds powerful but most sound like a duckwhistle. Although nais at certain key spots, its become a standard and is extremely over-used. It feels almost like a parody of itself



EA has included a upgrade system for you weapons so that your weapons can be upgraded three times as you progress through the game. This will add better stabilisation or a bigger clip size. You have a certain criteria that you have to make inorder to upgrade your weapons. Like exp: 3 headshots, or 5 kills in a row. The effect is really satisfying when you get a marksman or sharpshooter commedation award. I dident really get to test this out propperly since I just knicked two german weapons and stuck with them for the whole duration of the game cause they where the most effective.

All in all, the one real reason for why I keep on playing was because of the whole arcade nostalgi of the first "mohaa" and its still here. That keept me going to the real treat in this game. The 3 last levels in this short campaign is a real throwback to the castle wolfenstein genere, as you have to fight of these minibosses. A waffen SS ubersoldat gassmask wearing guy with a mean MG3. (think the enemies in Jin-Rô and you get the idea) There was also a level thats covered with snipers which was so injoyable since it was so far out there from what you expected from EA. Same with the level where you have a huge weapons bunker that you have to wade trough. But the game itself is short. Its about 5-7 levels and took me about 6-7 hours to complete.

Its a shame that not more ideas was put into this game. It feels like a polished version of the first Medal of honor game only with updated graphics and a tacked on parachute feature to make it seem like the levels are "open" and give that sandbox feel. Since most of the objectives can only be approched from one direction, it makes the parachute feature feel redundent.

Pros: Graphics look nais. Satisfying upgrade weapons system. Wolfenstein references is always a plus =d

Cons: The genere is done to death and adding anything new to this gametype is just impossible. First half of game is a dull afair. Parachuting/open level aspect of the gameplay isent really open ended enough, short

6 / 10

Labels: Game review, games