Something I was struck by while playing this was how different the vibe is to later WWII games. There's an almost slight pulp feel to it. It's got that idealised exceptional lone soldier thing going on. Lt. Jimmy Patterson, best in his class, moving through Nazi bases like a fuckin' train.

No subtitles, so in the cool missions where you're undercover and have to secure and show ID to access different areas, all the Nazis are speaking in English with accents straight out of 'Allo 'Allo. Plus by that point you've gained some infamy for your deeds, which results in officers who don't recognise your papers asking a few suspicious questions before shouting "You're Jimmy Patterson!" and setting the alarms off. It's great. So daft.

It suffers a bit with some things due to its age. Enemy AI is pretty decent, but it has that thing where they just know your location, and corners don't really work like actual corners and can be shot through, so you're often hit by rounds from an enemy you simply can't see. The game can be BASTARD hard. No checkpoints, and it sometimes feels like enemies just spawn in behind you. I cannot imagine beating it with the default controls. I spent 20 minutes trying to remap my Vita controls to something resembling modern shooters before realising there's an in-game control scheme option that's extremely close. It just means that firing your guns remains on square. Not ideal, but it got the job done.

I wish WWII shooters would go back to this kinda style. There's a movie-like quality to it that's hard for an idiot like me to put into words. Not a war epic, but a wee adventure. Less "dude with hyper-real guts hanging out crying for his mum" and more "Eat lead, Fritz!".

https://twitter.com/NightmareModeGo/status/1525832960733233152

Reviewed on May 15, 2022


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