EA Los Angeles went from developing an absolutely horrendous expansion for one of the best WWII-themed shooters of all time to developing this very subpar sequel. I suppose you can call it an improvement.
This game is weird. It's like the devs didn't have enough experience with the engine and EA didn't give them enough time or resources to learn. Graphically, it's a mixed bag. You will see some incredible (for 2004) textures and shadows on the characters next to extremely blurry and flat textures on objects in the background within the same shot. From the aesthetical point of view it's also weird. For some reason the game is covered in shades of yellow, orange and brown, making every mission look like it's taking place at a sunset (my least favorite time of the day). All animations and physics are very jittery and have a tendency to spazz out.
Gameplaywise it's very difficult to understand the direction the devs were taking. It's like the game is trying to be more realistic with all the new immersive features they've added (like bandaging wounds, commanding your squard, etc.), yet at the same time they constantly swarm you with hordes of enemies like in some Serious Sam game. And enemies like running in crowds too, which makes killing them very boring. There's constantly loud music playing and things exploding. Yet with all that, the game still fails to be engaging.
Games of this subgenre tend to have linear levels and dumb AI, but that's usually offset by polished level design, immersive art design and balanced structure. This game has none of that. You basically run from enclosed area to enclosed area and mow down hordes of dumb enemy soldiers. Occasionally there are absolutely intolerable turret sections and escort missions. Scripted sequences often don't go as planned even when you follow what they told you to do. The game utterly fails to sell you the illusion of exploring the jungles with your squadmates.
All new features feel more like nuisances. Commanding your squad is not fun and pointless. Bandaging wounds takes no skill and ends up being busywork. The newly-implemented ironsights take too long to use, yet now that they exist the game expects you to use them. Allied Assault worked fine without them because the game was built around the mechanics it had. But here a lot of enemies are intentionally placed too far, yet these ironsights barely help at all. The game has so many invisible walls that I would often shoot at enemies in the distance only to realize they're invincible because there's an invisible wall in the way.
But the worst thing about Pacific Assault is that beyond all its clunkiness and design flaws, it's just boring. From its (by 2004) pretty tired presentation and subpar scripted sequences to its poorly functioning and shallow gameplay.
This game is weird. It's like the devs didn't have enough experience with the engine and EA didn't give them enough time or resources to learn. Graphically, it's a mixed bag. You will see some incredible (for 2004) textures and shadows on the characters next to extremely blurry and flat textures on objects in the background within the same shot. From the aesthetical point of view it's also weird. For some reason the game is covered in shades of yellow, orange and brown, making every mission look like it's taking place at a sunset (my least favorite time of the day). All animations and physics are very jittery and have a tendency to spazz out.
Gameplaywise it's very difficult to understand the direction the devs were taking. It's like the game is trying to be more realistic with all the new immersive features they've added (like bandaging wounds, commanding your squard, etc.), yet at the same time they constantly swarm you with hordes of enemies like in some Serious Sam game. And enemies like running in crowds too, which makes killing them very boring. There's constantly loud music playing and things exploding. Yet with all that, the game still fails to be engaging.
Games of this subgenre tend to have linear levels and dumb AI, but that's usually offset by polished level design, immersive art design and balanced structure. This game has none of that. You basically run from enclosed area to enclosed area and mow down hordes of dumb enemy soldiers. Occasionally there are absolutely intolerable turret sections and escort missions. Scripted sequences often don't go as planned even when you follow what they told you to do. The game utterly fails to sell you the illusion of exploring the jungles with your squadmates.
All new features feel more like nuisances. Commanding your squad is not fun and pointless. Bandaging wounds takes no skill and ends up being busywork. The newly-implemented ironsights take too long to use, yet now that they exist the game expects you to use them. Allied Assault worked fine without them because the game was built around the mechanics it had. But here a lot of enemies are intentionally placed too far, yet these ironsights barely help at all. The game has so many invisible walls that I would often shoot at enemies in the distance only to realize they're invincible because there's an invisible wall in the way.
But the worst thing about Pacific Assault is that beyond all its clunkiness and design flaws, it's just boring. From its (by 2004) pretty tired presentation and subpar scripted sequences to its poorly functioning and shallow gameplay.