preview 'enemy front' is just days away, our thoughts and hands on -
TRANSCRIPT
Preview: 'Enemy Front' is just
days away, our thoughts and hands-
on
http://www.gamebasin.com/news/preview-enemy-front-is-just-days-away-
our-thoughts-and-hands-on
CI Games, of Sniper: Ghost Warrior fame, prepares to offer up Enemy Front, a WWII first‐person
shooter, focused on the activities of the resistance during the war. CI, headquartered in Warsaw,
looks to shake up gameplay during the players run through, and adds in some interesting quirks
that will make exploring your approach a more necessary process heading toward each
engagement. Enemy Front’s story follows Robert Hawkins, an American journalist deep behind
enemy lines and embedded with a group of resistance fighters. Hawkins journey will find him
utilizing many tools in order to complete the open‐ended style missions featured in Enemy Front.
The player is left to decide how to approach each engagement with Nazi forces, and truly does
have the choice of consequence for the German foes. Repeatedly during our play‐through we
noticed assets in the environment that would momentarily glint, informing the player that you
could shoot that object to trigger some sort of distraction, or perhaps an environmental method
of dispatching your enemy. Removing the stop‐blocks from a truck’s tires causes the truck to careen
out of a garage and slam into the side of a nearby guard building. The guards investigate, giving
Hawkins enough time to slip by to the next area, or to place a few suppressed shots into their
cavities, choice is the name of the game. Cranes with hanging boxes can be shot to drop their
payload on unsuspecting Nazis. Logs holding back a wall of timber can be removed via bullet and
send the lumber heading downhill to take out enemies. During our play, we tried out two
independent missions, the first set in the mountains of Norway at a hydroelectric power plant
being used to further Nazi aspirations of an atomic superweapon. Some may be surprised to know
that this is in fact an actual Special Forces mission carried out in WWII by British and Norwegian
operatives working with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Immediately upon insertion a few
things were clear; CryEngine 3 is capable of stunning landscapes, and being granted two silenced
weapons in addition to a standard sniper rifle dictated that choice was an emphasis. Environmental
and particle effects did wonders conveying the sense of cold and bitter stinging that must be
inevitable at the installation we were about to raid. Frost was rendered on to assets like boxes in a
way that made us physically feel a bit of that chill that our SOE friends must have endured. The
mission played out as many do within the FPS genre, kill enemies to proceed to your objective, kill
said enemy/place bomb/release prisoners and continue on your path. What was not so apparent
in this preview build was the narrative emphasis or what story CI Games was truly trying to tell. It
became an exercise in muscle memory for mouse clicking and peeking around cover, but ultimately
felt a bit stale and less than thrilling. The protagonist’s motivations beyond killing Nazis and blowing
up a plant were a bit unclear, and the voice acting from the primary character seemed a bit forced.
While AI squadmates did accompany for part of the mission, they barked typical FPS banter during
firefights, and provided some context for what needed to happen next, but again felt as though
they were just side characters in a march through the installation. Upon exiting the mission area,
a short cut scene does a good job of setting up what to expect from the mission to follow. Our main
character and cohort are approached by their squad mate exiting the facility, only to find that a
large shipment of heavy water has already left the plant, bound for German research institutions.
This detail again confirms the fairly accurate retelling of history through Enemy Front, in that this
is indeed what happened during the SOE raids, and SOE forces ultimately follow this information
to engage the shipment that left. “Fire in the Sky” as it was called was our second mission to try in
Enemy Front, and provided another chance to dive in to the world of mid 40’s conflict, and perhaps
reveal some more motivations behind our protagonist and his unit. The mission begins with
Hawkins sneaking his way in to yet another Nazi installation, this time the environment has
changed to less of the harsh cold of the Norwegian peaks, and more to the forests of lower altitudes.
We were granted a suppressed submachine gun, pistol, and a standard assault rifle to carry out our
infiltration. We utilized the vehicle distraction mentioned earlier to get in past the guards, kill
whomever might uncover our presence, and continue to clear the way for our Air Force to bombard
the V1/V2 missile location. More often than not, attempted stealth tactics worked for a bit until
that one pesky guard decided now is the best time to turn around. This led to multiple firefights
that brought back more of the same feelings from the first level of crouch for cover, reload, shoot,
rinse, repeat. While it’s tough to shake FPS convention in firefights, Enemy Front does do a great
job of making you feel like you can resolve the fight in different manners. More than once we
triggered those environmentals just to see what might happen, and how it would change the flow
of the game. The level continued to some open areas and ultimately a launch pad wherein we had
to destroy the V2 rockets with their systems targeting our homes. Overall the time with Enemy
Front was enjoyable, but what didn’t resonate nearly enough was any sort of emotional weight or
narrative drive. We didn’t feel that connection to the characters thats almost necessary in a
modern made WWII shooter. While the historical accuracy of the missions, locations, units, and
weapons is most certainly there, it can’t go unnoticed that the story seemed to be lacking passion.
We didn’t feel that same emotion that showed up in earlier promotional trailers. Whether the full
game suffers from the same emotional disconnect is something we will all find out when Enemy
Front launches on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on June 10th. The game will be offered in a Standard
Edition with retailer specific DLC Packs for $39.99 or a Special Edition which includes the French
Liberation Officer DLC, British Commando DLC, an exclusive single‐player mission: Raid on St.
Nazaire, and a pair of weapons in the M1 Garand rifle and Webley pistol Remaining to be seen is
how Enemy Front’s 12‐player multiplayer will stack up and differentiate itself, as well as how the
rest of the game follows Hawkins, the SOE group, and what locations will play their part in the
game.
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