Title: Enemy Front
Developer: CI Games
Publisher: Bandai Namco Games, Origin Marketing (India)
Platform(s): PC (reviewed), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre: FPS
Price: ₹1,499 (PC), ₹2,999 (PS3 and Xbox 360)
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World War 2 (WW2) has been a choice setting for First Person shooters for quite a few years now, though in the recent past, the setting has got fewer takers. The Namco Bandai published, CI Games developed Enemy Front tries to tell a WW2 story from a different angle, through the eyes of an American War Correspondent named Robert Hawkins who is actively involved in helping the Resistance groups across Europe against Nazi occupation, in pursuit of the next big scoop.
Enemy Front tries to be different from other WW2 games in that it focuses on the Resistance angle in settings such as France, Norway and Poland. The Polish setting comes as no surprise since that is where developer CI Games is based. The game’s timeline is set in Warsaw during the Uprising of 1944 with Hawkins narrating his story of how he ended up there through flashbacks. The story is possibly the best part of the game since it is engaging enough to make the player continue despite the other hiccups. It is marred by some awful dialogue writing though, with lots of clichés and some cringe inducing attempted jokes.
Graphically, the game looks quite beautiful at times thanks to the power of the CryEngine. However, the repetition of the same few enemy and object models throughout the game can get annoying. The developers seem to have failed to harness the full potential of the CryEngine as a result. The 720p prerendered cutscenes on the PC do not help its case either.
Gameplay-wise, you have ammo crates scattered around the place with replenishing health. There are a variety of weapons on offer though you will only come across 2 or 3 of them in any level, either from enemy drops or from certain locations. You have Grenades and Molotov Cocktails, which have their own separate key bindings, as well as time bombs that can only be placed in certain locations. There are Door Breaching sequences with bullet time following, though your gun starts shooting just as slowly as the time is moving, thereby negating the potential advantage. Bullets can travel through bodies to let you score multikills in the same shot.
The game has a stealth system with an enemy detection meter, though you usually end up going in all guns blazing after trying to sneak around unsuccessfully. Sneaking lets you kill guards silently or take them hostage, to finish off after the clip in your revolver empties. You will probably want to keep a sniper rifle with you at all times, since you can randomly be rewarded with a kill cam of your shots. Also, it’s effective at shooting environmental traps and explosive objects from afar. You can hold your breath to slow down time and steady your shot. Zooming in through the scope shows a red reticule after a while that glows if your shot will kill. Other guns have a white x for indicating body hits and a red one for killing shots. You can spot and mark enemies using binoculars, though the tagging system is buggy and fails to tag at times. You can try masking your shots in some areas with a ‘Loud Sound’ mechanic
The game’s initial few missions are a drag and it needs a better tutorial. However, your experience improves slightly once you figure out the game’s systems and progress through the story. The seemingly open environments offer multiple paths to accomplish your objectives which you will usually discover after you’ve cleared the level of all enemies. The map offered by the game is a hand drawn sketch that’s rather useless to interpret. The levels are littered with hidden secrets that serve as collectibles. Finding these requires a thorough search of the environment, which is easy after you clear all enemies. The game does not surprise you with random spawns after you clear an area, which is a drawback as it relaxes the tense feeling of being in enemy territory. There are quite a few portrayals of Nazi atrocities to remind you why you need to fight them in the world, with lots of innocent civilians being murdered.
The game has a multiplayer section with Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Radio Transmission, though the servers are barely populated. You can try hosting a game or join one on the official servers.
The game can be quite buggy at times with you spawning with no weapons, the combat music getting stuck so that no enemy dialogues are triggered and some cases of invisible doors. All in all it is a rather mediocre experience.
What’s iLL
+Different Story Setting to other WW2 games
+Open Environments to let you take multiple approaches
+Great story marred by awful dialogues
What’s Not
-Repeated Art Assets
-Bad tutorial section
-Limited weapon choice in levels
For me this game is very interesting and looks pretty good. Yes I agree wiht that Enemy Front show different story than another WWII shooter game. Honestly I do not care how many time I can change weapon because I want play sniper or stealth style whenever I can. I think Enemy Front is good game which I can recommended.
EF is not without errors. Despite this, I played very well. Large selection of weapons, the most helped choose the style you want to play at the moment. I do not regret the time spent with EF. If someone likes climates WW II, like most EF is a game for him:)
You have a right. If someone like WWII shooter game that Enemy Front is game for him. Maybe I’m not the best FPS player on the world but I think everyone will have good fun with this game. I like this game beccause I very missed to WWII shooter game and here in Enemy Front we can come back to this war time.
the game has its flaws, for other defects, for me the advantages, a lot of games is now modeled on the ideal, and this game is a time machine for me! a lot of memories came back, I had a terrible pleasure to play in this game and would recommend to anyone who lacks imaginativeness older games!
I think Samsson are right. Enemy Front is good come bact to old good WWII shooter game. CI Games has great idea to create shooter game in WWII time. I’m very happy when can play on this game.