I've recently been catching up on this little WWII sandbox romp, which came out last autumn, and have concluded that it's a pretty decent effort from Pandemic Studios.It's rough around the edges in as much that the graphics, voice acting and controls could all be better, but it's a mostly solid game otherwise. It's also single player only, so no co-op or multi-player option at all.
You play the role of Sean Devlin, who's an Irishman that gets caught up in the invasion of France at the start of the Second World War and ends up helping the French Resistance in Paris and surrounding areas. This typically takes the form of engaging in acts of sabotage, such as destroying guard towers or fuel dumps, and carrying out a variety of missions for various people around the city and countryside, while trying to track down the guy that killed your best mate.
The map is not an accurate depiction of Paris or the countryside of France, but is reasonably nice to look at regardless. The city especially looks good when you're working in areas that have yet to have their morale lifted, because they're depicted in a moody black and white noir style, which is really when the game's graphics look their best. Once an area's morale has been lifted sufficiently, the colour returns and although the colours are warm and colourful, the game simply looks better in black and white.
The animation of the main character is pretty fluid and he's able to scale most buildings and fences with relative ease, similar to the Assassins Creed or Uncharted games. Although, the animation isn't as good as either of those series of games, but it still looks competent.
The music is all period music and fits perfectly with the setting, creating a nice ambiance as you drive about town looking for Nazis to gun down.
The controls for shooting take a little while to get used to, but don't pose any real problems when dispatching SS goons in their droves.
The driving is bog standard and won't really set the world on fire. The cars do feel a little bit 'stuck' to the road at times and don't have the same physics that you expect from games of this kind nowadays, like GTA IV. For instance it's unlikely that you'll flip your car in this game. However, this is a minor criticism, because the driving model serves its purpose sufficiently enough not to ruin the game.
One thing that may well grate on your ears, though, is the awful accent of the main character. And some of the dialogue is corny. Why can't they just get an Irish actor to play an Irishman? There's also a Scottish character with another fake accent, which will come as no surprise to any Scots. Again, get a Scottish actor to voice a Scottish character. Or at least get someone that can do the accent.
Overall though, if you can overlook less than perfect graphics, acting, driving and shooting, lack of multi-player, and just want to immerse yourself in the task at hand i.e. killing the shit out of Nazis, then this game is really worth the price you'll get it for, now. Amazon.co.uk are flogging it for £17 at the time of writing. It's well worth £17!
