Speaking as a Jew -- granted, a lapsed one who eats bagels and watches Woody Allen movies more than he prays or goes to temple -- let me just say that I still get a thrill out of shooting Nazis and German soldiers during World War II from the first-person perspective. While some gamers, Jews and goyim alike, may be bored of this genre, it still holds a great deal of appeal for me, especially when it?s done well or with some new spin.

Unfortunately, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, developed by Spark Unlimited and published by Codemasters, isn?t especially well done, nor does it really have a new spin, despite the developer?s best efforts. While it does alter the premise of this genre, the effect is actually minimal, making this just another (albeit fun) WWII FPS.

The idea behind Turning Point is that instead of having you fight historically-accurate battles, you?re fighting ones from a ?What if?? scenario, one that imagines what would have happened if the United States had stayed out of World War II, only to get sucked into it when Germany launches a sneak attack in 1953.

Thanks to this counterfactual premise, the game doesn?t have you fighting in such bombed-out European and Soviet locations as London, Paris and Russia, but in an under-attack Manhattan, an occupied Washington, D.C., and in a version of London that?s under German control. But while shooting Axis soldiers on American soil can be visceral -- the battle near the remains of the Chrysler Building was especially jarring for this former Manhattan office worker -- as backgrounds go, war-torn America isn?t too different from war-torn Europe.

Similarly, Spark didn?t do much with most of the weapons or vehicles, despite the 10-year historical gap. Except for the blimps, which have been given steampunky makeovers, most of the guns and tanks look and work like slightly modified versions of their real WWII counterparts. This may be realistic, but it doesn?t do anything to distinguish this from the rest of the genre.

The game also tries to change things up by casting you as a construction worker with no military experience, as opposed to a soldier. The problem is, your character is either a born soldier or watched a lot of war movies when he was a kid, because he?s a damn natural. He knows how to operate numerous weapons, including turrets, and even aims down the barrel like a pro. He?s also skilled in hand-to-hand combat, since -- with just the flick of a button and a press of a directional pad -- he?s able to wrestle guns from his attackers and grapple with them like he?s been through basic training. He?s a little more sadistic than most soldiers in this genre, since he?s as likely to toss a guy into a furnace or shove his head into a toilet as he is to take someone?s gun and shoot them with it.

The action is also standard fare for this genre. There are turret levels, sniper missions, times when you?ll have to wire an explosive, and lots of running and gunning. There are a couple instances when you?ll have to do a bit of climbing, as well as some shimmying on pipes and ledges, but while this isn?t clich? for this type of game, it?s not unique, either.

As a result, Turning Point plays like a fairly standard WWII FPS -- or, to be more specific, a fairly standard entry in the Medal of Honor series, since the game has you going solo most of the time with levels that are largely linear.

While this is a solid, if uneventful, WWII FPS, it?s not without its problems. Most notably, it has a sloppy, unpolished feel, like it needed another couple weeks to work out the kinks. There are frame rate issues here and there; the transitions between scripted events, loading levels and cut scenes aren?t smooth; and the icons that are supposed to appear when you can interact with something (a button, a crank, etc.) are a bit touchy and sometimes hard to find.

The enemies in the game are also a bit too overconfident ? or they?re just dumb. Either way, they don?t always notice you right away and don?t ever try to flank you, though they will, especially on the harder skill levels, take you out by shooting so many bullets that you?ll wonder if they bought them in bulk.

The PlayStation 3 version of the game also has a control issue, though it?s one that won?t bother everyone. While the game has two different button configurations, and two left-handed versions of them as well, all have you using either the R2 and L2 buttons as the trigger. The problem is, the R2 and L2 buttons suck as triggers. They?re springy, prone to finger slippage, and just don?t work well when they?re being mashed during harrowing firefights. Anyone who doesn?t believe me should go play Resistance, first using R2 and L2 as the triggers, and later using the R1 and L1 buttons instead. Trust me, there?s a big difference.

The game has similarly prohibitive problems with its multiplayer modes, which are sadly limited to just Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Either the weapons are too weak or everyone is too strong, but either way, it?s really hard to kill anyone in multiplayer unless you unload an entire clip into their face or blast them with a grenade. It is also hard to tell who the enemies are in Team Deathmatch, as the only indicator is the color of your targeting reticule when you?re aiming at them, at which point it is usually too late.

Even with all these problems (the latter bunch of which could be fixed with a patch, hint, hint), Turning Point is still a solid World War II first-person shooter. It has solid controls, plenty of harrowing firefights and a compelling story -- and for a Jew looking to shoot some Nazis, isn?t that all you really need?

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.