Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (Xbox 360)

By altering history, this World War II first-person shooter is trying to reinvent the genre.
3/4/2008 6:49 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

Having already made some World War II first-person shooters -- including, collectively, 2004's Call of Duty: Finest Hour and, individually, 1999's Medal of Honor -- Spark Unlimited (and Codemasters) decided to do something different with Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. They based it on counterfactual history, which is when history buffs and historical scholars ponder what might have happened had a significant event turned out differently. For Turning Point, the event in question is the near death of Winston Churchill, who was almost killed by a New York City cab in 1931. Had he died then, it's been theorized, the United States might not have gotten involved in World War II -- which, in the game, results in Germany launching a sneak attack on the United States in 1953.

But while the Spark crew has come up with an interesting twist on the World War II first-person shooter, they unfortunately haven't come up with an interesting World War II first-person shooter. Sure, you may not be shooting Nazis and German soldiers in historical battles taken straight from the pages of history, but you're still just shooting them, since -- save for an assault on the White House and a battle near the fallen top of the Chrysler Building -- they don't do much with the new settings. Similarly, the weapons and vehicles are also only minorly affected. With the exception of some cool-looking blimps, the only difference between the guns here and the ones in, say, Brothers in Arms is that they look a little different and their model numbers are "Spinal Tap"-ishly one higher.

These, however, are not necessarily fatal flaws. Well, they are if you're sick of World War II first-person shooters, or generic shooters in general, but for those who still get a kick out of these kinds of games (present company included), Turning Point is a pretty solid WWII FPS. The controls are tight and responsive, the levels are sufficiently war-torn, and maybe it's the Woody Allen-loving/bagel-eating lapsed Jew in me, but shooting Nazis and German soldiers is still satisfying.

As you'd expect, the game has all the basic tenets of the genre, especially the better Medal of Honor games, since it takes a lone-wolf approach, as opposed to a squad or strategic one. The levels are fairly linear, there's the usual complement of sniper missions and turret fun, and there are occasions when you'll interact with the environment, albeit briefly. It's just the settings that are different. The game starts off with you trying to survive the sneak attack on New York, while you later join a resistance cell in Washington before ... well, let's not spoil it.

The other difference between this and other games in the genre is that you don't play as a soldier, but as a scrappy construction worker -- or so they say. The fact is, he acts just like a soldier. He knows how to reload a gun, even a German one, can operate a turret without looking at the instruction manual, and knows enough to look down the barrel of a gun when aiming. He also acts like he's been trained in hand-to-hand combat, since he's really good at grappling with guys. In fact, this is perhaps the only addition to the genre, since the fisticuffs -- which, admittedly, only involve hitting the B button and then up or down on the directional pad) aren't just limited to taking someone's gun and shooting them with it, but also tossing them off building, slamming their heads into TVs, and giving them swirlies. He's also tough like a soldier, since he can take a couple shots to the chest and, after a few moments' rest, heal up like he's previously answered the call of duty.