Not only are there an obscene amount of chest melons in this game, the game itself seems to have gone tits up.
It's WWII, Nazi occupied France, and our Irish protagonist Sean has met up with Luc, leader of the French resistance. Naturally, Sean has a haunted past which involves a close friends death at the hands of the Nazi's, and is eager to set things straight.
After the first few hours of gameplay, I'm disappointed at the predictable plot and its developments, but find that the characters are interesting enough so that its not quite so noticable. The voice acting is really good when the dialogue isn't formulaic, and Seans Irish witticisms and euphemisms add an individual spark to what would otherwise be a bland action hero character.
The most disappointing thing about this game is the gameplay itself. From what I thought was a promising start to what seemed to be a game based on espionage, it has ended up being about as tactical as Grand Theft Auto (though to be fair, where I come from blowing things up and arbitrarily killing the general public of a city IS considered a tactic, or a family gathering).
On a normal difficulty I can get shot at and shot for about 2 minutes before I am in any danger of actually dying, and trying to not get caught sneaking around is so hard and seemingly arbitrary that the faster, easier option is to simply run and gun.
To myself and my Viking people, espionage is an astounding feat. 'Sneaking' wasn't a word my people knew or understood until I played Splinter Cell, when over my shoulder they asked why my character wasn't running at his enemies and bellowing death cries. The idea that your enemies last vision wouldn't be 120kg of hairy, muscled armed Viking sinking an double headed axe through thier sternum was something that could only exist in the imagination.And so it has almost been proven. The game plays like a bad hybrid of GTA and Assassins Creed. While it is nice to have a freedom to move about, the point of moving about in such a way is almost moot when it is so easy to be spotted.
In one of the missions, our main character is given an assignment in which he has to help POW's escape. Just before the mission begins, he says 'I'd better keep a low profile'. After about an hour of trying to sneak in, knock out a guard, put on his uniform, sneak up to the gate and undo the first lock, I finally succeeded. Immediately after the lock was open, the prisoners ran out and there was a gunbattle. I then proceeded on a bloody shooting rampage and opened the other gates and ran off into the night.
I felt cheated. If I wanted to go on a bloody mindless rampage I would tell Olaf that the neighbouring village saw him wearing that dress that one time, and simply tag along for the ride.
I feel this game could have been so much more. Had it been a darker, grimmer game, a thug-like Splinter Cell, I think it would have left shelves instantly, rather than plummeting to 50% off in the first month of its release.
I will undoubtedly pick up and play this game now and again, but I don't think I'll ever truly enjoy it.
Mark's Mark: 2/5
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