Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Elite Forces: WWII Normandy

Elite Forces: WWII Normandy is a game created in February 2001 by Third Law Interactive and published by our big friends at ValuSoft. This game is a first person shooter. When I first saw that this game was from ValuSoft I expected it to be bad. My expectation was wrong, this game has been crapped out by Satan himself.

When first playing this game I had problems with the controls. We all know the typical controls of a first person game. W is forward, S backward, A left, D right and so on. But in this game those controls have been moved one to the right. Why?! And why is X the use button, why do they even use X. What's also funny is that you can edit those controls, with delete. That didn't work with my game, delete is now my 'explosives' button.

When I inspected the back of the box I noticed that the publisher was very fond of it. In their view the game has, and I quote: 'Adrenaline-charged warfare, state-of-the-art 3D technology and realistic lighting and environments'. Well, they're speaking the truth about the adrenaline part, your character moves way to fast to play this game regularly. The second part is ridiculous, just watch the video below. And to be fair, the third part is bullshit too, the environment looks like a painting and the only realistic lighting is complete darkness when it's 1:00 AM.

The box claims more: Advanced enemy AI including taking cover from fire. Nonsense, your enemies are almost static and if one even manages to move his legs he runs around like a beheaded chicken. They've already spawned behind cover when you enter a level, and remain there. Historical accurate weapons: Yes could be true, but that MP40 looks like it has been made at the local hardware store. What's next? A soldier trying to use a chainsaw as a weapon? Were they really that low on supplies? (contrary to what you might think, chainsaws are NOT effective weapons in wars)

The game consists of only 10 missions, which you can complete within an hour because they're all short missions with simple objectives like killing all the enemies, get from point A to B (which is almost the same as killing all enemies, there is mostly only one way to get from A to B) or destroying something by touching it. When touching something that has to be destroyed you'll see the line: 'You've destroyed the equipment'. It doesn't explode, you just get that awesome line.

There isn't much to say about the sound. The game has standard gun sounds. I was surprised that the Germans speak German. They don't say much different lines though, mostly 'hilfe' (help) when they get shot. I think I've said enough about the graphics already, but considering that it's from 2001 I shouldn't expect groundbreaking graphics.

In conclusion: I think this game has been made to honor the 101st Airborne Division, the men who were dropped behind enemy lines on June 6th 1944. But, this game is a disgrace to those brave men. This game can be fun though, but if you're drunk any game can be. I suggest you try to buy this game for a very, very low price, then go out with your friends and play this game afterwards with all your friends.



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