It's fair to say that there are a lot of World War 2 games. The constant battle of the Allied Troops in Europe! The constant Defeat of Hitler and his third Reich! The constant cry of gamers, becoming tired of the same old! I wondered where they could next take this World War 2 story.
This is the story of Winston Churchill, who was the Prime Minster of England during the Second World War. However this story is of how he was brutally run down by the most evilest character, yes, I am talking about cabbies! They are all the same, and I’ve been to a lot of places. In real life Winston Churchill survived, requiring a cane to walk, but still went on to lead England into victory. And credit where it’s due, I can well believe that the whole allied assault may have perished if he did not survive.
In Turning point, the whole premise of this game, what if he didn’t survive? This instantly tells you, that the developers too, were bored of the same old WW2 scenario. So they have taken it to an alternate dimension, where sight and sound are ... well the rest I am sure you can guess!
Leading straight to the question, if they were bored, why not invent a better story? Why go back to WW2 and repackage it? It just seems so sloppy, as if they can’t be bothered. This, sad to say, is the main factor that stands out throughout the whole game. This sloppy game, I might add, that you have to spend your money on!
It’s often said to British, by Americans, when there has been a small fight. “Would be speaking German, if it weren’t for us Americans!” And I whole heartily agree, also credit where its due, if the Americans hadn’t joined in, Britain just wouldn’t have had the resources/manpower to continue. Both Germany and England, where fast running out, so it was just a question of determination. But one of the things we forget is that, would the evil empire stop at just Britain? In Turning Point, the suggestion is that the Germans would have invaded America too. Practically speaking, I thought the British would be speaking German, and the Americans, Japanese!
Thankfully this never happened, as I was born in Hong Kong, which was invaded by the Japanese. If they had won the war, perish the thought of the outcome today! Leading to yet another question! I’ve never seen the Japanese portrayed in WW2 games. Even now I am struggling to think of a title? And I wonder, is because they are “too evil”, the Germans were bad, but the Japanese, to those that know, have no word to describe it!
This is just a personal opinion I’ve come to. As I have been to Japan, and can tell you, straight from the heart, that they are some of the nicest and most respectful people ever. Their reputation just stained by that one, very dark, time in their culture. On a side note, all the taxi drivers wear tuxedos in Japan, they don’t have to but they do, honest to god!
A small rant, and a little bit of info for you. Why did you need to know all that? Between you and me, I don’t think I’ll have enough words to describe how bad this game is! Honestly I am just trying to fill out space.
The graphics are average, nice, but with a slight cartoon appearance about them. It just seems odd that a game of this day and age wouldn’t be more visually impressive. Though it tries hard, as the first sequence, is of the main character, Carson, escaping the building site he works on. The German “alternate reality” jets, streaming by the New York buildings, add a good atmospheric effect. The “alternate reality” Zeppelins sailing in through the skies, as New York goes up in smoke and explosions, is visually impressive. Personally, even though its 2008, the beginning sequences feel a little 9/11 -ish, and a little bit in bad taste!
Weapons handle poorly; they just don’t hit the mark. Stealing the Germans weapons and firing back, you can understand why they can’t hit you. Then you get your hands on some good old fashion American weapons, the Tommy gun and the M1 Garand. But they don’t handle any better. Also there is a difficultly in picking up ammo, especially for the Rocket launcher. Sometimes Ammunition can land or be placed in an awkward area, and requires a bit of determination to get it.
At times when you gun down Germans, you’ll stop and take a double look. For two reasons, sometimes you hit a German, and it won’t kill him. Other times you miss, and he dies! It gets so bad, that over zealously, I empty half my submachine gun, just to make sure I get them. I have even tried the sneaky point blank, in the back of the head, with a pistol, but he still turned around on me! However there are a handful of weapons that work perfectly. Very quickly you’ll have your favourites. But the problem is bullets for these weapons run out quickly. The developers force you to use a wide range of weapons. This is good; however, when most are rubbish, you resent them for it.
Also there seems to be a delay in death! When you shoot a German, there is a noticeable pause. It’s like watching bad acting; a crouching German will pause, get up, and finally stagger to his death. Can I say this is a negative, not really, as it is quite amusing when it happens! Also when he hits the ground his weapon will generally fly ten feet into the air.
Having said all of this there are still numerous small glitches, and several flaws. First off Ladders/Doors/Switches can be troublesome; in certain parts they don’t work right. This can only be countered by running at the object and tapping the ‘E’ key furiously.
Tanks all have explosives fitted underneath them. Seriously you never pick up any, yet tanks/doors/Atom bombs have them installed for ease of use. Now that’s an invincible army for you, not scared of defeat, they fit a self-destruct mechanism as standard.
The AI, is bad, they are terrible at running away from grenades. Even if they do, and happen to actually manage to run away in the right direction, it always seems to get them. There are huge pauses between spotting you and shooting at you. But by far the worst thing about the AI is that they are pretty easy to gun down, there is no challenge, unless there is a serious amount all attacking you at once.
On a side note this game seems to be very power hungry. As I minimized the game, I noticed that it was consuming 90-95% of the processors time (an over clocked 3.6 GHz Processor). This is a huge amount, especially when you consider that the game won’t let you go beyond 1024x800 screen size. Also, especially when you know that I had the game paused at that moment!
The frame rates are all right, normally being in the thirties area. However it still jerks, as low as 8-15 frames per second, when the screen becomes hectic. I wouldn’t suggest this game to any mid range PC, nor would I suggest this game to any person. But if you do want to play it, I should also let you know that it also consumes a lot of ram to.
The story is of a civilian who basically fights the whole war alone. Sure there are others to help at times, but mainly these people are giving him orders. At this point you start to think why did I join the army in the first place? Oh but hang on... Carson is still a civilian, fighting the army’s war! I would like to meet this man, Carson, because in WW1 and 2 millions of people needlessly died. Where was Carson during all of this?
To top it all off, the direction of the story is terrible, especially the ending. If you do manage to get this far, and it’s not difficult, its saving grace is that it’s a short game. There is no glory for Carson, and there hopefully will be no sequel ... but then again that’s what they said about “Planet of the Apes 2”!
By far the worst thing about this game is the weapons. Comparable to a man out on the town, he drinks and drinks, and meets an attractive woman. She beckons him over and he somehow manages to seduce her. They end up at her flat, ready to do the dirty, but he finds the mind is willing, but the body is weak!
In the end turning point could not be saved, by Winston Churchill himself. On that note, I thank the lord that Winston Churchill was not around to see this title; otherwise he most certainly would have put his cane to good use!
