"Turning Point: Fall of Liberty" should have been an excellent game.
It has a great premise - an alternate reality where the Allies lost World War II and Germany is invading the United States in the mid-fifties. The player controls a resistance fighter whose fight starts the very moment New York City is invaded, and later helps to blow up the occupied White House.
The problem with the game isn't the story. The story is fine. It's a great concept, really. But for one, the game is far too short. There are about five to six hours of gameplay.
Other recent games have been that short - "Call of Duty 4" tops out at about six and a half hours. But whereas "Call of Duty 4" is a thoroughly cinematic experience from the opening scene to the final action the player takes, "Turning Point" is a couple of entertaining moments followed by long, drawn-out periods of the worst kind of rail-shooter experience imaginable. It's made worse by the presence of one of the most irritating mini-games, which the player experiences when arming an explosive device of some sort or another.
The graphics aren't much to write home about, either - surprising for a game based on the "Unreal 3" engine. It's depressingly reminiscent of a lot of the crummier "Quake 2"-based games - think "Soldier of Fortune," not "Half-Life" - only this time around, there are a lot more shadows and pretty light effects. However, the player models are still the same inorganic blocks that plagued earlier shooters. The environment is completely static - there aren't any advanced physics in this game. Graphically, it would have been impressive in about 2001. But in 2008, it looks like twice-boiled sewage.
Not everything is bad. The actual story is pretty good, though perhaps a bit underdeveloped. The soundtrack is quite good, echoing movies like "Saving Private Ryan" or the HBO series "Band of Brothers," though there is something in it that has just a subtle hint of the 1950s setting that leaks through in some of the notes. In fact, it was kind of a shame that the soundtrack was wasted on such a lackluster game. If the whole game had been as polished as the soundtrack was, this review would be a bit different.
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Besides the soundtrack, there are only a few positive things that can be said about this game. First, no one ever really gets tired of shooting Nazis. That alone was almost enough to make slogging through the repetitive levels worth it. Second, it's really not that expensive. Granted, the consumer should get more out of $39.99 than "Turning Point," but honestly, not all that much more.
The real shame here is that an excellent concept is effectively ruined for at least a couple of years, because no one is going to want to make another game with the same basis. Really, who wants to be associated with failure?
"Turning Point: Fall of Liberty"
Grade: C
Available now for
Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
