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As much as I hate comparing games in my reviews, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty reminded me of those games I rented while anxiously waiting the release of Halo 2. Straight out of mid-2004, the graphics then weren’t very impressive, now it’s just sickening. There was the occasional drop in framerate, and lighting seemed to falter at times, but on the whole Turning Point’s graphics were done incredibly lazy. Vehicles, characters, weapons, structures, and the ground are just some examples of this unfinished game. If anyone knows what my favourite current generation games are, you’ll realize that I’m not all about graphics and a game can be good without top of the line visuals. But with sub-‘last gen’ graphics, you have to wonder what in the hell were the games developers thinking?

Did they want to put a fresh face on a tired genre? Did they actually think this could compare with the latest games? Or did they wish to further glorify American participation, by giving an alternate view on WWII?

Audio also has that feeling, that it’s been done before. Stale weapons sounds and tired vehicle noises do nothing to take away from the classic WWII game music, which is good, but again, has been done so many times before. The explosions and other combat sounds aren’t terrible, but they bring nothing new to the table. Also, voice acting follows the same line that all other audio does, as it’s done in the form of a low budget.

As a construction worker, you amazingly also know how to expertly work weapons and armoured vehicles. Some of the weapons and vehicles weren’t used in WWII but were in development at the time, the inclusion of these is pretty cool. But aside from that, the gameplay is textbook Shooter style with no innovation what so ever. There are puzzles in the game and this is something most shooters don’t have, but these puzzles were extremely easy and put together very poorly.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty has a disastrous singleplayer campaign mode, but even worse online multiplayer. With 4 maps, 2 gametypes, and an 8 player limit, the multiplayer is Turning Point is dry and empty. Again, nothing new is implemented. It’s not that the multiplayer leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth; it leaves you with no taste. And the same could be said for the games achievements, it’s almost as if the developers knew they would have a waste of time on their hands so they give a lot of achievements early on, for doing basically nothing.

Games are works of art, and I do not enjoy giving some games a low rating. I hate failing games and I do it grudgingly so. But Turning Point: Fall of Liberty earned its score and I have no problem throwing this game down as hard as I can.