It's not the question of 'What if' but 'What happened'?
Graphics: 5
Sounds: 6
Value: 3
Tilt: 6
It may seems that the flurry of WW2 shooters are slowing down for the moment and a new period of history has opened up for gamers; that is the 1950s as you can take a look at the recent releases where they used this period: Bioshock, You Are Empty and naturally Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. On a personal note, I really didn't play much WW2 games as there is not much room to 'innovate' (yet still can be a interesting era to experience) however the 50s is where it grabbed me as to the rise of Russia and the Cold War can play the many intriguing 'What if' scenarios.
This is where Turning Point comes in. Based in the early 50s where it played the part of 'What if Winston Churchill actually passed away after being hit by a taxi in 1931'; and the result of this the Nazi war machine actually defeated England and now attacking the shores of the U.S.A. or specifically New York City. As for the player perspective, you start off being a construction worker high above the city on a partially completed skyscraper where you witness the unimaginable, the arrival of the mammoth Nazi war machine. Your immediate goal is to get down fast as the approaching Zeppelins and fighter jets are just on the horizon; all beautifully rendered on the latest Unreal 3.0 engine, you'll naturally think it's a perfect start. Well, like the story itself once you have completed the game you'll be saying not 'What if?' but 'What happened'?
The game play is your typical FPS; that is take aim, fire and move on. There are some nice touches to spark up an otherwise 'out-dated' approach as you can scale ledges and even grapple your opponents with some cool cinematic affects (like flushing a Nazi's head down the toilet) however overall the controls feel a little clumsy. Being a ported game I feel that the controls can streamline just a little more (e.g. when climbing ladders you need to select the 'use' key, watch the cinematic affect then revert back to the first person view otherwise the 'old fashion' way is just simply press the 'up' key - go figure which way is easier to execute...). For me it's too many keys to press just to execute a simple maneuver. Also this newly 'fashioned' regeneration rate and checkpoint systems maybe good for the console but for the PC it's a joke. Seriously, it's like playing in 'god mode' where if you get hit, chill out, eat a kebab and before you can say 'pass the chilli sauce' you're up and running again, fresh as a daisy.
On top of this (and this is more of a total rub in the face) there is an entire page displaying the X Box controller and how to configure it and a small link on the bottom for key binding the PC. Speaking of which, the entire configuration is quite limited (only three different screen resolutions and basic sound settings). However the worst is yet to come; not matter how powerful your PC there's going to be many horrendous load times. I really don't understand why as there is so much to load (every five minutes) however being a X Box port, I think that the developers 'Spark Unlimited' may have forgotten that the PC is a little more than just a piece of hardware; it does has components to assist speeding up the game.
As a historical point-of-view, Spark Unlimited did actually do their homework when it comes to technology. Again playing the concept of 'What if' the developers used this and created some really cool 'futuristic' weapons that were actually being researched by the Germans but yet not made into production. The most noticeable ones are the improved infra-red sniper rifle and the super heavy tanks such as the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus and Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte (and you get the opportunity to blow them up). Ruling the skies will be jet fighters (so goodbye propelled ones) and the awe inspiring mighty (and well armoured) Zeppelins (and its many variances).
If you had the opportunity to view the screenshots and read that the game is powered by the latest Unreal 3.0 engine, naturally you'll assume graphically nothing can go wrong. Well, actually it did. Considering now that the Unreal engine is more of a 'out-sourcing' venture now-a-days, Spark Unlimited seem to fell victim that the engine sold is not actually the real thing and tweaking it is a necessity; take a look at 'Hour of Victory' then compare with 'Gears of War' and 'Unreal Tournament 3' or better still read the case of 'Silicon Knights' Vs 'Epic Games'. For Turning Point the backdrops are spectacular from the opening scene where you are standing on a skyscraper witnessing the arrival of the German army to the collapsed Chrysler building to the impressive Uber Zeppelin hovering above the Tower Bridge in London it demonstrates the power and versatile of the Unreal 3.0 engine. However there's a dark side to this; clipping issues, poor environmental effects (smashed windows etc) and very poor choice of colours is a turn off and yet there are more abundances of turn-offs than impressive.
Yet the musical pieces is where Turning Point really shines. I thoroughly enjoy listening to the quality orchestral pieces as I thought maybe this was the only 'non out-sourced' material found anywhere. The pieces are extremely well suited for the style of game play at any given time and the quality is like listening to any high-produced Hollywood blockbusters. Yet, like everything else the eminence dropped when listening to the typical environmental effects like people screaming, exploding buildings and the like. The weapons however is quite effectively as they do produced a heavy thumping sound similar to what you'll expect from Spark Unlimited previous game Call of Duty – Finest Hour but that was four years ago. However kudos to those Zeppelin sounds when they hover above you with that booming 'whaling' sound – truly nerve wrecking.
The entire campaign is one of the shortest I have ever experienced. I normally take my sweet time witnessing the entire game from grass-to-skies and before I knew it, the game ended shy of five hours; heck even expansion packs are longer than this. I really couldn't believe that a game that took so long to develop can end so suddenly. My initial thought was that did Spark Unlimited lost their spark (pun intended)? There are some incentives that after the campaign you get to unlock the bonus materials which mainly consists of concept arts and there is that 'bonus code' you can enter if you call a certain number to unlock further features like unlimited ammo, faster regeneration rate and something else that really didn't inspire me (however those concept arts are cool to look at – seriously).
Turning Point can be considered that a brilliant concept of 'What if Churchill died' and using the latest technology is not a guarantee for a splendid game. I really cannot understand where it all went wrong as throughout the game there are pockets of absolute brilliance where the FPS market is in much needed off however somewhere it all went downhill. For me it seems that the creators was extremely hyped into making this game however maybe just got bored of it all and let it slide or maybe they had a brilliant idea on the surface yet as a game play perspective just didn't clicked right. Whatever the reason it's game over a lot sooner than you realised.