First and third person action
One nice touch that we’ve not seen in a while is the ability to take over some units and operate them yourself in a first-person mode. I last saw this in Battlezone 2 and it was a great feature, something that makes a welcome return in War Front: Turning Point. Units that you’re controlling get a damage bonus so it makes it worthwhile jumping into a turret wherever the action is the thickest or where the enemy is threatening to break your lines. You can’t leap into aircraft though, which is a shame, and although you can control moving vehicles, you’ll have to settle for the third person view with them.
Click for larger imageOne of War Front: Turning Point’s most impressive features has to be the interactivity with the environment. There’s a fair bit of physics built into the game engine which you can use to your advantage in battle. For example, destroy and enemy tank and rather than disappear, the wreck stays on screen. Seeing as it’s there, how about pushing it around and then letting your infantry use it for cover?
Click for larger imageAnd while we’re talking about destroying the enemy, when you do take one down, they don’t half go with a bang! Bits fly off and bounce all over the place in a realistic manner and though I saw a couple of clipping issues, the overall effect is very impressive. I have to admit that there’s nothing quite as satisfying as manning a turret, blasting away at an enemy plane and then seeing it smash into the ground and disintegrate across the scenery.
Click for larger imageThat big one, landscape deformation, is in here in some small amount too, but you need some serious hardware to do it… such as an atom bomb. Set one of these off and you’ll create a massive crater in the ground with the surrounding area being pretty much levelled. Once nice touch is that the surrounding vegetation gets caught in the shockwave, rippling and swaying from the blast. Very nice.
Click for larger imageAt this stage with the preview code, the game is looking pretty much complete and though there is the odd glitch here and there, this is preview code we’re playing so you can expect minor niggles to be ironed out. Even at this stage the AI is looking pretty good and I’ve yet to see any pathfinding issues, which is always good. Graphically, War Front: Turning Point looks very nice with plenty of detail in the scenery and units themselves and we of course get to view everything in full spinny, zoomy 3D.
Click for larger imageOverall, War Front: Turning Point is shaping up to give RTS fans something out of the ordinary whilst keeping one foot in familiar territory, which can’t be bad now can it?
Check back soon for the full review.
