Training
first we have to do three training jumps.
We control the drop with the left stick. we can slow our descent with a and look around with right stick.
Left and right analogue sticks are usual controls/camera.
Y is jump
X is crouch
B cycles between our weapons.
left trigger is zoom/sight along weapon.
Right trigger is fire.
right bumper choose grenades.
A reload/plant bombs
left bumper is used later in the game when you upgrade weapons enough to use alternate fire modes, some weapons can launch grenades etc.
Seems like there are six levels. Each one seems to be a sandbox type area where you have obvious and not so obvious paths to your objective. You can run around all guns blazing or take it easy and scout around and find good sniper points etc, come up from inside cellars using secret paths to surprise the enemy. You have that sandbox ability to come at the levels from any playstyle you want.
health system
You have four segments of health, roughly a bullet takes away half of one, it will recharge if not totally depleted. SO you have a health recharge system but only in 25% segments, health packs are dropped by enemies and you can also find chests which fill it up.
Using the guns frequently gets you xp which will lead to three upgrades of the gun the more you use it the better it becomes.
Mission 1 Operation Husky
Now it's the first mission
Adanti needs to be taken from the germans.
After the briefing we have to select our weapons, two machine guns and two sniper rifles to choose from at fist, we also have a pistol.
When we jump from the plane we have several landing spots to choose from. I pick one at random, as i don't know what the best one is yet.
It seems that there is a starting positon for each area with allies and germans in conflict over certain key areas. We have to join the fight which in best a.i. traditions seems to be going nowhere unless we intervene.
I land and begin making my way towards one of the gold dots on my hud which seem to be objectives. The first one is an anti aircraft gun. I fight my way to it and press A to set charges. It explodes and the first objective is complete.
When you hold left trigger to zoom you can also move up and down and left and right, which seems to be lean. So you can crouch behind a wall and pop up to shoot. Or stand beside a wall and peek round a corner etc. A rudimentrary cover system, but one that might grow on me.
I head for the next objective killing soliders on the way. I go into a cellar and come up inside the town hall, which has two aa guns on the roof that i have to destroy.
I fight my way to the roof and destroy the two guns.
When enemies die they leave behind ammo and health packs. You have four health bars which get taken down by being shot.
I have noticed two upgrades being given to me so far which seems to be given for hitting a headshot or something, the system isn't clear yet but my guns seem to be being upgraded by doing this.
I get to the last aa gun and destroy it.
Now we are given new orders we have to assemble at the north gate and help control it.
At the north gate when i find it, we are told by a pinned down team that we must contact a missing sniper team.
When we fight out way to the objective marker we find the sniper team in bad shape, there is only one of the two left alive and he is wounded. There is a german commander that needs to be taken out before he can use a radio to coordinate an attempt at retaking the town.
he is in the next building and easily sniped. Another objective down.
Oh dear too late the counter offensive is on it's way. We have to go back to the town square and consolidate to hold the town now.
Back at the square we have to now eliminate another three german officers.
Who seem to be back in the town hall, which is a real bugger to get into as it's now heavily defended.
I eventually manage to get inside. This game seems to use the infinite soldiers trick, unless you advance and be bold you can be shooting respawning soldiers all day.
Eventually I get into the building and take out the three commanders inside.
Mission is over first one complete.
The town has a nice design, red slate roofs authentic looking furniture, a town square and large town hall building seems to be the focus for this map.
Mission 2 Operation Avalanche
paestum in italy.
We have an archeological dig which has been taken over by the germans as a staging post. We have to destroy it to prevent their counter attacks which have been going on in the area.
There is a munitions depot, motor pool etc. to destroy.
first thing i come across is the fuel dept. Shooting at two huge red fuel tanks completes the first objective.
The second objective is a communications aerial which i destroy by fluke trying to blow up a german. Had been trying to storm the scaffolding where it was on about ten times and did it by total accident.
Destroyed the ammo store, which went up with a bang, long road to reach it and my support suspiciously dried up when i went into the tight confines of this area.
It's a hard fight through some scaffolds on a ruin to get to the area where the radio equipment is. There is a padlock on a gate which can only be opened from the inside. So you have to go in and shoot it off so that the ai helpers can get into the area.
Now we have to regroup as there is a demolition team coming up from the beach.
as we meet with the demo team in a circular area we are ambushed from above, things look bleak. Many attempts here before i find the right way to get cover and find a way up to flank and take out the ambushers. The a.i. are no help at all.
we now have to assemble with corporal Kish???
Now we have to storm a hilltop temple which has some large aa guns.
It's a classic well defended fortress and we are in the position of having to storm it. Not fun. Manage to get to the top and the a.i. seem to have taken out the aa gun by themselves. Of maybe a stray grenade got it. I don't know. We now have to set some signal flares for the bombers to come in and level the place. I suppose so the germans can't come back to it again. I get two of the flares, which are exploding barrels you have to shoot. Then i die and curiously the a.i. stop coming to my aid, which makes the fight on the open temple area rather harder than it should be i think.
Finally they get the idea and the last objective is an aa gun to plant a charge on. I do that and get the cut scene of the bombers coming in and blowing the place to bits.
mission 3 Operation Neptune.
Audouville France
We have to disrupt and disable german guns trained on the Normandy beach. If we can destroy spotting tower and radar facilities then they will find it hard to fire on the beach effectively. There are tanks in the area so we are dropped with m18's whatever they are. We have to pick up three m18 bundles as the first objective on landing.
They must be parts of a rocket launcher as collecting them gives us one, we can now shoot up the tank which takes three shots to kill.
With some good aiming from my parachute i manage to land right next to the spotting tower and survive. Inside it's a slow climb up about four flights to clean out the building to take it down. Much better than fighting my way along the ground to the spotting tower.
Next objective is a radar station, which has to be stormed and a charge planted on the array.
Now we have to clear out a bunker.
We have to now take out some pillboxes which is fairly hard, 2 to take and it's mission over.
Mission 4 Operation Market Garden
Holland
Bridges on the to road to Arnheim must be kept intact, we have to prevent the nazi's from blowing them to hold up the advance.
We are to disable explosives radio equipment collect gammon grenades, clear machine gun nests and secure the town of Mijmegen.
First thing i find is a machine gun nest 1 of 3 down.
Next thing i find while running like a madman around the infested town is the radio equipment. A swift grenade or two makes a mess of that.
next is an explosive plunger that is disabled by shooting at it?!?!
Another machine gun nest down.
I find a crate with gammon grenades whatever they are.
the gammon grenades have a big bang, a few of them take out the roving tank that is in the area.
Final machine gun nest is cleared out.
We have to regroup at the centre of town.
As we do a tiger tank arrives on the scene. A lot of grenades and swearing later it's blown up.
Now we have to assemble on the bridge surface.
now we have to clear and secure the top surface of the bridge.
This gips, one minute you have allies falling all over you getting in the way, and when you actually need them to distract people in a huge firefight they fucking vanish?
The bridge is a real pain in the ass, lots of rocket launching guys up on high vantage points. At the end of the bridge is a tank. Which is pretty easy after the hardness of the bridge.
Mission 5 Operation Varsity
Essen Germany
Tank factory, railgun and chemical plant to destroy.
Objectives
Destroy tanks on railcars x 3
Destroy munitions stockpile
Destroy railgun
Sabotage tank factory control room
Destroy pressure valves x 2
I manage to get to a pressure valve and destroy it. This level is made hard by being a rabbit warren of pipes and machines. There are now snipers. WHo are a bugger, but you can see a glare of their sights reflecting which gives away their position.
Another pressure valve down.
Tanks on railcars have to be blown up I get the first one.
And the second.
And now the third.
Slight variance here, after fighting down into the underground munitions store and planting the charge you have to run out of the building before the whole thing goes up. Handily a checkpoint is given before actually planting a charge so that after the inevitable cocking it up first time you don't have to do all the fighting again.
Grenade indicator does not show up when zoomed in, wtf?
Finally manage to storm the tank control room. Inside is a safe which we can blow which allows us to pick up another pistol we can use.
I finally find the railgun and blow it up.
We have to regroup at the steel mill for new orders.
Now it's getting silly a big train pulls up with a huge german in a gas mask with a big chain gun. Looks like something out of wolfentstein rather than real life.
We have to clear and secure the railyard now.
Destroying the engine and two cannon cars.
This section seemed impossible. The chaingun soldiers seem invincible at first, you have a small window of opportunity when they reload to get in and empty a whole machine gun clip into them. It seems to be the only way to get them or use grenades if you have them.
I managed to eventually get the one that is close to you at the start and run to the other end of the area where i could catch my breath survey the landscape and snipe a few soldiers. There are three charges to plant and two of the machine gun troopers. This is a very hard area. I dread to think what is ahead on the last mission.
Mission 6
Der Flakturm
A huge tower that resists bombing. Almost a city it is a fortress which is incredibly well defended. Guess who is going to try and land on it in a parachute?
Destroy artillery guns x3
Destroy AA guns x 4
Eliminate enemies of halftracks x 3
Disable ammunition lift controls 4th floor
Disable ammunition lift controls 2nd floor
There are rocket launcher troops everywhere, a full scale battle in swing and death comes from nowhere if you stand in the open for a second. This is hard. I manage to put some grenades into an aa gun nest by virtue of landing near it and chucking in some gammon grenades. I begin to work my way around the circular tower taking out emplaced artillery guns as I go each one is hard fought by loads of troops.
Everything is a slow hard fought struggle here. I manage to take out the artillery guns and some more aa guns.
I manage to get a half track which is a vehicle with a machine gun on top. I snipe the gunner and that is that.
I manage to fight my way into the lift controls on the 2nd floor, guarded by a storm elite.
After a long flight on the stairs and landings i get the second lift controls. Only two half tracks remaining until the first half of the mission is done.
I get the second last half track and as i am exporing for the third I am given an objective complete, only explanation is a glitch or the a.i. troops managed to do it for me. The ai is puzzling. Sometimes there are never ending soldiers coming from a room with no other entrance than the one you are shooting into, which suggests infinite respawns. At other times there seems to be a finite number of troops in an area. Sometimes your a.i. helpers are totally ineffectual, at others they make a difference, sometimes they just vanish completely and you feel you are fighting the battle alone. It's just not consistent and seems to work to a game logic that changes depending on circumstances that vary, so you can never really get a good strategy going as you never know what the competence of the ai helpers will be like or how many or how never ending the enemy are going to be.
Anyway that is the first half of the mission done.
Assemble at the control room.
Long hard fight to the control room, which seems to be entirely without reason, apart from finding an elevator which takes us to the demoliton team who are setting charges to blow the place up. We meet them and are told that we are leaving via the sewers, as we are leaving we are ambushed. By the storm elite christmas party. Managing to get through them it's a short trip through the sewer back out into the street running up to the tower where we set off the explosives and watch as the tower is blown up spectacularly.
Game over it's finished and wow that was damn hard. Playing on expert was just that, i needed to really take my time and think. Every inch of progress on the last missions was taken with many respawns.
Now the cardinal sin of achievements is broken here I played on expert and got 75 points for finishing it, however the other 75 for casual and normal were not awarded, that really gips. Making you play through three times for the achievements is not welcoming, if i want to play through three times then i will do it because i enjoyed the game that much. I don't need to be forced to do it to get achievement points, as they just aren't worth that much time and effort for a borderline game.
340 achievement points
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