Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
March 10,2008 - Many types of media have shown us that if you tamper with history, you are very likely to get screwed in some way. Imagine what could have happened if Marty McFly would have hooked up with his mom…or don’t, depending on how comfortable you want to feel. While not really tampering with actual, “living” history, Codemasters presents Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, in which they change the outcome of World War II. We can rest at ease that we don’t have to live in the world that Turning Point presents, but unfortunately we have to live with Turning Point on store shelves.

In 1931, Winston Churchill was involved in a car accident. He lived, provided morale for the British troops, and the Nazis would eventually fall. But what if Churchill had died? That is the question Turning Point presents. In 1940, Europe falls to Nazi domination after suffering from low morale, only to have to United States become Nazi prey in the ’50s. You play as Dan Carson, a New York City construction worker thrust into action. Fighting your way down a construction zone, you join the American resistance, battling through New York, Washington D.C., and London.

It is an interesting concept, but everything is squandered by Turning Point’s massive amounts of problems. For starters, the story is dull and almost uninspired. It is supposed to be an epic tale, but everything winds up being so stereotypical. Your character is constantly doubted and berated for a good chunk of the beginning, but obviously you are the “only hope,” so they reluctantly accept you into the resistance. Even worse, you are considered to be the best shooter amongst the lot. Most of the dialogue sounds like it was written on the fly, with as much melodrama as possible packed into it.

Mechanically, the game doesn’t have too much going for it. It doesn’t handle too clunky, except for maybe the look sensitivity. There are three settings, with medium feeling far too slow but high feeling far too spastic. Our big issues were with the recoil of the American weapons. As opposed to the Nazi weapons we picked up, the American weapons had insane recoils. Should you be aiming towards a Nazi’s stomach to kill him, your weapon will fly upwards as soon as you start shooting. Oddly, Nazi weapons were much calmer in this respect. The melee options are also whacked out (take that as you will). You have to press a button to enter a melee mode and from there you have the option to instant kill your enemy or use them as a human shield. Too many times were we disappointed when we would try to enter the melee mode to no avail, leaving us completely vulnerable.

Once you get past the clunkiness, you’ll find that you are fighting in the drabbest of scenarios. There is linear, and then there is this. Turning Point tries to play itself off like it is slightly open world, but it fails to be anything like that. The levels aren’t exactly repetitive, but you feel dull as your easily battle your way through Nazi foes. And speaking of those foes, the enemy AI is incredibly lacking. There were a few points where we could sit out in the open, taking our sweet time to line up a shot while a Nazi just crouched and waited for death.

Everything about the mechanics feels old, and the same goes for the graphics and sound. Games from about two years ago make Turning Point feel slightly outdated, which, by any means, is kind of sad. Characters look boxy with little detail. Some of the environments look a little above average, but the rest barely make it the average point. Explosion effects are also sort of pathetic, at least in terms of grenade explosions, and so are the sound effects to go with it. The music is also generic and doesn’t add much to… well, anything.

Multiplayer not only brings about its own problems, but also makes the preexisting problems worse. The American weapons recoil is a bit more extreme and forces you to avoid using the iron sights. Shooting from the hip works much better, providing your shots actually do something to your enemy. Without lag or similar problems, it took multiple clips to dispose of anything enemies. We may as well have been playing with pea shooters. That is how weak they were. Thankfully, we never encountered lag, because that would only make things worse. And while we always provide our own voice, we must quote somebody we played with: “This sucks.” We couldn’t have said it any simpler ourselves.

After playing through just a bit of Turning Point, we were completely disappointed. The old feeling to it completely ruined the original concept. It is said often, but there are plenty of other shooters out there that are more worth your while. So whether you were thinking of buying or renting, save your cash.

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