The potential for a wild ride was there, given the alternate-reality storyline at the heart of Codemasters’ Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. It takes a real-life event—an incident where Winston Churchill is hit and injured by a cab in New York City—and turns it into the premise for a big “if one event in the past is different, does it also change the course of history?” scenario.
Turning Point: Fall of liberty is a shining example of a great idea poorly executed. There is fun to be had with the game, but it's not the grand adventure it claims to be. Shooting Nazis in the streets of three major U.S. cities should be a non-stop thrill ride that has me on the edge of my seat. This game provides the opposite experience. If you're a die-hard WWII buff (or zeppelin fetishist), give this one a rent. Otherwise, skip it and read a Harry Turtledove novel instead.
You see, our current history is what it is because events played out as we learned them in Social Studies classes. But Codemasters and developer Spark Unlimited have created a scenario in which our history takes a detour in 1931, and the different outcome for this particular event—where Winston Churchill is struck by New York cab in 1931 and then dies instead of going on to lead England in its challenge of Adolf Hitler—alters the course of history that we’ve been following.
Consumers who participate will receive a pre-sell pack that includes war propaganda post cards featuring art from the game, exclusive access codes to enhance the game experience, a DVD with behind-the-scenes video features, concept art and gameplay footage, and a 1931-53 timeline poster, which fictionalizes the alternate WWII events that lead to the game's opening moments.
My problem with the demo wasn't exactly code based. It looked, sounded and ran OK (although the aiming seemed a bit hoky). My problem is simply with the entire premise of the game. Do I want to play *another* game that involved shooting Nazi grunts? It didn't seem to offer anything beyond an extremely run-of-the-mill gameplay experience, and with a month left until release, those fundamentals of game design are pretty much set in stone now.
I remain open minded, but I'm *extremely* sceptical of this game's quality, and more importantly for this site, it's ability to differentiate itself in an already overcrowded market segment. Is Joe Public going to shell out 60 Lincolns for this, or instead pick up CoD4 for less? It's a no-brainer to me.
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