Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Title: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: February 26, 2008
Date Played: February - May, 2008
Time Played: 14 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 2/5


Opinion:
Not many know this, but Winston Churchill, actualy almost died in 1931 when he got hit by a Taxi in New York City.  After recovering from some broken ribs and decently serious head trauma, it was established that it was entirely his fault (or so he said afterwards).

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty presents us with an alternate timeline, where the Taxi accident is fatal, and Churchill never becomes Britain's prime minister.  Not really sure why, but it is assumed that without him as the prime minister, Nazi Germany easily takes over Great Britain, and the rest of Europe. Hitler being Hitler ofcourse invades the US of A as the next logical step.

The game starts with you (a simple construction dude) witnessing the invasion of New York. You quickly pickup a gun from a dead Nazi nearby and join the fight.

Conceptually Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is brilliant, it is a creative twist on a stale World War 2 genre. However, Spark Unlimited (games developer) failed at the game's execution.

Levels feel very generic and uninspired. Guns are not very fun to shoot, and the AI ranges from broken to frustrating.  There are moments in the game where it takes dozens and dozens of attempts to move up 100 feet because you are in a small alley, and there are 4 to 5 enemies on the other side, with unlimited ammo and apparently full auto sniper rifles because they will nail you in the head the second you pop out of cover even if they are not supposed to be able to see you (because of a tree or a bush or smoke etc).  Turning Point is also full of technical problems such as blurry textures, bad animations and even ocasional system freezes.

Despite its problems I stuck with Turning Point all the way through, because I really liked its conceptual ideas. Whether I really liked the game or simply wanted to like it, and therefore kept playing with hopes of getting to a point that was well done is a debatable subject.

Bottom line is that I dont know if I would really recommend this game to anyone that does not like "what if" scenarios related to WW2. This game is a prime example of a great idea that is terribly executed.  Beyond the setting there is no fun to be found while playing this game. So if you do end up picking it up (I would suggest a rent or bargain bin, but dont pay more than 5$ for it). then turn it down to Easy and simply enjoy the setting. Dont expect to be WOWed by anything though.

I definitelly would like to see this idea explored further, not by Codemasters or Spark Unlimited though.