Deserves a better fate
The Great:
- one of my fave single player campaigns
- excellent weapons - look, sound and function.
- great sound all around.
- nice ambient atmosphere throughout.
- excellent, classic WW2 movie music.
- varied, interesting and authentic looking environments.
- upgradeable weapons and ability to land all over make the single player extremely re-playable.
- retention of your upgrades when respawned.
- no obvious enemy respawn locations.
- cool and different battle locations, based on historical fact.
- in my opinion, the absolute BEST duck, cover and fire set up - even better than COD WAW and Hell's Highway. it allows for super subtle lean-in shots. this accuracy means head shots galore. i wish the COD series would incorporate this nice tweak.
- enjoyed the little tank excursion. not great, but fun all the same.
The Not as Great:
- A few spots are frustratingly hard on veteran, like the Nijmagen bridge fight in Holland and parts of the Flak Tower finale. BTW, these are a historical fact, naysayers. about 8 massive towers like this existed in Germany and Austria. Wikipedia it and you'll see. some had up to 300 soldiers garrisoning them and could house up to 3000 civilians too. only the Airborne never had to storm one. our Russian Allies bumped into a couple in Berlin in late April 1945, though. the mega SS Storm Trooper dudes though... i dunno. but they hardly ruin the game for me. hey, it's a video game!
- the earning of medals remains a mystery. i mean what's a guy got to do to earn 5 in all stages? pretty sure i got everything done and yet, nope. 3 of 5...
- i dropped in on the multiplayer and it was a serious ghost town. you could hear a mouse fart. needless to say, i skeddadled back to WAW.
In Summary:
i feel that EA deserved far more credit for this game. great fun, great sounds, great replay value. its only serious knock seems to be that it was set in WW2. a lot of us like this genre though and if you're one of us, overlook the industry reviews and pick up this little bargain for yourself. i'm sure you'll enjoy.