This is a completely underrated game, if you like stealth, and WWII, pick this game up.
Gameplay is basically like Splinter Cell. Shadows are your best friend, and being spotted outside of them is almost always a certain death. Sneaking through the shadows, and approaching the enemy from behind allows for an instant kill, which turns into a nice cutscene of you jabbing a dagger into various places of the enemy (it honestly never gets old). There are a couple other things you can do once behind someone, such as pulling the pin on their grenade, backing off and watch it blow them (and hopefully others) away. Once dead you have the option to drag their body to the shadows you just crept out of, but its up to you. Sometimes leaving the body there can help setup some nice stealth kills as well. There are also hidden treasure and artifacts that you can collect, which earn you XP, in turn you can spend that xp to enhance your character. Stealth speed, your "strength" (how much of a beating you can take), and increasing the duration of "morphine mode". Some of these treasures are quite good find, considering some of the letters can lead you to caches of weapons and or morphine you most likely wouldnt have found without the hint from the letter.
There is also a "morphine mode" (basically pauses time allowing you to roam freely and kill enemies from the front or rear). Its very nice to have when in a pinch, and offers some strategic ways of using it, ill let you figure those out. As for the gamespot review, mentioning that the mode itself doesnt really have its place, once you play through the game and understand the majority of the story, you will understand why you're able to do this. In the end, it makes sense.
As for the story itself, i found it quite enjoyable. The ending itself wasnt so great, but the feeling you get from the game itself, along with the cutscenes, made it pretty enjoyable for me. But i guess thats for you to decide.
The sound is great, period. Guns sound great, the enemies carry-on conversations (which are also interesting in their own aspect), footsteps to gas mask breathing are also up to par. The German voice acting alone takes the cake for me, A+ in that aspect.
Visually the game looks great, and my rig could handle it no problem. The game offers graphics you would expect from 2009. Great shadow casting, large maps with great detail. The enemy (and you) are also very well rendered. I was very impressed with the graphics overall, and the load times are very very short (10 seconds max, normally 5-7). "Respawning" is also instant, and doesnt require a loadtime.
The only downside to the game, at least for me, was that the "gunplay" is horrible. Aiming is terrible and sluggish, and enemies can take 3-5 hits before going down if it isnt a headshot. It gets very frustrating near the end of the game, where there is a fair bit of fighting with a gun, and not stealth (near the end, the game requires you to kill enemies with guns). Alot of it just seems like trial and error, and less about aiming skill. I also played the majority of the game with an X360 wireless controller, but had to switch to keyboard and mouse to complete the gunfights (im a longtime fps gamer on PC's, not console/controllers). And even then, it was still pretty frustrating. The AI can also be pretty retarded at times, but not often.
All and all, i really enjoyed the game. Great Visuals, Voice-acting/Sound, Gameplay, and everything in between. Better gunplay would have made this game perfect in my eyes, but hey, you cant have it all. Most importantly, the game wasnt easy, and it wasnt "over the top" hard either, just the way i like it. This game, imo, deserved more than a 7.5. Im leaning further and further away from Gamespot for good reviews on games. I understand its my opinion, and they also have theres, but just be warned, if you looked at gamespot exclusively for reviews on games for quite some time, you might want to rethink what really makes a game enjoyable and "great" to you. Seeing as mine has obviously been steering in a different direction.
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Do i think there will be a sequal? No.
Would i like to see a sequel? Most definitely
PC specs:
Q6600 @2.4 (stock)
4gb Ram
Nvidia GTS 450 1gb
Windows Vista 32 bit