Jake Jeffers returns! Another lame budget FPS set in Colombia from CI.
With the benefit of hindsight, let me just say that the TTCO demo has the two "best" missions in the game and there is no real need to look further, whether or not you have played TTWC. Alas even though pitches as a sequel TTCO offers nothing new in terms of gameplay or AI improvements over TTCW. Apart from the two missions/maps in the demo the remaining maps/environments looked strangely familiar. In fact I reinstalled TTWC to see if I was imagining things ... I was not. TTWC had six maps and TTCO has six and surprisingly four are common to both games, so all up there are eight maps spread over the two games.
The common maps are "identical" although you may enter and/or leave the maps from different areas or there may be some additional textures (like wrecked vehicles, a few new buildings, etc). For example, the airport (more a jungle airfield) is identical to that in TTWC except that the buildings are now ruins following the explosions, shown in the cut scene, at the end of TTWC. The other maps like the swamp, village (with a different name in each game) and enemy camp are identical in both games. In fact if you do the math, TTCO has eleven missions spread over six maps means that you will be fighting your way to the main campaign objective and back out again over the same maps.
While the TTCO and TTWC are similar to City Interactive's (CI) later Code of Honor: French Foreign Legion (COHFFL, 2007) and use the same Chrome 2 Engine, neither TTCO nor TTCW is not up to that "standard". So while it is reasonable to say CI's FPS games did improve from 2006 to 2007, this was at best a marginal, not ground shaking, improvement.
The premise of TTCO is US Special Forces involvement (your character is Jake Jeffers, this time aka "Vector-2") in the continuing war against the remnants of the Benedicion drug cartel in Colombia. Your overall aim seems to be to eliminate Dolo Mendoza and recover his PDA containing information about the drug network and get it back to HQ. That's all you really need to know as without more than a hasty introductory video you are transported into the jungle to defend the airstrip blown up in in TTCW. For those, like me, who cannot quite make sense of the muddled narrative the printed game manual, which actually outlines the entire storyline, may be helpful. Tom Clancy this is not.
Each mission is preceded with a very brief mission briefing, which due to the translation from Polish mixes past, present and future tenses and indeed often gives away the mission's surprise element. There are no cut scenes, until the final mission is completed, and you only have the very poorly written mission briefings to keep the narrative, such as it is, flowing. Every now and then during a mission you, as Jake, will hear instructions or updates from a disembodied voice, probably at HQ ... no doubt a keen eyed individual who can warn of dangers, like incoming grenades, while you are walking on a dense jungle path.
As in TTWC the missions in TTCO are tightly scripted. No, I don't mean it has a rivetting narrative, rather TTCO is very much an "on the rails" experience. Enemy NPCs appear out of nowhere ... no doubt triggered by moving through some programmed trigger point ... irrespective of making any sense in the prevailing tactical situation. There are few real surprises and be prepared to encounter pockets of enemies, usually in twos or threes, as you advance on any of the maps. Just make sure you reload after each encounter just in case the next ten steps triggers the next group to pop up and shoot at you.
The eleven missions that comprise TTCO can be outlined as follows, those marked with an asterisk are also presented in full in the TTCO demo:
1 Blowback - defend airstrip against enemy attacks, destroy enemy helo, clear buildings of remnant enemy forces
2 Tochapil* - attack enemy holding out in pre-Colombian ruins, fight to top of the temple tower, shoot down helos, back down tower fight reinforcements, Dolo Mendoza escapes
3 Mayday - journey through jungle paths, rescue downed helicopter crew, destroy enemy APCs, prevent looting of downed Dakota
4 Sparrowhawk - infiltrate enemy held Tabernilla village (known as Narrachos in TTCW), retrieve explosives, destroy APCs, blow up a warehouse andmobile AA weapons, meet up with humvee team
5 Pinchers - on-the-rails manning MG on humvee ride, dismount clear roadblocks with explosives, remount/dismount, shoot down helo
6 Mendoza City - night infiltration of main enemy camp, fight through several sections comprising the camp, Dolo Mendoza escapes again
7 Underworld - fight through enemy infested tunnel complex (more like covered trenches than tunnels) [this mission took over 5 minutes to load]
8 Dolo's Bad Day - track Dolo to enemy infested swamp, hitch a ride on an inflatable zodiac (incongruously called a amtrac) clearing out enemy, [advised by zodiac pilot to "search the tunnels to the left" which is in fact a stream], eventually find Dolo Mendoza's swamp hideout and kill him and recover PDA
9 Pucacara - Jake backtracks through temple complex (from Mission 2), repel enemy forces including the obligatory helos, escape along river
10 Dark Flight - Jake now backtracks through the tunnels (from Mission 7) battling enemies
11 Puente del Fuego* - [over 5 minutes to load this mission] a lavish jungle mountain map, defeat multiple enemies in two small camps, advance along mountain trail, shoot down helo, snipe enemies, cross rope bridges, battle through small cave to clearing, final cut scene showing escape by helo ... THE END.
Alas despite a good premise, the anti-narco war in Colombia, and good graphics TTWC and TTCO are both irretreivably marred by the atrocious enemy NPC AI. CI alas did not work out how to make enemy NPCs behave with some basic intelligence. Enemy NPCs will leave cover and advance on your position and get cut down or bizarrely fire blindly over the top of cover and be able to target you. Realism, alas, did not seem to be a watch word at CI when designing its FPS games.
Friendly NPCs are no more intelligent than the palm trees that comprise the the scenery ... at times they do nothing except pop-up here and there unannounced only to be mistaken for enemy NPCs. Often you start out a mission with a squad of friendly NPCs ... the mission briefing indicates that you clear the way for them and they will follow. Well that's the theory ... usually you only see them again until the very end of the mission ... no doubt they've been engaging the enemy NPCs "somewhere else" or helping themselves to the cocaine. The funniest thing is when the enemy arrives in pick-up trucks and you snipe off the gunners in the tray and then you walk up to the truck and the driver will be sitting there waiting for you to either shoot or spare him.
As in COHFFL, playing on "Hard" difficulty is still easy, except that enemy NPCs now can spot you almost over the horizon and shoot you with AK47s when you can barely make them out with the sniper scope. Indeed Jake can be in the densest jungle trying to sneak past an enemy position but he will be spotted, even by remote gunners inside APCs.
You get a flavour of what you are in for when you first load up the game ... a slow process with a "Please Wait..." message on a black screen. This is repeated at the start of each mission with "Standby" against that haunting black screen. Surely even the bland mission briefing or mission map showing objectives would be a more engaging and informative backdrop. Some of the larger maps/environments in TTCO took over 5 minutes to load up which may initially make one think that the game has encountered a problem and locked up.
As noted graphics, especially the jungle scenery, which comprise most of the game, are well executed and would do many a 'Nam game proud. The enemy and friendly NPCs are rather generic with only a handful of different faces and uniforms used. The maze-like swamp map and mountain map are well presented. The tunnel maps were however disappointing and in no way rival those in a good 'Nam game like Men of Valor or Vietcong. Nevertheless CI seems to have the graphical presentation of its environments well under control. Alas CI really needs to do some work on the AI systems and NPC animations of its FPS games as their reputation will only suffer if the standard is not markedly raised.
Gameplay is typical FPS with iron sights or telescopic sniper scope as appropriate. You can readily play this game as a run-and-gun shooter, even on Hard, but don't be surprised if enemy NPCs pop-up anywhere as you proceed. The use of tactics, like staying off paths and trudging through the jungle or keeping low and moving slowly, does not help as the enemy NPCs will see you and start shooting. Using boulders, thick trees or logs for cover provides some protection from injury. If you see enemy in the distance they will either be moving backwards and forwards between two points or standing still. When you shoot at them they tend to disregard the danger and head for your position. Indeed if you cannot see the enemy NPCs they are usually near those exploding red fuel barrels that seem to litter the jungles of Colombia. Sometimes you will open up with a noisy assault rifle and the enemy guy standing a few metres from your target will be totally oblivious and just stand there or resume his patrol.
An annoying aspect of both TTCO and TTCO is the sound of Jake's/your character's footsteps ... wherever he walks it sounds like stomping inside a vacant barracks. On crouch mode Jake makes no sound at all ... but this is still not stealthy as he will be seen. At times the ambient sounds are quite suitably "jungley" but this is marred by the loud footsteps of our hero Jeff as he cautiously sneaks down the jungle pathways. Advancing through the swamp results in a satisfying "slushy water" sound irrespective of whether Jake is upright or crouching, indeed Jake is able to run through the swamp as if on dry land.
The same voice actor provides the voice for TTCO's Jake as COHFFL's Claude ... and, yes, the Polish to English quips are just as bad as in COHFFL. Poor narrative and mediocre dialogue, like the poor AI, detracts from ones enjoyment. You may also note a musical melody that sounds like part of a James Bond theme when the tension increases and this usually clues you in to the "surprise ambush" just ahead.
Apart from changing difficulty from "Easy" to "Hard" there's not much else to vary the gameplay. For me it was just plain funny so see how the enemy NPCs respond or not respond to your advance or attacks. The mission objectives are not always naturally intuitive and HUD compass-map does not always clue you in. The voice over sometimes mismatches with on-screen activity, for example you may be toldto follow the path on the right when it's actually on your left, which seems to be a function of crossing some invisable AI trigger point which does not consider the direction you have arrived from. Support for the title seems to be lacking as there are no patches available and there are a few minor bugs and imperfect translations in the mission briefings.
For those interested, the war on drugs in Colombia is also explored in the much slicker DFBHD Team Sabre (see my review at GameSpot). My review of COHFFL is also available at GameSpot, and while it is a more enjoyable experience than either TTCO or TTCW, this is a relative assessment.
OVERALL: TTCO is a very average single player FPS. I would not recommend TTWC or TTCO to your typical FPS devotee ... unless you are prepared to drastically lower your expectations.