The FPS genre is bloated with World War II themed shooters, and at this point nearly every theater has been driven into the ground. Turning Point’s alternate reality take on the war is a surprisingly fresh one, centering on the Nazi invasion of the eastern United States. The player takes the role of an American construction worker working on a high rise at the start of the invasion; a perfect vantage point to see the full Nazi war machine slam into the eastern seaboard.

The plot of the game centers on Winston Churchill, or rather the lack of his existence. In late 1931 Churchill was hit by a taxi cab while in New York, only this time it turns out to be a fatal collision. With Churchill’s passing Britain lacked a great leader to unify and rally the country at the start of the war and succumbed to the Nazi invasion. With Britain crushed the Nazis grew in power, further developing and strengthening their military might. In 1952 the Nazis began their invasion of the still isolationist United States, putting the entire country into a panicked and hap-hazard defense.

The first level of the game is essentially a well-veiled tutorial and introduces the various mechanics to the player. The game handles like a standard shooter for the most part and uses well-known mechanics such as health regeneration when not taking damage and the ability to only carry two weapons. In addition the player can also grab onto and pull themselves over low walls or onto ledges, as well as grab onto pipes or beams to climb hand-over-hand above gaps. It is usually obvious where the player needs to use the abilities even without the context sensitive prompts that appear on screen when such actions are available, but they are not used very often.

One interesting gameplay feature is the ability to grapple with an enemy either to instantly kill them or simply use them as a human shield. When an enemy is used as a shield the player grabs the enemy’s sidearm from their holster and uses it as their weapon, trading movement speed and weapon power for a little more survivability while out in the open. When used as a shield, enemies only can take about as much punishment as they could take normally, making them temporary use at best before they fall to the floor and leave the player exposed.

The enemies are familiar themes, only altered somewhat due to the advances in the Nazi technology. Foot soldiers wear the traditional grey and black uniforms, and for the most part use many of the same weapons and equipment that World War II shooter enthusiasts will already be familiar with. At the same time the enemy soars above the landscape using huge dirigibles, and with their spotlights and machine guns they are a silent and slow-moving terror for those below. The advancements are realistic in nature, and while some of them never truly existed they never dip into the fantasy realm of super soldiers and personal jet packs. A lot of these items were in fact German prototypes that never saw the light of day.

The game struggles with is its pacing, and far too often puts players into incredibly linear areas with little to no room for personal deviation. Clearing area after area of Nazis is sometimes broken up with action such as defending an area from a rush or planting explosives on the underside of tanks via a sewer grate, but otherwise after the grand entry it makes the game completely lose its epic feel. Even areas that are clearly meant to be set-piece battles are made less so due to the heavy use of often sloppy scripting. While the plot starts off as an inspiring tale of a rugged American civilian sticking it to the Nazis the rest of the game has little more than scraps of an already thin plot and zero memorable characters.

The game also has a variety of other, smaller issues that nag at the overall experience. Weapon damage is often much weaker than it rightfully should, with unarmored enemies only perishing after either a single headshot or relative hail of gunfire anywhere else. The controls, especially aiming, are loose enough to the point that players will often find themselves simply spraying the enemy with a submachine gun rather than deal with the frustrations that comes with lining up a shot from a rifle. The only effective means of aiming involves using the weapon’s sights, but in doing so far too much of the screen is taken up by the gun and blocks the majority of the screen off.