Both the shield system and stat upgrades play out heavily in the singleplayer campaign, and there are often moments where enemies will ambush you from all sides, forcing you to quickly find a solution to the problem before your shields completely drain. That said, I encountered more than a few frustrating sections of the game. For example, some scenes have you escorting a friendly NPC companion through a number of firefights while they perform some basic task, and once their job is done, they’ll simply give you a “k…thx…bye” and will depart through an invisible barrier (such as a hole in the wall) that prevents you from following.
A more realistic approach should have been taken to handling NPC departures, since we’re long past the technological immersion-breaking limits of the old days that forced this kind of scripting. The campaign also includes several very unforgiving combat segments that will have you reloading several times over until you figure out a good way to balance out your shield usage with offensive actions – there are a lot of times where it feels like the developers just decided to throw globs of enemies at you, rather than try and find a more creative way of providing a challenge. And while the singleplayer storyline is decent (and advanced by some nifty comic book-style drawn art frames), the voice acting is more than a bit stale and awkwardly performed, bogging down the experience a bit.
Furthermore, once the campaign hits its conclusion, there isn’t all that much reason to leave the game installed. Some multiplayer functionality is provided, but it feels mostly like an afterthought thanks to the inclusion of only some basic deathmatch modes and a novel melee-only mode, and nothing else. I really feel the addition of a co-op gameplay mode would have added to this game significantly – having one person play as Karl and another as a general, more heavily-armed support soldier (but without the special abilities) would really have forced a unique style of teamwork not often seen in today’s games. Unfortunately, I don’t think this form of play will ever be realized, leaving the game much in the dust when it comes to multiplayer gaming.
On the topic of graphics, the game fares very nicely – there are some beautiful explosion effects to be seen, and the textures are decently detailed. The development team made some pretty efficient use of shaders to pull off some cunning effects, and the game runs insanely smooth at 1920x1200 on my GeForce 8800GT. Alas, try as I might, I can’t think of anything truly outstanding to say about the graphics (especially as many of the levels take place in fairly cramped and linear indoor environments).
Ubersoldier II definitely isn’t a ‘bad’ game, and it would be a real mistake to just roll your eyes at the mention of “another World War 2 shooter” and ignore it. This game is definitely worth a look just for the unique angle it provides on this fictional take of what the Nazis were really up to during the war. Any FPS fan should have an easy time enjoying this game – just don’t expect spit-polished perfection.
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