I grew up playing this game. I loved it on Play Station 2, and I played this game from beginning to end multiple times. I remember loving Skirmish mode and thinking the campaign was fun, I use to enjoy the story. So when I found it on steam with the two other games for $20 I thought "Hey a piece of my childhood!" I had fond memories of the game so I figured I'd get it and relive them. Good god do I wish I had left this game as a memory. I understand the game is very outdated in terms of gameplay and mechanics, but ♥♥♥♥ this is bad...
The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gun play... I don't remember the guns swaying like you're an alcoholic with Parkinsons but holy ♥♥♥♥ is it BAD. You really can't aim for ♥♥♥♥, and even when you are on target the gun jerks to the side from a ridiculous amount of recoil causing you to miss 95% of your shots. The only good guns in the game are the BAR and STG-44 as both are two shot kill guns IF you can hit the enemy. Every other gun takes five to eight shots to kill one enemy. There are no headshots so don't bother aiming for them, and good luck if you do as half the time your bullets go wide and hit the wall a city block away from what you were aiming at.
The squad mechanic. I use to love it, I use to be good at it, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I don't remember your squads being a bunch of suicidal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. They scream constantly that they can't shoot at the enemy that's ten feet in front of them, or they complain they're out in the open or getting shot at with the same three lines over, and over, and over. The game introduces early on in the first mission the ability to order your squads to assault and melee fight the enemy, but after that one tutorial prompt you will never use that ability again, as it's just asking the enemy to slaughter the hapless squad you sent at them even when that squad is suppressed and SHOULDN'T be able to immediately fight back. Your squads can't fight, they can't aim, and ordering them into cover is a 50/50 chance they'll stand out in the open and eat German bullets for ♥♥♥♥♥ and grins.
You eventually get to command a tank on a few missions, and those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ will die to a stiff ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ breeze, so good luck using them or having them provide you with fire support. Just leave them at the beginning of the chapter and pretend they don't exist for all the good they do you. Your tanks will die to a single shot from a panzershreck, while German tanks will take several shots before dying.
Hell there is one mission later in the game where you're meant to be aiding the 82nd in taking a mill. You're given one squad of three, and a M10 Tank Destroyer to command. There are several pak38s and two flak88s scattered across the map, and every single one of them is in point blank range of you and your tank and will kill your tank on the easiest difficulty in one shot. The Flak88s however, the first is rather easy to destroy, just leave your squad and tank behind so they don't get killed and then flank it and shoot the crew. The second however is on the other side of an open field and will snipe everything with the accuracy of God. But there is one area overlooking the flak88 where you SHOULD be able to order your tank to sit at and destroy the flak88. BUT the game REFUSES to let your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tank move into the correct position and shoot from there, as if the devs knew what the players would try and actively coded it to prevent you from doing so. No, the game and it's devs actively wants you to charge across the open field and frontal assault a German 88 that will one shot you, your tank, and your squad. Good luck, i recommend taking a panzsershreck with you and praying your shot hits it. OH and if you die to the second gun you respawn and have to take out the first one again.
The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ enemies. In multiple missions the game starts you under fire with enemy squads a jump and a skip away from you. I had several missions start with squads immediately losing soldiers the second the game loaded in. So have fun restarting from checkpoint again and again. There are five missions that spawn you in the middle of an open road or field with enemies visibly in front of you already shooting you while your squads stand out in the open. ♥♥♥♥ there are cutscenes at the start of missions that have you standing in the open and once they're done you're getting shot at. How kind of the Nazis to wait until you're done talking to begin shooting at you. The third ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mission has you spawn in a field with NO COVER and the second you start moving three enemy squads spawn in and begin chewing you to pieces.
The story.... is a story alright. You play as Joe 'Red' Hartsock, a soldier of the 101st airborne. And your character has the personality of a wet napkin. Your squad members have more personality and they're just stereotypes of the characters from Band of Brothers. You have all the classic world war two story characters like "Man From New Jersey", "Man From Midwest", "Man Who Swears Alot", and "Man Whose Definetly Not A Ripoff of Captain Nixon" with guest stars like "Discount Colonel Robert Sink"
The story follows the first month following the beginning of operation overlord, and the D-Day airborne landings, with you and your platoon being just off screen from the major engagements like Carentan, and Sainte-mere Eglise. You follow the story of these Brothers in Arms as they move to fight the Germans and liberate France. That's basically it. It's not the greatest, with the writing reading more like an introvert trying to write witty or compelling character narratives.
This game was great for its time, and playing this reminds me of good childhood memories, but its dated and unpolished mechanics leave a lot to be desired, and its frustrating gun play makes me want to rage quit after i some how miss one german soldiers standing in the open with all 32 rounds of an MP40... Play this if you want to see how far games have come, but prepare to be frustrated and reminded WHY games stopped doing certain mechanics.
