This atrocious war began in August 1914. It is now March 1964 and believe it or not, it is still being waged...
Occidental and American troops are fighting against the armies of a latter-day Genghis Khan, who has already put a bloody end to the Bolshevik Revolution. He is planning to create a Russo-Mongol Empire, stretching from the Atlantic to Vladivostok.
While some aspects of this world seem to be true to 1914, such as the trenches and bunkers, you will also find that several decades of concerted war effort have led to the development of some very modern types of weapons, transportation and other technology.
Age requirements: ESRB Rating: MATURE with Blood and Gore, Violence.
Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended), 256MB RAM (512 recommended), 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 8.1 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), Mouse, Keyboard.
Iron Storm is a game where, you often have to wonder what the designers were thinking. Presumably this game was made by people who like and play games. Presumably it was beta tested. So how can you account for the mess that is the gameplay? ... full review
Why for instance, would you take a perfectly serviceable and novel premise: a world in which the Great War has gone on for decades, and simply turn it into another cookie cutter run-and-gun shooter? Why would you have stealth sections, and yet give the AI perfect aim and vision for hundreds of yards? Why allow your character to carry an absurd array of weapons and yet have to choose between an assault rifle and a rocket launcher? Why bother having a shotgun that is so ridiculously underpowered compared to everything else? This game came out post-Halflife, they should have known what they were doing. Instead you have a boring, frustrating mess of a game that is neither pretty, nor compelling in any way.
What's more, there are hundreds of niggling little details that crop up constantly to annoy you. Why, for instance, when I select a weapon, should I then have to then click fire to pull it out? Why is the weapons menu so utterly counter-intuitive compared to every other shooter out there? Why can I not select weapons while using a scope, yet still run, reload and fire with it? The game is simply put, poorly designed and annoyingly linear.
The gameplay itself is also deeply flawed. You're alone in hostile territory much of the time, and when you aren't, you might as well be given the abject stupidity of your AI companions. Which would be fine in any other game, except for the fact that even on easy mode you'll be instantly killed a dozen different ways. You'll soon get tired of being ripped apart by snipers, that once again can spot you from a hundred yards, and always have nigh perfect aim. Leaving you only moments to spot them before your health is once again stripped away. Killing all the enemies simply becomes an exercise in repeated quick loading since the stealth mechanic is useless. Kill one enemy, no matter how isolated, no matter how silenced your weapon, and alarms start blaring. It's made even worse by having the potential for a good story which is never developed. You might as well be fighting any war in any world for all the good the carefully contrived plot and setting do. The trenches serve no purpose other than to funnel your character from one place to another, allowing the game designers to skip pesky things like terrain detail in favor of ugly brown tunnels. It's a cheap, lazy product from start to finish, and what it's doing on a website called Good Old Games, is a mystery.
I have to disagree with the first two reviewers, even though everyone is entitled to their own opinion.... full review
My experience of the game was made more difficult by the fact I had the Polish language version, I was working over there at the time. I don't speak Polish so in game info was useless but I stil managed to progress and complete this title.
As to the game itself.
If you prefer FSP's where you load up and keep every new weapon as you find it (HL and Quake/Doom) and it is just a case of generally blasting through then this title is not for you.
If I remember correctly you are limited to two main weapons. There are a variety of weapons throughout the game and not every section has each main weapon or ammo for it. So you have to think about what you use and carry through.
The snipers are annoying but that is the point. They are not positioned haphazard but realistically covering a specific point and as in real life are deadly. This presents a challenge, which again is the point.
There is quite a variety in the areas/sections giving you different challenges to overcome with some set pieces to add to the mix.
There is a good story to the game with a twist or two at the end. This adds to the overall fun factor and as I said early if you only want a blaster then forget this.
Iron storm was one of those games that had a great concept and a decent story which sucked you in with it's bleak outlook on war. That being said the game is a kin to if Half-Life and the original Tomb Raider married and had a bastard kid that carried all their defects. The game itself was tactical and allowed you to only carry certain weapons that fit into the overall... full review scheme. A sniper rifle took the place of an assault rifle and so on so you constantly have to balance your weaponry in an attempt to be ready for the enemies rushing at you.
The most fustrating part is the insta-death that happened in the game which was a kin to the same as Half-Life. So much as catching a bit of blast back from a grenade could kill you and it had a nasty habit of saving right before you entered a location that kept killing you over and over just like Tomb Raider. Your best bet is multiple games saves in different slots so you can back track.
This game asks no quarter when it comes to death and combat you will die an incredibly large amount of times from proxy mines. Grenades, rocket launchers all which have shot fuses and in the case of the rocket launcher a fast load time so they will keep pummeling you with them unless you reload and use a different save.
I feel the price is worth it though as it had a few gem moments like sneaking into an enemy base to pretend your a prisoner or engaging one of the heavily armored Siberian brothers. If you can tolorate the grind then I recommend it as a bargain purchase.
antihippie)
John62)
genma)