I remember this used to work on Windows 10 when I installed it about a year ago...apparently, not anymore. The game itself was quite fun back in the day, and I remember sinking more hours into it than into StarCraft itself. Sorry if I cannot give the game more stars, but, to quote the AVGN, "What's the most important aspect about any game? Well, being able to f**king play it!" How am I supposed to rate it if it does not even start? I tried running the STconfig utility, and while it runs, running it and configuring the game does practically nothing. Every time I press on "play", my screen goes black and I have to terminate the system by pressing on the Window key and selecting "restart". This is annoying and it could be even more annoying if I did not have an SSD in my computer. And I can't be bothered to try and find a workaround, I just don't have the time or the patience to do so anymore. I know this game isn't at the top of their priority list, but I seriously think GOG should patch it so that it works straight out of the box, otherwise it's probably just not worth it. One day I might try and scour the forums for a workaround (some people say it exists), but today is not that day.
Another good implementation of the Four Fs (find'em, fix'em, flank'em and finish'em) concept. This time a lot less frustrating (no mortar squads at all to face) and overall with a more arcade feel (now you can easily snipe an enemy from behind cover, something that with the previous games was almost impossible to achieve). (Still, even on Easy, you won't be able to simply walk to your enemies and kill them, your squad is required to keep them busy while you attempt to flank them). Graphics are pretty good for a 2008 game, too. The only flaw is the plot - I still cannot say I understood (some of) it at all, or really cared. But honestly, do you really care about plot in a game like this? Maybe you do, and it would have been nice to have. I really do not understand the complaints about the cutscenes - they're not that long. Definitely recommended.
Another good implementation of the Four Fs concept first shown in Road to Hill 30. The game is somewhat more polished (it must have looked really good in 2005 on PC...it certainly did on the Xbox) and at the same time more frustrating too, even with God Mode activated: you'll encounter tanks and mortar squads more often, the former being even more annoying because it takes around 4 (four!) rockets to destroy one, and the tank will not stop moving around and shooting at you until you manage to take it out, and that unfortunately requires you to find a fixed location where a crate with a restocking number of Panzerfausts can be found. The frustration could have been easily avoided by either allowing to take more Panzerfausts with you (you can only take 1, and the animation for taking it out of the crate is too slow) or by allowing quicksaves (the game is only saved at checkpoints), or both. As it is, the whole process is just way too tedious. Mortar squads and 88s basically knock you out if you have God Mode activated, and the animation takes a while to complete as well. With mortars, you never know when or if a shell is gonna land near you, especially if you're out of cover. Without God Mode, it's basically insta-death when it does! But I guess this is what happens in real life, so maybe that frustration is actually a positive thing (war isn't fun and the game wants you to know it). The enemies are smarter, too, but the frustrating thing is they usually only take 2-3 bullets to go down, with no damage system whatsoever, which would have been nice. I was tempted to give the game 4 stars out of 4, but given its authentic feel and tactics, I think I'm gonna give 5, a solid 81 out of 100. Now, if you want a more "arcade" approach, you should definitely try BIA Hell's Highway, I remember needing no cheats to play that one. A game with a similar tactical approach is Full Spectrum Warrior, which I definitely recommend to anyone who liked EiB.
This is a very unique WW2 shooter that I would recommend to anyone who liked Full Spectrum Warrior (which, coincidentally, has been blamed for teaching obsolete tactics...but that is OT and an argument for another day)...and holy s**t is it hard. I admit: I had to cheat at least once to get past a section where I kept getting my *ss handed to me by a mortar squad, and I played on Easy difficulty. I do not agree that if you do not issue an order to your squadmates, they will just sit there and get themselves killed: but I will concede that machine guns can sometimes insta-kill you at certain ranges. Another flaw is that your squad's pathfinding can sometimes be erratic and that the enemy is able to shoot through some objects you would have otherwise considered pretty solid. Probably the worst flaw this game has, however, is that it has no quicksaves, the game is saved at checkpoints instead, and this can be a little frustrating at times. The biggest pro of the game is that the story feels very authentic, and this is what sets it apart from all the other WW2 shooters. The tactics revolve around what the game calls the The Four Fs: find'em, fix'em, flank'em, finish'em! Once you master the concept, playing becomes so satisfying, and again, it strongly reminds me of Full Spectrum Warrior. The missions themselves are generally pretty straightforward and a tad repetitive, but this is to be expected, as the game is geared towards realism.
There really isn't much to say about this game. The game can be fun at times, sure, but it is so average there really isn't a reason for this game to exist. To quote AVGN's Independence Day review, which pretty much applies to this game as well, "It's okay, but, that's the problem. It's so... okay that it's not even worth... existing. It's so bland and mediocre that it's hard to even come up with legitimate complaints." Except I do have legitimate complaints. Things like animations (especially death animations) are the ones that have aged the worst, and the graphics are just bad overall. I am not the kind of guy who likes to review titles based on graphics, but compared to other games from the same era, this game is just...ass. What are some of the titles from the exact same period that have aged well and look good to this day? I am talking about games like Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, and KOTOR II, and what I mean by "look good" is their overall look, their graphical style. However, what these games do have in common is that they are also tremendously fun. MoH: Pacific Assault? Not so much. I've played like three hours and a half, and I'm already bored, not to mention stuck at a section because of a bad checkpoint location.
Quite fun during the first two or three hours, then becoming dull and samey to the point of desperation, with an awfully tedious final boss to boot. I do not find the enemies particularly appealing, and knowing that they kept a lot of them pretty much the same in the following chapters makes me less willing to engage with them. Also, I do not know why you'd buy it here when a remastered version exists elsewhere. Sure I found it more fun than Quake 4, but the game's idea of fun is to throw waves of bullet-spongy enemies at the player, and it doesn't help that the weapons lack any element of realism like reloading, and generally feel not particularly satisfying to use. Sure Doom I & II do the same, but they do it much better and have 100% better, more varied and interesting levels to explore. I'd recommend it, but only if found at a very steep discount.
Awful controls (took me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to grab an anti-armor attachment, despite the menu clearly saying I had to press F, doing which absolutely nothing happened) with awful gunplay. The main weapon feels like a machine spitting out needles that barely hit your target. Sniper rifle (or was it a sniper attachment? I don't know.) that feels completely weak and unsatisfying to use. Team mates that cannot be freely ordered around or ordered to occupy a position, but only at specific points put there by the developers. Easy sections followed by inexplicable bottlenecks where difficulty becomes almost impossible, and this playing on Easy. Had to give up after 2 hours and 22 minutes of play, the game is supposed to have cheats, but for some reason I cannot reach the console to use God Mode to help me with a particularly nasty and frustrating one. I seriously do not understand how THIS could have such positive reviews.
Too bad the game can be completed in roughly 13-14 hours if played on Easy. I expected the campaign to end with the defeat of the USSR, but it ends right after you defeat the Soviets in Seattle; that's a bit disappointing. Not to mention you won't be commanding huge armies, but a maximum of 7-10 units (or slightly more, depending on your tactical choices) per mission. Still, a good game especially if bought on sale.
Again, nothing I could write would do the game justice. Still extremely fun to play, after all these years.
Still fun to play. And nothing I could say would give it justice. Make sure to check out Brutal Doom.
