World War Two-the Game Genre I Love
love? The world war two, one-person-shooter genre? I played the demo to
Hour of Victory and I shed a tear. A tear over a videogame and not because
of a sad CG scene. The controls were clunky, the graphics were from LAST
GENERATION, and the general gameplay wasnt what I had expected. The game had some interesting ideas (choosing from three different types of soldier at the start of each level, and having certain parts of the level that
could only be triggered by that character is what I noticed in the demo.)
But you know what? Everything else completely trashed the game.
Now, Im told that the world war two genre is played out. All I hear in
gaming magazines nowadays is: oh crap, not another ww2 game. Well you
know what? There is SO MUCH MORE to the war than what is shown in these
games. Every single game has D-Day. Okay, yes, we get it. There was a big
invasion of Normandy in world war two. Can we move on to something else?
Stalingrad? Again? Sniper battle, yeah got it. El Alamein, Desert Rats and
Afrika Corps. Check. The only game I have played that went away from the
African and European campaigns is Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, which
started at Pearl Harbor and continued on to the atomic bombing. And even
though the gameplay wasnt the best, I enjoyed the idea. They took a
chance. And I cant fault them for that at all.
But housemdfan, you said there was more to the war. What else is there?
What else is there? Theres the Blitzkrieg, the Battle of Britain,
Guadalcanal, Berlin, etc., You can even move away from straight battles
and do the Medal of Honor thing where youre an OSS operative. But instead
you go deep undercover, become the enemy, give secrets to the Allies. You
could even choose which character you want to play. Male or female? Young,
almost direct from boot camp, or old grandpa soldier? Which unit will you
go undercover into? Luftwaffe? Schutzstaffel(SS)? Wehrmacht? Gestapo? It
would have major roleplaying elements. Im imagining an open-world type of
game. The second world war is your oyster! What do you want to do?
I am a big fan of the world war two genre. I enjoy it. I have so many
ideas for the genre. I just wish people in the industry had similar ideas
to refresh this genre. Theres a new game coming out where instead of
fighting Nazis youre fighting an alien race during the WW2 time period. I
know. Not what I want. Speak up gamers. Do you really hate the world war
two genre being revisited? Or do you not care? Do you not care that the
veterans, the soldiers who gave their lives wont be remembered through
(good) gameplay. But with gameplay with bad graphics, bad voice acting,
bad controls. This is the next generation, lets breathe new life into the
genre developers!
As of this moment we have Medal of Honor: Airborne out now and Brothers in Arms coming out. And I am really excited. I honestly cannot wait! What I have played of MOH: Airborne makes me really happy and I can't wait to play the retail version when I can get my hands on it.