men of valor

d3r3k

Spaceman
generally, i am a huge fan of world war two/vietnam shooters, but this one ain't so great.

i rented it in hopes my friend and i could have some good co-op action. we couldn't get past the first level. we tried six times (the amount of contiunues you are allowed in co-op, another complaint) to get up a hill guarded by a bunker laying down furious machine gun with along with viet cong guerrillas hiding in the grass.

i finally got past the level by myself, but only by sheer luck did i complete it.

you have a lot of mission objectives like that: here's a bunker, go across open ground and throw a smoke grenade at it to mark it for fire support.

after a certain point, it just becomes damn frustrating.

the controls are sticky, especially when trying to go from prone to standing. you must push down on the left thumbstick twice to go from the ground to your feet, easier said than done.

since i was getting very frustrated, i lowered the difficulty all the way from hard (the default) to easy. i see no change what so ever.

the save system is absolutely horrible. like halo, there is a checkpoint system, but these are few are far between. the actual missions are broken down into three to four different maps. you get two, MAYBE three, checkpoints, the starting point of the map and one closer to the objective.

so, if you die anywhere in between the start and your objective, your shit out of luck. along with that, you only get a set number of retries (twelve in single player) before you must forfeit the mission completely or restart.

case in point, i just quit a mission because i was killed by invisible communist forces shooting out of the boundaries of the map, the gunfire was literally coming from the jungle walls.

the artificial intelligence is horrendous. both friendly and hostile soldiers stand out in the open, blindly shooting with terrible aim. but somehow, charlie gets the drop on you. specifically by spawning in the middle of firefights behind and to the sides of you.

the graphics suck and blow. the models are borderline decent and the foliage looks like cardboard signs staked into the ground.

i could look past everything if the save system was better, then the game wouldn't be so frustrating.
 
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