Set in WWII, Enemy Front puts you in the role of Richard Hawkins, an anti-fascist war correspondent who finds himself caught up in the Resistance. Enemy Front is a visually beautiful game, and makes the most out of last gen technology. Unfortunately, a short campaign, poor voice acting, and a lack of online features let the game down.
As mentioned, you play as Richard Hawkins, an American war correspondent who has travelled and fought with numerous freedom fighters over the course of four years. One thing I really enjoyed about the game is the sense of freedom you have while playing the game. You can carry out missions any way you like, typically following one of these play styles; stealth, aggression, sniping, or sabotage. You will fight - and journalistically report - in some stunning locations, and iconic missions from anti-Nazi Resistance operations in France, Nazi Germany, Norway, and Warsaw throughout WWII.
Each mission is a flashback, and as well as learning more about the characters Hawkins has met, you also learn more about him as a person. Since he is only a war correspondent, he isn’t an experienced fighter and you notice that in his behaviour. His clumsy takedowns are a key factor in portraying his inexperience, as well as a lack of weapons he starts with.
If you’re a fan of FPS games, then you’ll easily pick up the controls of this game, as the corresponding buttons are identical to others, bar using the control pad to cycle between weapons. Another addition to the game that I liked was the occasional kill camera, which follows your Nazi-life-ending bullets. Although it doesn’t go to the extremes like Sniper Elite V2 does where you can see a bullet penetrate a testicle in x-ray mode, it’s still quite a feeling seeing an enemy fly out of cover when you shoot them in the back. Holding your breath will slow down time when aiming with the sniper rifle, and you will have to consider the wind resistance when taking your shot too, although it’s something you’ll get used to.
However, although the story has 12 missions with reasonably sized maps, the campaign took me around 7 hours to complete on Expert difficulty, and I really expected a lot more from it. Although the character story was decent, the length was a let down for me personally.
One thing that annoys me about any game is unemotional voice acting, and this happens quite a lot. It decreases the actual feeling that the scenery and action create. In Enemy Front, bad voice acting rears it’s ugly head as soon as the first mission, when you’re helping the Polish resistance defend their position. During the gunfight, somebody says “For Poland!” which is quite patriotic. However, something like that is better off unsaid when the voice actor sounds like he’s talking under a bed sheet after his parents have gone to bed. On top of this, the words don’t match the movement of the lips very well either, which is something I expect in games, especially when L.A Noire nailed this as early as 2011.
The multiplayer is pretty good, and you have a few weapons to choose from. I was using the STG-44 (mainly because of how OP it was in Call of Duty: World at War), and things were going great, until about an hour in when the thrill wore off and it became really boring. There are only three game modes for the Enemy Front multiplayer: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Freedom Fighter (basically Domination). When I play any online FPS, I get annoyed when I’m killed across the map by a sniper, or point blank with a shotgun, and I wasn’t surprised that this happened to me a lot. However, I still stuck at it and enjoyed it, even if it was briefly.
OVERALL
In conclusion, Enemy Front is a visually beautiful game, and the main character and story are very interesting. However, the cons definitely outweigh the pros, which is a shame as I was looking forward to this since E3 2012! Poor voice acting, a short campaign and a lacklustre online multiplayer are its downfall. For those who love WWII FPS games, this is one for you to play, but if you just like FPS games in general, Enemy Front doesn’t offer a whole lot for you.
Enemy Front gets a 3/5.
[★★★☆☆]
Sam Terry
Enemy Front at CeX
