Enemy Front is the realistic tale of a hardened soldier dropped behind Nazi lines to engage in dynamic, diversified missions ranging from quick skirmishes, espionage assignments, and sabotage activities. The epic scope of Enemy Front spans several years and key battles as it progresses from the trenches of a desolate France right on through to Berlin and a secret weapons base. Once there, the player must thwart the plans for a terrifying weapon that will all but assure a global Nazis victory...

War is no laughing matter, but this game is... Remember back in 2008, when Activision Blizzard released Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War? Do you remember how cool it was. Step forward six years and CI Games release Enemy Front. So how much has the WWII first person shooter [FPS] matured? What has a new generation of game designers got up their sleeves to wow us with?

Short answer: nothing. This game looks, feels and plays like a major leap backwards. The graphics do, for some unfathomable reason, have the same look about them that World at War had. What is it about this era in history? Did everything really look like a pastel drawing back then?

The campaign is fairly straightforward. Anyone who has played a FPS will feel right at home. Unfortunately there are a few too many bugs and issues, most notably the fact that the game glitches which is a pain when you're trying to aim at your enemy. Another annoying aspect, and let's be honest one that should not be a problem in today's games, is how random your weapon's power is. You can shoot an enemy at close range with a machine gun and they don't even flinch, but you can also kill an enemy from miles away by spraying surprisingly accurately with your machine gun.

The AI of the enemy can also be laughable. Have a large army you want to slaughter easily? Go into a building, find the gramophone that is almost always there, wind it up then head for the door of the house and fire as your enemy come wave after wave to inspect why the gramophone is playing. If you're really lucky they'll run into the door frame, and keep running on the spot as they try to work out how to navigate a doorway. And if there's no gramophone, just run outside and get spotted and then run back in and ambush them as they come flooding towards you. Likewise, when roaming the environment, should your enemy see you, duck behind cover and the chances are they'll forget about you almost instantly and go back to what ever it was they were doing before.

The story for the campaign mode is also a little dull. You take on the role of American war correspondent Robert Hawkins, as he fights hand in hand with Resistance Fighters opposing the Nazi juggernaut in France, Germany, Norway, and during the Warsaw Uprising in Poland.

But wait... I hear you cry... The best aspect of these games is never the campaign. The multiplayer mode is always were the most fun is to be had. Sadly with Enemy Front you are given the option of only three modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Radio Transmission. And the whole online experience feels more like something from Call of Duty 3.

If this had been released as a downloadable game at £15 I'd advise you not to buy it, but the fact that it's retailing at £40 is a joke. If you buy only one buggy, rubbish game this year... for heaven's sake make sure it's not this one.

2

Darren Rea