Back to the trenches. Review

Back to the trenches.

Sergeant! Sergeant! Wake your ass up, soldier! If you don’t wake up right now,

we’re all gonna get dead real soon! You sure picked a fine time to go and get

knocked on the head. What’s that? You don’t know what’s going on? Aw hell, not

again…

Here’s

some water, son. Drink up and pay attention. You are Sergeant Jack Barnes and

we are the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, currently in France. We just dropped

into Jerry’s backyard to lead the Spearhead for the Allied Assault.

The Nazis are out to get us and we’ve got a quick nine missions to complete

before this damn war will end.

What are our mission goals? Why, to shoot every guy that’s shootin’ back at

us, of course! You still remember how to fire that weapon, don’t you? We’ve

also got average artillery to blow up, a few supply lines to raid and the usual

hit to put on some high ranking Nazi officers. Got all that, Sarge? Well then,

let’s get to it.

I hope you still remember our first

mission, because it sure was a doozy. Damn near lost half the squad. Do

you remember the gunfire, Sarge? It was like some kind of crazy space light

show. A few of the boys got blasted before we got ground side and I think poor

Jenkins’ chute never opened.

Now that you seem to be getting your memory back, let me brief you on what’s

new since the last Assault. HQ sent us a bunch of fresh arms for our

mission, but none of the guns are really all that different from what we’re

used to using. There are some grenades, a Brit Webley pistol and a Lee Entfield

rifle, plus a handful of new machine guns. It’s nice that HQ was thinking about

us, but the new toys operate just like the old ones. As long as they still kill

the bad guys, it’s all the same to me.

The brass has also changed the rules of engagement by allowing us to play with a little melee combat. When using those less fragile weapons (i.e. the ones without an alternate fire), we are now authorized to beat any enemy soldiers we encounter into submission. I personally would have preferred a nice combat knife, but I guess this is war, not hunting…or is it?

We’ve picked up some new Intel indicating that some strange things have happened to the German army. The word going around says that they’re not as quick as they used to be – something in the water, maybe. This has made it a little easier for our boys to go up and whack ’em without getting filled with lead. Their snipers have also been caught drinking on duty, which has made them a lot less lethal then before. I guess they’ve found out that you’ve come to play, eh Sarge? Hehe…

As in previous engagements, the brass wants us to stick to the straight and narrow path, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for exploration on our missions. They say as long as we keep going the way we’re supposed to, things will just happen like it’s some kind of movie script. Bah, does this look like Hollywood to you? I don’t think so.

Besides,

all I see are fields, trees and burnt out buildings. It’s no vacation spot,

but these places don’t look half-bad, considering how tragic war can be. That

shouldn’t come as a surprise since this battle is built on the same engine as

the last one.

It also sounds about the same, so remember the golden rule – DO NOT REMOVE YOUR HELMET TO HEAR THE GREAT SOUNDS. You don’t want to take a stray slug to the temple and wind up like old Ferguson, eating your next meal out of a straw.

Now son, you know that I hate war. You know I want to be back with the wife

and kids just as bad as you do. But boy, this conflict seems too short. Word

has it that the fighting was practically over by the time we started and all

we’re really left with is a three-hour mop-up tour. I was hoping to see more

action than that. I can’t help feeling that we should have gotten a little more

out of this latest battle.

Oh, and one more thing. HQ just sent down 12 new maps for the next engagement,

Codename: Multiplayer, whatever that means. There’s also some info on a new

type of warfare they’re calling ‘Tug of War’. Basically, the two armies battle

each other in order to complete up to five objectives all at once. I hear it’s

kind of like what’s happening over on the Battlefield,

but with the ability to knock out an enemy’s reinforcement center (or as the

Krauts call it, “Spawn Point.”)

Crap! Look at the time. Sarge, it’s time to move out and get this Spearhead

going. It’s gonna be a short battle, so let’s try to have a little fun before

it’s over. This Assault isn’t much different from the other one, so just keep

your finger on the trigger and we’ll all get out of this mess alive. Move out!