UberSoldier Review

Year 1944 and the allied armies are sweeping across Europe on three fronts in a race to reach the capital of the Third Reich, Berlin. Meanwhile, Nazi scientists have discovered a way to resurrect the dead and provide them with paranormal powers. Sounds familiar? All those who have played Return to Castle Wolfenstein would shout in agreement. Developed by the Russia’s Burut creative, UberSoldier attempts to churn out a unique game, clubbing WWII shooter game with occult but fails miserably.

To be fair, the game would seem entertaining for hardcore shooter fans, but the plot is very amusing to say the least. You play Karl Stolz, a soldier in the Nazi army who is killed by the members of the French resistance in an ambush. With the help of a program discovered by Ernst Schafer, a brilliant Nazi scientist, by which the dead are brought back to life turning them into supernatural being called as UberSoldiers, Stolz is resurrected. A major glitch of the program is that the UberSoldiers would obey the orders of only those who speak to them first as soon as they are reborn. In your case however, a French resistance operative, who has heard about the program, comes across you and converts you from a fiercely loyal German soldier into an anti-Nazi. The rest of the plot is all about how you, along with your newly found comrades, shoot the life out of the Nazi army.

The game has just one plus point and that is the graphics. The atmosphere of the game is bleak and gory. Blood trails and dead bodies are liberally found scattered all over the location. You can see duct fans rotating, LCDs blinking and machines working. Blood splatters on a nearby wall when a soldier is shot. If he is shot in the head, his head is bloody right away and brain matter starts to leak out. The ground detail of the game is pretty good and the lighting looks realistic.

Of course as is the case with numerous games, this is a double-edged sword. With high graphics come high system requirements and even reducing the detail level to medium would not help much. There were problems with the frame rate even on a Pentium 4 2.4GHz machine with 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800 video card. If played on a very high-end machine, the game would be an absolute visual treat.

Weapons include MP40s, grenades, snipers etc containing the entire usual WWII shooter arsenal. But since you are a supernatural soldier, you have your own special weapons. One of them is the “Time Shield” using which you can stop the bullets fired at you in mid-air and turn them back on the enemy as in Matrix, and another is the “Emotion System” with which your powers are recharged after killing certain number of enemy soldiers in a given time limit. You can also take over the anti aircraft guns, commandeer submarines and use dynamite sticks to blow up tanks. Also there are many explosive barrels placed at strategic locations that can be used to blow the enemy.

If graphics are the high point of the game, then audio is the lowest. Voice over is childish and lip-synching looks like it is from an amateur movie. There is no synchronization between the dialogues and the lip movements of the characters. Also German soldiers speak in English with a Brooklynish accent and shout “rebels” whenever they spot you. Music is depressing and does nothing to provide a WWII atmosphere though it is important to mention that explosions sounds and gunshots are pretty good.

Another low point is the time taken by the game to load. Be it starting a new game, loading a new level or just restarting from the last saved game, the game takes an infinitely long time to load and pretty soon it starts to get frustrating as you will have to restart the game many times considering that the AI performs cheap tactical maneuvers to kill you off even before you get your bearings.

The gameplay is the usual “search and shoot the enemy” type, which has been employed in numerous FPS games. The AI is not very bright but the enemy soldiers are some sort of marksmen and very alert. As soon as you are spotted, the enemy opens fire on you and performs their favorite action, chucking grenades with exceptional accuracy. If a grenade explodes near you then you suffer from a concussive vision loss, which is temporary, and the screen goes black. Most of the times the enemy kills you off and it is game over and you will have to start from your previous saved game. In order to master the game, you will have to approach the enemy in a manner that involves more of stealth than bravado. A map cum compass on the right-hand top corner helps you to ascertain the position of your enemies and you have to adopt the best possible attack mode. All the usual bonuses like weapons, ammo, grenades and health kits are scattered around the scenario and extra bonuses can be obtained by killing the enemies.

The game is mediocre at its best with a bad science-fiction plot and amateur voice acting. Graphics is the only saving grace of the game though its true potential can be displayed only on a very high-end machine. With so many WWII shooter games like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor and Brothers in Arms already in the market, the game will sink into obscurity and only those who will want to try out something different would think about playing the game.