Return To Home Page		January 31 2008

Release Date	Distributer	Publisher	Developer
21/3/2008	Atari	Codemasters	Spark Unlimited
Offline Players	Online players	Price	Anticipation
1	2-16	$109.95

Using the machine gun on the tank.	Battlegrounds look suitably war-torn.

Another day, another impressive looking next-generation title. But this game is exciting for quite a few reasons. Firstly the developers Spark Unlimited have a proven track record with First Person Shooters by way of the brilliant PS2 title Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Secondly the game looks pretty sharp graphically and uses the powerful Unreal Engine 3 to push the PS3 to its limits. Finally we have a rather unique storyline, or should that be setting, for the game. Here it is...

Getting hit from enemies below.

In 1931, Winston Churchill was hit by a taxi in New York. In the real world, he survived, and went on to rally the British people to fight the Nazi threat. But what if he hadn’t? It’s from this premise that Fall Of Liberty takes it’s theme - without Churchill’s leadership, Europe and the United Kingdom have fallen to Hitler’s forces. By 1951, using crushing technical superiority, the United States is invaded and defeated by the Third Reich.

So Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is a FPS set in a unique setting. It's not World War II but rather an alternate timeline. You play the role of construction worker Dan Carson who is working on a new building when the Nazi's attack. The first level sees you trying to make your way down the scaffolding to safe ground - not an easy task. With the Nazi's now controlling the United States you are now a resistance fighter trying to save your country. Interestingly Nazi intelligence has now developed superior weapons and vehicles so when they attack America on December 7, 1951 they have the upper hand. With the Nazi's invading there are plenty of references to the invading armies, zeppelins fly around the skies, as do enemy fighter jets, nazi flags are being hung from buildings, and cities are on fire and being destroyed. Weapons are as you would expect - pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenades but you can only carry two weapons and a couple of grenades at a time bringing some strategy into the game.

Time for a break, for a moment!

Spark Unlimited have confirmed that game will be split up into 8 levels, with numerous checkpoints through each level with an overall game length of around 8-10 hours. Locations in the game include New York, Washington DC and even London - the heart of Nazi territory given that Europe fell to the regime years earlier.

As yet we have not had confirmation of online gameplay, but I would be highly surprised if it wasn't included in some form, with at least 16-players a safe bet. We'll fill in the blanks when the information becomes available. Sadly as the game focuses on your struggle to survive on your own there is no co-op mode available.

Are we going to see poison gas in the game?

We do have to point out that the screenshots surrounding this preview probably aren't the best quality we've seen, but they were all we could get. The game certainly looks a lot sharper in real life - so don't get concerned if these screens look a little blurry. The battlegrounds are intense and there is plenty of 'alternate' universe type touches. Impressively the developers have announced that award winning composer Michael Giacchino will score the music for this game. Giacchino’s credits include the popular television series Lost, Alias, renowned game soundtracks for the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises, as well as feature films such as Mission Impossible III, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. It should be a quality soundtrack, that's for sure and is being performed by a 76-piece Hollywood Studio Orchestra!

The Nazi's are in power.

In late January Spark Unlimited released a demo of the game on the XBox 360, and while we can't attest to the PS3's quality in comparison, the demo was heavily criticised by gamers citing numerous bugs and gameplay issues. Fortunately Spark Unlimited have confirmed that the demo was made some months ago with many improvements since, and have also been listening to comments from gamers. We can only hope that the developers manage to iron out most of these kinks including movement and targeting among other things.

There were a lot of great First Person Shooters released on the PS3 during 2007, and there are several more due out in early 2008 so Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is going to have to be pretty special to stand out from the crowd. Fortunately the developers have a great track record, the story of this game could be quite riveting, and the game looks pretty sharp. Expect Turning Point: Fall of Liberty to be released here in Australia in late March or early April 2008 - barring any more delays.