First to Fight
First
to Fight is the gripping tale of the US marine corp. The game was
developed partly with and for the Marines and follows the tradition of
titles such as Full Spectrum Warrior. I was hanging to play this game
and it really is a mixed bag. When the game first starts up I was
majorly impressed with the graphics and the general gameplay is a lot of
fun. You do play as a squad however unlike FSW, your squad is a little
bit accountable for their own actions and some of the tactical choices
that they make are sound. They will do things like cover all areas and
the like and do not need the level of management that FSW requires. That
said, get into the game a little bit and you are going to be jacked off
when they start doing things that quite frankly are plain stupid.
That's
right, they walk into rooms standing there, they clip through walls,
they don't fire weapons at enemies, they get stuck on ladders. It's not
all the time but it is enough to take the polish off a game that could
have scored a fair whack higher. At times it almost made me want to cry
though when my team got wiped out not due to an error on my part and I
had to start all over again.
Graphically the title is an absolute treat and the character animations
are fantastic. Enemies move and react fairly realistically but to add to
the problem yet again they are also pretty damn bullet resistant. Too
many times I had someone point blank and nothing would happen despite my
shooting them over 6 times. It simply is disappointing and I think
unacceptable for a game that promised so much. It also had me doubting
my team's abilities after being let down a number of times by them and
my own shooting. I certainly hope that the Marine's version is a bit
more accurate in it's depiction of accuracy.
Audio
is great on the game and really brings a lot to the title. Weapons
sounds are realistic as are explosions, but I must admit that as petty
as this is my favorite part was when you were getting your squad to
enter a room. It was a little catch cry that despite the fact it was
repetitive with this little triumphant bit of music, it was highly
enjoyable. Music was entirely appropriate and not overwhelming.
The
live experience is a little bit better although I do admit that I far
prefer the single player experience as it feels "right" when playing in
a story type mode.
Finally, this game can be summed up as a pity. Poor AI on the part of
your team, poor hit detection on enemy player models smack what could be
a brilliant game in the face and don't let it get back up. Some of these
could be addressed on the PC version as patches, however for those of
you playing on XBox, what you get is what you get. I am not going to say
avoid this game, I am certainly going to recommend hiring before buying.
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