TRAINING

This one is pretty self explanatory, training requires you nail three landings in the nominated green zones before you pass. It’s a pretty simple task, the only annoying thing was the final drop that is supposed to teach you how to do a “Greased Landing”, that is a landing where you hit the ground running and instantly ready to fight. The instructions on how to do this aren’t 100% clear and it took me an embarrassingly long time to discover you don’t flare your chute at all, hold down the forward key and aim for a fairly level surface to grease a landing.

Passing Training will bring you to a familiar environment, the briefing room from the SP Demo. It is for this reason I won’t go in-depth with this Operation and will only cover what happens after the demo cut-off point. If you rack your brains you will recall the main objective is to silence four AA guns and gun down burly Italian Blackshirts along the way.  Once the guns were destroyed in the demo, you were sent to reinforce Setzer at the other end of town who was being counter-attacked by Germans. It was at this point the demo rudely concluded.

The fact the demo concluded there is pretty sad as the Germans offer a totally different experience to those measly Blackshirts. Straight away they attempt to charge and push up on your position, lobbing copious numbers of stick grenades along the way. Your objective changes to locating a missing sniper team which ends up being conveniently stuck on the top floor of a building occupied by a bunch of Germans with a ruddy great MG42. Finding the sniper team introduces you to the Springfield sniper rifle, as you are suddenly required to pick it up and eliminate a German commander in a building in the distance. The sniper scope is quite nifty, with different zoom levels, a feature where it becomes unfocused if you don’t keep it steady and a stability meter that responds to you holding your breath (which is done by holding the jump key). Interestingly, the game developers seem to have modelled AI snipers on Roo Shooters, as you’ll find that there is an unexplainable halogen like beam that emanates from their rifle. I’m guessing that’s supposed to represent light reflection from the scope, but when you see how bright it is you’ll agree it seems like serious overkill (this scope light isn’t present in the Multiplayer component thank goodness).

Your final task is to head back to the Mayor’s Residence in the centre of town to repel a final German counter-attack. The fire fights with the Germans are fairly hard and thoroughly enjoyable until one comes from nowhere and belts you on the back of the noggin.