DER FLAKTURM – Germany

Now when I went to Europe in 2005/2006, I saw a couple of old flak towers and went into one in Vienna that was converted into a tropical animal house and aquarium. Nothing I saw over there quite looked like the monstrosity we’re presented with in Der Flakturm. This thing is like the Empire State Building, only far less interesting. What I’m getting at is it’s not a very believable representation of what you'd think a flak tower would be like.

 
The odd thing about this jump is you get so shot up, you end up jumping out of where the nose of the plane used to be before tumbling wildly for a while. You’ve then got two choices, plant yourself on the roof or float to the ground and make your way up the tower from below. This thing has it all, on the roof are 3 huge artillery pieces you’ve got to blow, a bunch of AA turrets and of course, every type of soldier under the sun. You’ll meet your old mate the Panzerschrecker, Captain sniper and several incarnations of that Nazi Elite Trooper. I chose the roof for my attack route. As you destroy the artillery and AA guns, you move inside where you discover a huge ammo lift that your next objective is to disable it. A word of advice at this point, be careful when you go up to have a look how far down it goes, it goes a long way and you won’t survive ok?

The fighting in this level is pretty full on, especially in Expert mode, you’ll grow to reaaaaaallly loathe that Nazi Elite Trooper as there are 3 or 4 on every level. Blasting your way down the levels in a blaze of glory completing odd jobs on the way, you’re eventually required to secure the base of the tower. It’s being lightly defended by three half tracks and a bunch of troops. Your job is pretty easy though thanks to conveniently placed fuel barrels that take only a few rounds or one grenade to blow, taking out everything around them. Securing the base then magically gives you access to the main control room, unfortunately that means fighting your way back up three levels of the tower through another wave of Germans that came out of the woodworks and of course the main control room is defended by your ever annoying foe, Mr. Nazi Elite Trooper. From the main control room you get to take an elevator ride to the basement to help the demolition team down there. On arrival you find they’ve got it all set up and are just about ready to go. You can guess what happens here, a bunch of Germans run for your position in the weird red smoke filled basement and your mates clear off leaving you to clean up the mess. Following the fuse cable along through the smoke will lead you outside but rest assured along the way you get lumbered with the task of defeating many enemies, several of which are, you guessed it, Mr. Nazi Elite Trooper. Towards the end this started to get tedious and felt more like the original Wolfenstein as you battled against weird hybrid soldier dudes as you tried to escape a Nazi fortress.

If somehow you survived being hunted down by 4 or 5 Nazi Elite Troopers while a bunch of buggers in the rafters thought it’d be funny to throw grenades at you, you end up running through sewers and emerge on the street. It’s here you discover the two cowardly demo team troopers that bailed on you and left you to fight the entire German army in the basement got their just desserts. One is totally dead and the other is crawling along the ground like a demented sloth. It’s left to you to pick up the explosive detonator and crank it until the tower in the distance explodes into flames. Let me just add, it’s probably the most disappointing final explosion I have ever seen in a game. That being said, that is the end one of the most ludicrously over-dramatised levels I have ever seen in a WW2 shooter.