Iron Storm takes place in 1964 in Germany and is under the scenario that World War I is still occuring. Quite an interesting idea for a game. Playing this game raised the following questions to me where would I be now if World War I was still happening? Would I even be here? What would the world be like? As well as many others. While the scenario and thus storyline different, it fits nicely in to the genre.
Gameplay
Even though it is still world war one the technology has improved and you are equipped with state of the art weapons. The only real reminder that you’ll recieve you are in 1964 is the mustard gas grenade. Which is both positive and negativve. I like realsim and the new weapons detract from that, while at the same time add to the gameplay. Otherwise the arsenal would be limited and cause boredom rather quickly.
Iron Storm provides you the option of converting back and forth between first and third person shooter throughout the game. So you get to decide what view is best for different situations within the level. Remember to never judge a book by it’s cover, if you do so with this game you will be suprised. While it appears that the game is a straight forward shooter/adventure game you’ll discover that it comes fully equipped with puzzles, and revisiting areas multiple times. To find out what needs to be done vague details of what is required are given to you over an earpiece radio. The vague details enhance the difficulty of the gameplay. The puzzles and info given will force the player to think about what needs to be done, often having more than one correct answer to solve it. Once an section of the puzzle is completed, the game will present you with another puzzle to solve. While vague the puzzles are not extremely difficult but do provide an intermission to the shooting sprees involved in the game. Sometimes Iron Storm requires you to use stealth mode. These episodes were quite frustrating because the game does not have a very good stealth interface. You are left alone to just explore and hope that you’ll succed, there isn’t any real incremental feedback built into the stealth system.
On the other hand the games fighting is excellent. Enemy AI was better than I had expected you opponents will often go for cover and they know how to throw grenades and then to run away from grenades (very important). Occasionally you’ll get a dumb opponent who will forget to run away from a grenade they’ve thrown. Other than that AI was well done to provide a challenge for the gamer.
Sound and Graphics
There are 6 levels in the game with two of them that take place in the trenches. This makes for a little borning enviroment graphic wise. However, the levels that do not take place in the trenches are visually appealing, the graphics are well done, and creates the realistic look that is desired. 4X Studios’ custom engine powers the game’s graphics does a good job with both the inside and outside areas. The custom engine displays that it is capable of producing special effects, including one scene in which the sky above a bombed-out street clouds over and then begins to pour rain.
Value
Iron Storm has included four multiplayer modes. There is the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag modes, as well as the isolation case. Isolation case is a rendition of capture the flag, but with only one flag. There’s nothing wrong with Iron Storm’s multiplayer features. It is just that there is nothing extra included that other games of the genre don’t have.
Iron Storm’s challenging combat and puzzle elements help to set it apart from most shooters. The game does not take that long to complete, so it amy provide people some incentive to replay the game, try and solve problems a different way, and see what the different outcomes are. The gamer may play and complete the game 2 or 3 times, but none after that. To me it is a little like an RPG, you play it once, complete it and then shelve it.
Overall not a bad game, but not a great game. There are items that seem to have been more focused on and it clearly shows in the game. Good idea, just could have used some more qork improving areas such as the stealth mode to seperate itself from the rest of the shooter genre.