ÜberSoldier

The Good
Return to Castle Wolfenstein was, and still is, one of my most favored shooters (and games of all time). The excellent game play, it's brilliant (back then) graphics which didn't require a monster machine to run smoothly, the good myth-plot which involved sci-fi with the occult, the variety of level setups, all these made up RTCW to be one of my favorites... oh yeah! And not to forget the leather-clad high heeled SS babes! lol!

Ubersoldier does not feature the leather-clad SS babes, but it surely has all of the above minus the occult, to make up for a nice gaming experience. Graphically it is excellent! A true masterpiece! All those complex 3D models being dressed with beautiful textures that combined with the good lighting that the game's 3D engine produces makes up for an almost photo real experience sometimes, especially if this is played on high settings. Also the scenery sometimes includes animated aircrafts that attack the enemy, acting like you're actually having air support on your quest. Furthermore the submarine boarding level is quite innovative as you have to kill all the enemy crew and then surface the vessel in order to rendezvous with an allied sub, but the enemy has been warned and is after you, so as you wait for the allied sub to arrive you must shoot down enemy aircraft before they sink your submarine.

The weapon system is Halo inspired, as you can only carry one weapon from 5 certain types; namely pistols, assault/sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, or assault rifles, rocket launchers or flame throwers and grenades. All weapons are very detailed and beautifully modeled and textured when on your hand; especially the Phoenix flamethrower gets the top merits in modeling beauty.

Game play-wise Ubersoldier is rather simple and there are not so many puzzles to grind your mind, although a few points require some good exploration and thinking to pass. In it's heart though it's a get in blast everything in your sight and get out in one piece. The enemy won't make this an easy task though, as not only they are only outnumbering and outgunning you, they're smart too. Not to mention that they don't have any second thoughts about throwing grenades at you. This is a hard pack to fight and that's guaranteed. You'll need some extra thinking where to hide and where to attack from in order not to drain your damage level, because these guys' AI is pretty well programmed.

Talking about the enemy you have to take down a number of German units that vary in specialty, uniform, size and difficulty. You have the ordinary infantry, SS guards, special forces units that usually come in surprise from the roof or windows, Ubersoldier insane prototype failures that gone insane, some bio-moded guys that they have one electronic eye and their weapon is to create a whirlwind of garbage around you, so as these items revolve around you with massive speeds they hit you, stormtroopers with heavy machine guns that can rip you to shreds in fractions of a second, flame thrower guys and the Ubersoldier mkII. As for who is the Ubersoldier mkI, well that is a question you have to ask yourself, cause the game's cut scenes clearly show that it is yourself, the main hero. Not anything huge, ogre like and flashy, just an ordinary German officer who's got killed in action and got resurrected only now with a bit more stamina and health than any other troop and a bullet shield generating ability.

The Bad
This leads me to explain a bit more on the game’s actual plot and story. After you get your resurrection operation you get transferred to a hospital where a girl from the resistance breaks in instead of killing you (since you are German and she's... resistance) and orders you to get out. The whole game is really a love story in the bottom line, you follow her or do whatever task she tells you to, because Ubersoldiers are meant to follow orders from the person that they first encounter when they wake up from their resurrection coma and thus you're joining the resistance forces. And in the end there's a message in this game that the human feeling is greater than any machine. All well but the story behind Ubersoldier didn't click with me at all. The fact that you play a Ubersoldier and you are just an ordinary guy didn’t click with me at all. I was expecting to be the big guy with all the massive weapons on his hands and the necessary exaggeration that comes with it! But surely playing the heart-ached Karl Stolz is not appealing to me as being an Ubersoldier.

Not only that, but as a German character Karl Stolz is terribly voice acted. For starters he doesn't sound German at all, as Germans have certain lingual idioms when speaking English, due to their mother language (the same as Italians, Greeks, Russians etc). So a decent level of realism is lost due to the fact that Karl Stolz sound not only non German but like an idiot as well. I'm sure that the guys in Burut could find a proper German actor to do the voice acting for their main character in this, because this voice acting simply sucks!

The same disappointment comes from listening to the enemy soldiers voice acting, as they sound American more like, their phrases have an American taste as well, as they say things like "I've got a present for you" when they throw grenades at you.

The Bottom Line
Ubersoldier's game play is superb, as it is indeed an enjoying FPS to spend some time on. The only thing that ruins an otherwise immersing experience is the terrible voice acting in general and the main hero's actual human form, that is if you are expecting Ubersoldier to be some kind of fighting ogre.

Put aside the really bad voice acting and the Ubersoldier concept, it still offers some hours of good fun, as it is graphically excellent and offers some challenging enemy AI. On those bases, this title should be checked out definitely.

On the lasting ability front, I've played it to completion two times in a period of three months, so I guess it's worth its nickel in my book.