War Front: Turning Point is another World War II RTS, but it’s not your typical WWII RTS. It takes place in an alternate reality in which Hitler was assassinated early in the war, although his death apparently had no effect on Germany’s ambitions of conquest. In fact, the country’s plans of European domination prove to be far more successful with Hitler out of the picture and the game’s campaign opens with the Germans occupying London. How this came to be, or how this somehow lead to the development of Sci-Fi weapons like flying rocket pack soldiers, sonic tanks, and earthquake bombs, is never adequately explained in the game so you just have to kind of go with the flow. The game tends to want to play out the story as a campy B-movie, although at other times it tries to be serious – an artsy cutscene that shows a single flower in a peaceful field that is soon crossed by rumbling tanks comes to mind – which gives the game a disjoint feel to it. There are also some distracting egregious mistakes in the game, such as the US victory screen which shows the Marines raising a 50 star US flag on Iwo Jima which sits on the other side of the world from where the game takes place. It all looks as if the developers wanted to make a WWII RTS with futuristic weapons thrown in, but couldn’t quite figure out how to make the whole thing gel. But like I said, just go with the flow…

The flow in this case is all pretty much standard RTS fare. You’ve got base building with your basic set of production and defensive structures, resource gathering, and units designed to counter each other in a rochambeau manner. The missions all fall into the standard “move a VIP across the map”, “build a base to fend off an impending attack”, and “annihilate the enemy base” categories. The requisite tutorial is missing, but there really doesn’t need to be one here – the game sticks so close to script that only people who’ve never played an RTS before will have any trouble jumping in and taking full control of things.

Some of the units in the game are cool, such as an ice spitter tank which freezes units and structures making them brittle and easy to destroy. Sorry about that, no pun intended. Overall, though, they aren’t all that different from some of the other Sci-Fi themed RTS games of past. The explosive effects are pretty fun to watch though, especially when splash damage takes out a nearby building or trees.

War Front: Turning Point does have a few issues, primarily with the pathfinding. It’s impossible to get anything but the smallest force to move across the map intact, as little groups will take alternate routes here and there some of which can be quite roundabout. Traffic jams are also a problem as units sometimes endlessly shuffle around as they try to make room for another to pass. Also the structures are too strong and can be repaired too quickly. This doesn’t add anything to the game other than to pad the mission times, and grinding down a bunker in a battle of attrition is not the most exciting thing in the world to RTS gamers.

The game includes a skirmish mode that can be played either against the AI or online against your fellow humans. The AI is not the most challenging opponent and the one and only game mode of annihilation always boils down to building an overwhelming force to sweep the map while fending off the occasional half-hearted attack from the AI. Online play offers a couple of more interesting modes in Conquest and Secret Orders. Conquest has you vying to control territories on the map while Secret Orders gives each player a unique objective that is hidden from the others. These modes can be fun but it can be a little tricky finding opponents online.

War Front is not going to take the RTS gaming world by storm. If you enjoy sitting down to an RTS game in the traditional mode, then you’ll have some fun with the game, though. Overall though I can’t help but feel that there was a lot more potential here with the game’s setting that just wasn’t exploited, and this is a bit disappointing on its own.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 75%. War Front: Turning Point won’t turn the RTS world on its ear, but if you’re looking for an RTS in the traditional mold you should take it for a spin.