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Dom Robinson reviews
EA Games
The PC version, subtitled “Allied Assault”, had crisp clear graphics and A.I. to rival most first-person shooters on the market. I expected the same of the Xbox version, subtitled “Frontline”, given that it has high capabilities, which were superbly seen on the recent Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
At first I was so impressed as I looked around the boat I was on, heading for the beach. However, the simplicity of my first task did disappoint somewhat. There are four men trapped in tight spots that require you to shoot at the enemy in the bunker, in turn. However, shooting away and capping them after 3 or 4 shots does seem rather unrealistic, especially once you’ve had chance to test out the atillery they’re using in later levels.
The second level was reasonable. Infiltrate an enemy bunker underground, blow each of them away and make your way to the top before you drop a charge and then get out of there. Then things began to take a turn for the worse as I played the next few levels.
Firstly, the gameplay is too linear. You do expect this with certain kinds of game but this game follows this path too rigidly. When you see a town square with plenty of available exits and stairwells you expect to be able to investigate but the stairs are always blocked and there’s way too much of “this door will not open”. And why would the enemy stand next to barrels just shouting “Shoot me and I’ll explode”?
There’s also not enough to do in some levels. On one of the PC levels I was really up against it as enemy men piled down some stairs, each to take a shot at me. Here, there’s only a handful which are easy to blow away and when you do take aim and fire – where’s the blood??
Similarly, the graphics lack detail when getting too close. Everything looks fine when you’re running about but I noticed this problem as I started investigating the scenery, hoping I could go through some of the doors on the level.
There’s no major problems with the sound, but all the best effects seem to happen at the start of the game.
Definitely a ‘could do better’ game. It’s excellent at first, but soon gets repetitive. Unless the full version on the PC is better, you’d be best going for Return to Castle Wolfenstein on that platform.
Update: A couple more levels in and things are improving, but it’s still a case of ‘try before you buy’ with a rental.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.