World War II Sniper: Call to Victory promises authentic WW2 weapons, environments and scenarios. Offering spectacular sound, weather and music effects to bring the intensity of battle to life. I’ve had more fun choking blind chickens while wearing mittens.

The problem with the game is everything about it screams “me too” and cheap-o-rama. The presentation is the equivalent of a Shareware title, the interface looks as if it’s been designed by a handicapped panda with the only three fingers, hooked up to a car radiator with a hammer and nails. There isn’t even an option for the standard 1280×1024 in games today, only 1280×968.

Playing the game does not fare much better. I was expecting something dumbed down, but also something entertaining, even if it was on one CD and sold for a fairly cheap price (about 20 squid). Stick in another 10 to 15 squids and you could get yourself a copy of Call of Duty with the United Offensive expansion pack.

Graphically, the game looks like it’s was designed four or five years ago. Textures are bland, animation is rugged and choppy, frame rate is smooth for the most part, but then this is no surprise as you barely see more than six to seven NPCs on screen at once. Hardly what we’re used to, considering what today’s games are capable of.

There are attempts to put in set pieces, with some degree of dramatisation within the so-called dynamism of the music, but to be honest, it’s laughably inept and fails to provide any feeling of tension of urgency. The AI is abysmal, and to provide one example: during the first level, one of the objectives is to reach a house and clear it of the enemy.

You will often run around small gaps trying to find an exit, move up and down the roads, be blocked by invisible walls, without being given any direction

Once you’ve taken out the visible enemy, you go inside the house, only to find half the idiots are facing the wall, doing nothing, wandering the corridor aimlessly oblivious to the fire fight, and only react when they see you. It’s quite embarrassing to play, let alone discuss the state of AI so poor in a game in 2004. Your allied NPCs fair no better, as you end up taking out the bad guys yourself,while your allies neither die nor aim to kill.

The in-game interface is also rather horrendous. There is no map that I could find, but aside from this, there is no direction as to where you need to go, and how to get there. You will often run around small gaps trying to find an exit, move up and down the roads, be blocked by invisible walls, without being given any direction.

There is a compass, but this provides no direction. Press ‘O’ on your keyboard to bring up objectives with about as much detail as a the side of a coin. It will ask you to complete an objective, without telling you how to complete it, so you don’t actually know what you’ve completed until you’ve killed a lot of bad guys.

the interface looks as if it’s been designed by a handicapped panda with the only three fingers, hooked up to a car radiator with a hammer and nails

In many ways WW2S: CtV attempts to emulate its bigger, better and more entertaining cousins in the form of Medal of Honor, and more recently, Call of Duty. I’m not sure if Groove Games genuinely thought this was a sensible strategic decision to publish a title which is at best mediocre, and at its worst, tragic, as games players globally await for the arrival of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, Brothers in Arms amongst other high profile World War 2 games.

I suggest you save your money, add a little more and get the established titles out there. Alternatively, save your money and wait for the new games to be released from Ubisoft and EA, and experience games that you can at least expect to provide some value for money. I accept that JarHead Games only develop budget titles, but they could at the very least be quality budget titles. For the same price you can pick up the original Medal Of Honor at a bargain price.

Verdict: The only good thing about this game is uninstalling it and getting your money back, which makes you feel all tingly inside.