No caption will do that image justice. The Statue of Liberty, flying the Nazi flag. This is the powerful imagery that Spark Unlimited's Turning Point: Fall of Liberty uses to set the scene for a horrific nightmare scenario -- the death of Winston Churchill, the subjugation of Europe and the invasion of New York City in 1953. Earlier today, Spark Unlimited and publisher Codemasters held an intimate gathering in the Cabinet War Rooms of the Churchill Museum, London, the very rooms from which Britain's then-leader directed World War II, and both David Houghton and myself were very fortunate to attend. The gathering, I mean, not World War II's direction. It was here that we got to see early gameplay footage of this shockingly unsettling and downright scary new first person survival game, and came away liking what we saw.
As well as Turning Point, we also got a hands-on playtest and juicy new information on the eagerly awaited Clive Barker's Jericho. Stay tuned to Destructoid for Houghton's in-depth preview of the macabre horror show direct from Clive Barker's twisted brainwrongs, but right now, please hit the jump for more on the alternate-reality war game, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.
[Editor's note: Screenshots included in this article are from a pre-alpha game and as such, do not fully represent the final product]
After a brief introduction from Codemasters' David Brickley (senior producer, Turning Point), in which he mentioned Overlord's impressive worldwide success (something I couldn't help but shout "Yes!" for in the middle of the presentation), the CEO of Spark Unlimited, Craig Allen, kicked off the preview for his company's promising new game, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.
Turning Point is set in an alternate reality where, we presume, history was identical to our own until one very pivotal moment, the moment where British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, instead of surviving a traffic accident in New York, 1931, passed away, leaving Britain leaderless in the fight against the German forces. Spark Unlimited asks "what if?" What if Churchill had indeed died? In the universe of Turning Point, the question is answered in a most terrifying way, as Europe falls to the German war machine and the invasion of the United States begins.
The trailer that we were shown was at once awe-inspiring and chilling, with the image of Lady Liberty holding that swastika-adorned flag making my hair stand on end. Everything about it was knee-deep in dread. With the Nazis being perhaps the most reviled and intimidating figures in world history, the sight of them laying New York to waste struck instant chords and quickly set the game apart from any war-based first person game that has come before.
This is clearly an ambitious concept and one that Spark Unlimited is taking very seriously. In speaking with Craig, it's obvious that he and his team care deeply about the project, have done their research and wanted to explore some very deep themes throughout the game. Inspired by 9/11 in a lot of ways, Allen explained how the months and months of meticulous planning led to that one man's decision to volunteer to get into that cockpit and, with others, change the course of the entire world forever. It's this domino effect, this idea that one incident always causes another, that Allen is most excited about and hopes to bring to the fore with Turning Point. The very name of the game itself is indicative of Spark's concept, how that one moment between life and death for Churchill proved to indeed be the turning point for the entire world's history.
In Turning Point, you take on the role of construction worker Dan Carson, just an average man who finds himself stuck in the middle of the German invasion and fighting for survival. Craig Allen compared this upcoming game to previous titles like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. In MOD, the story was about finding glory and honor in battle while in COD, the focus was on the group, how no single man wins a war. Turning Point, however, is more personal in scope. As a man with no combat experience, no support, no weapons save what you scavenge, your only goal to get out of the chaos alive. Carson was someone who just happened to be there when the world changed, and now has to use his wits to survive. As the game continues, you will guide Carson toward the formation of a resistance against the Nazi forces, taking him from New York to Washington D.C and finally London, where we see what over a decade of Nazi rule has done to the place. While promising a very interesting and exciting twist at the end, you can be sure the entire game is building toward an epic climax.
Now, time to talk about the actual gameplay, after all that high-concept business. The game's first level opened with your character at the top of a construction girder, with a clear view of the city as the Germans invade. Luftwaffe scream past, buildings explode and New York literally falls apart around you. As you might expect, setpieces were the order of the day as Carson slowly climbed down the incomplete building in an attempt to find some respite. As more planes fly by, you see a fellow American fall to his doom before your very eyes, and screams of terror and pain echo in the distance. The game is scary in a way I've never seen before. In all my years of playing titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, I've not seen gameplay that scares in such a manner, in a fashion that just screams; "It's all going wrong!" What's most scary about this game it could have happened.
One of the highlights in the first level was easily the part where you sneak up on a nazi and toss the heiling fiend from the top of the building and nab your first gun. As you do, the camera pans down to show his descent in a most classy fashion. Later, you get the opportunity to shoot the Germans as they descend with parachutes, before you yourself fall into the city streets and have to take them out with some head-on action, complete with human shields in the form of captured hun and exploding shells sending you into a bullet-time-esque haze.
Also shown were two further levels, the Meat Packing District and Escape From New York. Both these levels showed how your lack of resources comes into the gameplay, as you sneak through city streets, avoiding the zeppelins that roar overhead and look to pick off survivors caught in their huge spotlights (my favorite part of the game). If you get caught, a huge foghorn sounds in a truly creepy manner and you have to run or get cut down by gunfire.
I'm slightly unwilling to label what I saw FPS footage, because it wasn't truly a first person shooter. While it had all the elements of such a game, survival is a much more key aspect, guns are not plentiful, and you need to be a lot more resourceful to get through. Much of the action in the further levels was made up of engaging the Nazis by hand, wrestling their guns from them and knocking them out in a variety of ways (the classic gun-butt to the head always raised a snicker from the audience).
One of the most exciting prospects that Craig Allen talked about was the creativity going into the weapon design. Although very much grounded in a realistic setting, Spark Unlimited is taking some creative license and advancing the technology of the German forces to a degree that they feel would have been likely at the time, had they completely taken over Europe and were able to develop their technology. This means of course that there are no lazers and mechs, but a realistically enhanced arsenal, carefully researched to provide a solid hypothesis of what the Nazis would have had if Turning Point's scenario became true. Allen seemed to hint that some of the weaponry on display will be actual renditions of machines that Germany was planning on creating but never did. All in all, it should make for some interesting and exciting material.
Everything we saw was pre-alpha footage and already it's looking good. Once some dynamic lighting and shading gets thrown in, I think we're in for something visually quite striking. The opening shot of New York from the girders already looks impressive, but it's due to get much better.
There is so much more that Turning Point: Fall of Liberty promises to do. Allen spoke about how the Nazis will take over the Whitehouse and use it to broadcast their messages of freedom and hope to the people, making the gamer think about how people in power use symbolizm to bolster their propoganda. The causation themes and the idea of one man being caught in the middle of the biggest change the world's ever known all look to be incredibly well handled with maturity, intelligence and a skill that sees everything achieve maximum emotional effect. Coming in the Fall, Turning Point has impressed me with what it promises to do and I am so much more hyped for it than I thought I'd be. This is one to watch, I guarantee it.
Before he presents our hands-on preview of Jericho, I now quickly hand you over to David Houghton for his thoughts on what we saw:
David's Take
I'll admit, when I went into the preview for Turning Point I wasn't expecting much. Another WWII FPS? Wake me up when we get to Jericho please. The whole alternate reality idea screamed of a last ditch attempt to wring a final ounce of life out of the overdone genre, and I was dubious that we were going to get anything other than a first-person rehash of Freedom Fighters. From what I've seen so far though, it seems I may well have been completely wrong, and if my hopes for Turning Point end up being justified I'll be more than happy to have made a mistake.
Jim's not exaggerating when he says this game is chilling. Talking to Craig Allen it became clear that Spark are interested in the way those in control use the power of symbols and iconic imagery to instill fear and respect, and that's something the game's designers seem to have got a strong grasp on. The Statue Of Liberty flying a swastika. Huge, minigunned zeppelins roaring over the New York skyline. The top of the Empire State Building lying in ruins in the street, the city's people too concerned with staying alive to care any more. All of these have an impact which is hard to explain without showing you the footage we saw today, and are executed superbly. I can see the zeppelins in particular becoming a nightmarish entity if used properly through the game. Announcing themselves with a heavy, almost animalistic drone and bringing rapid death seconds after that, scenes with them take on a panicked, almost angrily threatening ambience heavily evokative of the initial attack in Spielberg's War Of The Worlds.
In terms of gameplay, what we saw today feels like a very natural progression from the Call Of Duty Series. While remeniscent of that series, Turning Point feels like a heavy remix of its combat mechanics, with the emphasis shifted from all out gunplay to more desperate approach which forces improvisation and ammo conservation, with guns a luxury rather than a staple. This leads to all kinds of third-person environment use, a lot of what we saw being the kind of thing usually reserved only for platformers and stealth games. I never thought I could find the WWII FPS fresh again, but Turning Point is so far already giving me that kind of a feeling.
Going off the conversations I had today, it seems clear that Spark and Codemasters are taking their conepts and themes very seriously in this game, and are unlikely to settle for gimmicks to sell it. I can only hope the finished game plays as well as what we saw today suggests, because if it does, we're definitely in for a good one.
Contest:
6:33 PM on 07.13.2007
| 
Word!
But it's a console FPS...yuck...
If they really were going for realism and that "chilling effect", they should do away with the double barreled tanks (also from C&C), steel airships, and the gestapo from Puppet Master 3 (vague enough reference?) parachuting onto taxi's before getting elbowed by who I will assume is beardless Chuck Norris. After watching the trailer, I'm expecting the Nazi's to next use Rasputin to summon Hellboy on the god-loving New Yorkers.
What I am saying is that I don't buy the whole serious tone with the outrageous imagery. Ever see the cruelty of war in Saving Private Ryan? Of course you have, and it was chilling to the bone. And all the tanks in that movie only had one god damn barrel.
...on the plus side, planes crashing into the Nazi Trade Center towers doesn't make me feel that bad. Go figure.
It will. Games that feature the swastika are automatically forbidden in Germany, since games are not treated by law as a form of art. Movies and comics on the other hand are considered art and therefore allowed to show the swastika. Which sometimes leads to confusion, for example "The darkness". The uncut version is banned since one of the unlockable extras showed a comic with the swastika. The comic itself is legal in Germany, the game showing it isn`t...
Long story short, the original version of the game will be banned automatically, but maybe they come out with some version where they replace the swastikas with normal crosses, like developers did with the Call of duty series.