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Iron Storm Review - PC

First person shooters are some of the most popular titles going round these days. In fact, the market is well and truly saturated with them. In order to stand out from the crowd, a new release FPS must show some sort of innovation. Can Iron Storm match it with the likes of Operation Flashpoint and Medal of Honor???

Minimum Requirements

• Processor:P3 600
• RAM:128 MB
• Hard Drive Space:<1.2 GB
• System:98/ME/2000/XP
• Graphics Card:GeForce 2
• GSound Card
• Direct X:8.1

Gameplay

Iron Storm is quite an interesting little story. WW1 is essentially still being fought- 50 years later. Russia and Germany have combined powers and the armies of the West are now listed on the stock exchange- in order to finance this never-ending war! Therefore, mission victory/failure is a double-edged sword, also sending the share prices soaring/falling. You are a soldier sent behind enemy lines to steal plans for an ultimate weapon, and take down as many enemy soldiers in the process.

What the hell is it with the AI of snipers in computer games??? More often than not, they possess an unbelievable hit ratio and instant death from nowhere. I mention this because early on in Iron Storm, you will have to rid the surrounding area of snipers. Pop your head out of the bunker for a second and it will be well and truly blown off. It appears that there are Jude Law's everywhere! This leads to some very tedious gameplay, you know, it goes something like this:

- Find sniper position
- Kill sniper and save immediately
- Through trial and error, find next sniper and save
- Get lucky and kill sniper and save immediately

Complete this process until all snipers are finally dead! A lot of stop/start and this is at the very beginning of the game!! Sensational sniper shooting aside, Iron Storm is a massive challenge. The enemy AI, generally, is very good. The game actually borders on too hard and a lot of gamers will be put off by the early bunker stages and give up. Trying to reach the church on the first mission, with snipers and ground soldiers everywhere, is an absolute nightmare! This is definitely one for those of you who think today's games are way too easy.

The game can be viewed in first or third person. I mainly used the first person view but did find the third useful, especially when trying to flesh out those damn snipers. Mission objectives are relayed to via radio and there is a surprising amount of puzzles to solve for this type of game. It's not all guns blazing here and sometimes stealth makes for an alternative route though it's somewhat under-developed. You are also limited to the amount of weapons you can carry. Each type of weapon (handgun, sniper, pump rifle or heavy weapon) has one slot assigned- often creating situations as to what weapon will be most beneficial to you in upcoming battles. As mentioned, early levels are mainly fought in trenches ... (continued next page)