This has got to be one of the laziest franchises of all, because every game is virtually the same from gameplay (cover-based on-rail shooters) to setting; each and every single game looks very cheap and also heavily outdated, looking like an early PlayStation 2 game, which is especially egregious since these all came out in the infamous late 7th gen. All the gameplay is the most basic you can get in a rail shooter since you just shoot stupid opponents and occasionally use a turret or use vehicles. There are upgrades, but the only thing you get in turns of upgrades is the amount of ammo you get, more health, more grenades, and get more powerful guns. It's even worse as you progress! The plot is poor and generic, which consists of just the narration of a young man who dreams to become a soldier. In fact there is no real story you just play as some random Marine that goes to the Middle East (or, in this case, Afghanistan) to fight terrorists. There are also no actual characters with the main character being a one-note Marine with a generic monologue of how he joined the Marines to fight terrorists and serve his country, with all other characters being entirely forgettable. Even the voice acting is awful and incredibly dull as each actor sounds bored out of their minds most of the time. In fact it actually sounds like the horrendous voice acting in the various games having Tom Clancy's name (the characters in those franchises also sound horrendous and especially annoying, with Rainbow Six being the only exception). Sometimes they don't even sound American but instead like someone trying to put on an American accent (when they're originally, say, Polish in this case). To make matters even worse, there are terrible sound effects that makes the guns themselves sound and feel weak like they don't even sound like actual gunshots. Coupled with the really bad and dull graphics and audio having poor explosion models, grainy textures and the bullet impact looking like glass that is being shotwhile the sound effect of enemy soldiers being shot feels more like the sound of a bullet being shot against a metal surface. The interactivity is very poor: the only things that you are required to do is to take cover, aim and shoot, while the game automatically does everything else. In addition the poor cover system almost always leaves you open to enemy fire in some place. There are only two difficulty settings: Recruit and Veteran (which is unlocked by beating the game on Recruit difficulty); however, each game in the franchise is pathetically easy as all the enemies can die in one shot, regardless of the weapon you're using, and their AI is practically all braindead since they mostly stand out in the open for you to shoot them, or they mostly shoot around you until an exclamation point comes up over their heads, which is when they're about to hit you. But every now and again the difficulty will spike mainly due to artificial difficulty. Additionally, the game can also be very unforgiving at times, sending hordes of enemies against you while giving you no place to cover, and whenever you die, the Game Over screen defaults to "Restart" instead of "Continue", in which you are sent back to the last checkpoint with very little health, instead of having your health refilled. This has been done only to pad out the game. Aside from that, there is no other way to fail a mission; if you shoot a friendly soldier or a hostage you will just lose points, but the game will allow you to go on as if nothing happened. Sometimes you can even continue walking for a few moments after losing all your health! Each game even has an experience bar, however, you don't gain XP by doing well in the game. Instead, you level up through gaining achievements. The game overuses quick-time events, but most of the time they're pointless since your character does the action anyways. They also occur at the most impractical occasions, breaking the game's pacing, and their only purpose is to get extra points, which is also pointless. Not even the QTEs in Rambo: The Video Game, another game by the same devs, are that pointless, as there are consequences for failing one (specifically your character getting killed off)! Here, though, there isn't a perk that automatically clears QTEs, which could have fixed the game's pacing a bit. For instance, there are QTEs for jumping and opening doors. To add salt to the wound, there is no penalty for failing QTEs, instead the game lets you go on, making them come off as afterthoughts. Each game is also incredibly short, clocking in at about an hour to an hour and a half like it's a movie. In this case, there are only 12 missions, each of which lasts about 10 minutes, for a total of about 3 hours, even though the game is padded out with artificial difficulty. There is also no replay value since there are no collectibles or unlockables or multiplayer. Overall, the game feels and plays like a poor man on-rail version of Call of Duty. I cannot believe I wasted everything on something so boring and completely unoriginal. Give me a refund immediately right now.
