World War II Combat - Iwo Jima (PC)

 

It’s 81th Independence Day of my country. I pray that fate turns nicer on my mother land. Anyway, this year Independence Day celebration I review Groove Game’s World War II Combat – Iwo Jima (2005) because it’s close for me to experience fighting Japanese oppressors in video game. 

Nice logo on title screen. I wish the main menu is on the title screen but no. That’s quite letdown. In case you wonder, Battle in Iwo Jima is historically accurate. It’s about war between US Marine against Japanese force in 19 February – 26 March 1945. Indonesia declared independency in 17 August 1945, so I assume this historical battle also affect our Independence Day. That’s reason is solid enough, I guess.

 

The main menu has World War 2 documentary video as background. That’s pretty neat. So, I have to make a profile first like in Area 51 and then I can pick the game mode. Let’s start with Campaign.

 

The first mission called Sniper patrol. Is sniper meant for patrol duty? I kind of surprised there’s voice narration reads the text on right. But it comes out quite late though. In case you wonder, Semper Fidelis means “Always faithful” which is official motto for US Marine Corps. It often shortened as “Semper Fi”.   

 

So, here we are. Landing on battlefield with the amphibious landing vessels which are cute.

 

My comrades have gone further first. I have time all I need to ransack dead bodies around. It’s ok, dead men no longer need ammo. The control is as generic as you get in any FPS: W, A, S, D button to move forward/backward and step left/right, mouse motion to look/aim around, and mouse’s left button to shoot my weapon. By default, use/interaction and switch to handgun are not mapped at all! The sniper’s main weapon is obviously sniper rifle. It’s one of those cumbersome rifles where each time I shoot, I’m stuck in “loading the bullet into the chamber” animation for fairly eternity. So, the game is unplayable if I can’t switch my sniper rifle to handgun. I have to map the weapon switch manually. I learn that there are 4 slots: “1” button for Handgun, “2” button for main weapon, “3” button for explosive (“pineapple” grenade in this case) and “4” button for knife. I don’t like I have to hold the use button (I map it to “E” button like in any FPS) to search the dead body for ammo. It should be just a single press and it doesn’t lose the message behind searching for ammo.

 

I appreciate there’s forbidden mark on allies otherwise I waste my bullet unnecessary and later got martial courted. God forbids that I get into conscription. I will murder anyone that’s not me in battlefield. There’s sign that we enter a minefield. I like to say that Nippon officer who gives idea of putting minefield in the middle of coconut plantation, is tactical genius. I barely can tell the difference between coconut and mine around this part. As far as I can tell. Coconut has spherical shape. Whereas mine has plate shape. They both brown colored, by the way. I guess I just followed these lads. They seem to know where to step safely. Nevermind. One of them steps a mine and flies high as he tries to engage with enemy.

 At the end of the minefield, I encounter locked gate. Must find the key. Engineer_negativevocalization03.wav

 

I can use my scope or aim down the sight by pressing “Q” button (the default is shift button). I see there’s Japanese soldier stabbed with Katana on tree. I’m guessing, he’s the one who oppose the brilliant idea to put minefield in this coconut plantation here. Probably the reason he really like coconut and he against the idea to weaponize coconut plantation. God bless him.

 

I can pick this decorative helmet as souvenir inside this shed! I also pick the gate key too. Don’t you worry!

 

Past beyond the locked gate is the first checkpoint and small airport. The mission objective updated! I must destroy planes on this airport. The sniper rifle is slow but it’s naturally reliable to kill enemies from afar including this man behind mounted machine gun.

I don’t know why this git spacing out so I stab him in the back. Spy_DominationSoldier05.wav.

 

I already taken care of the guard in this tower. Now it’s my turn to use this as sniping point. Much like in any FPS, you have to walk forward while facing up on ladder to ascend it.

 

After I done sniping, time to destroy these planes as instructed. I try to use grenade but to no avail!

 

Oh duh! I was dumb. I’m supposed to approach it and plant TNT on the red projection on the plane. I just wasted 2 grenades for nothing.     

 

Then I got killed by someone somewhere. There’s special indicator on crosshair that tells where I received attack from but still can’t see where my killer’s location.

 

I wonder what’s these signs with Japanese characters mean. Turns out, my character can read it by holding the use button. I don’t know how accurate these Japanese writings. But I reckon the game is quite accurate regarding the Japanese voice. Enemies say “Miteru” to indicate they saw me. Other enemies respond with “Wakata” means “Understood” or “Roger that”.      

After several attempts…

I learn that if I destroy the last airplane, new enemies will respawn. I tried to snipe them from watch tower but they manage to run too close to the tower. So, I reluctantly descend the ladder and shoot them from it. Luckily my feet are glued to the ladder so I don’t have to worry about falling down. Speaking of which, you have to be careful on descending ladder because there’s fall damage! In order to descend the ladder properly, you have to face the ladder and walk backward.   

 

I thought those 2 enemies are the mysterious shooter that I killed me several times, turns out no. There’s still that hidden git somewhere out there. To make things worse, I realized that there’s no health refill! Not at all. Not even health refill at checkpoint. No! So, either you have to restart from checkpoint or restart entire level if your health too low. Then you have to “git gud” to finish the level. That’s atrocious! You can’t. I repeat. You can’t make any FPS without any mean of healing. Considering how the player in FPS is very stiff in movement with no dodge move like dodge roll or anything like that.

Anyway, I’m not able to spot the cunning git. Let alone extract revenge on him. In the end, I just run through the bunker door that seems safe and also lead to next objective which is destroy Anti-air gun placement. You can see the guard tower and smoking wreckage of planes where I came from, on the right.  

 

Thanks God, the mission is over when I destroy the Anti-air gun emplacement. My health was low back then. Next mission called The Valley of Death. Not a good sign. 

 

I’m still stuck with sniper rifle as my main weapon. There are lots of crates lying around but they don’t serve any purpose. I wish they provide me with health refill or other guns to replace my handgun.

 

This time I need to destroy 3 radios on machine gun nest. The radios are easy to find because they’re very noisy.

 

I can’t even use the light machine gun. It’s right FREAKING there! But our sniper here refuses to use it because of sniper’s honor or something. 

Look at these jpg of tree’s root. Pitiful! I can understand Tenchu 2 on Sony Playstation 1 using jpg for tree branch. But this game came out 10 years later or so. If I start to digress about graphic of tree root or unusable light machine gun, you should know that the game is not good. It’s aggressively mediocre historical FPS.

 

When I destroy the last radio in this bunker, enemies rushing in. I can snipe before going here but as I mentioned before that the sniper rifle is cumbersome. Geez! If only I could use light machine gun here, I had won long time ago. After several failed attempts, I figure that I should just corner camping here. As enemies open the door, I stab them with my knife. They are overwhelmed with this not-really Tenchu method because their rifle too long which is unsuitable for close combat. Apparently, the knife can kill enemies with one hit. Compared to the handgun (that I assume Colt M1911) that requires 4-11 hit to kill an enemy. I mean you can kill them with single headshot but they rush in too fast here.

 

There’s another Japanese soldier that got stabbed with Katana. Turns out, I can pick it for collectible. I prefer use it as weapon but I ask too much for this Abandonware game.

 

I have reached the checkpoint. My next objective is destroying Anti-air Gun emplacement like in previous mission. This part feels easier because enemies are in stationary position thus, I can snipe them relatively easy. So far, the enemies suck at long-range combat unless they use mounted machine gun. The real problem comes when they start to rush on me thus, I’m forced to engage in closer-range combat and there’s so much what my handgun does in that situation.

 

I try to storm inside the bunker with grenade but its explosion is too small. It only kills 2 enemies that clumped together at a time. On the bright side, I feel entertained seeing this bastard clip through the bed. I can tell that he’s dismissed because he’s bedridden. Scout_laughhappy03.wav  

 

Once again, I finish the mission with barely any health. However, this method of using enemy’s mortar to destroy the last Anti-air gun emplacement is really entertaining me. Demoman_positivevocalization04.wav

Saipan into Garapan… 

My mission objective is clearing town of tanks. Sure. When I’m done with this place, their tanks will be townless. :)   

Anyway, I have different main gun. Finally! It’s M1 Thompson Submachine Gun which is better gun than handgun. Scout_mvm_loot_common03.wav

 

Up ahead is another minefield. I let enemies rush to me so they can “sweep” the mine for me. Apparently, AI is not smart enough to walk safely through minefield when they’re about to engage with enemy.      

 

Ah, damn! One of the tanks decides to go back home early and position itself on that empty building and try to snipe to my position from the window.

 

Look at this funny moron refuses to lie on the ground normally when die. Anyway, the tank is just up ahead. At the end of this road.

 

The slot 3 weapon is now filled with rocket launcher instead of grenade. I can deal with machine gun rudely with the rocket launcher. Not as finest as sniper rifle but it works. I can or rather must hug the wall on the left so I can reach the tank’s blind spot and then shoot rocket at it safely. It takes 3 rockets to destroy it. I think it should be less in other FPS game.

 

I walk outside of main road and I find building ruin where I can find this decorative sword as souvenir. I also find another box of unlimited rockets nearby.     

 

The SMG really eats my ammo stock. Kind of difficult to get new ammo for it from dead enemies. So, I use rocket launcher to unlife these Japanese soldiers. This act violates Geneva’s convention, maybe? But it’s easy to do this besides there’s unlimited rocket boxes around. Although I have to pick the rocket one by one and I can only carry 5 in total. So, this must be the feeling being Team Fortress 2 Soldier. Soldier_specialcompleted04.wav

 

After destroying 4 tanks in total the mission ends. I move on to titular island “Iwo Jima”! Why we don’t start with Iwo Jima from the get go, anyway?

 

So, now we’re in beach landing mission. It’s not as colossal as Operation Overlord in Medal of Honor Allied Assault or Call of Duty in PSP game. But that’s reasonable because the beach is not big anyway. There’s an ally on crater shivering in fear because of shell shock. I try to relieve his pain with knife stab but he’s immune to it. Later then, chump. 

 

My main weapon this time is my favorite M1 Garand! It’s not as strong and accurate as sniper rifle but at least less cumbersome. Just remember that you can’t reload this US rifle unless there’s no more bullet in chamber.

I tried to press the alternative fire before but nothing happens. Now it works as bayonet stab on M1 Garand. That’s maybe handy but I thought something else happens on alternative fire other than quick melee attack because it’s called ALTERNATIVE FIRE for God’s sake!  

 

You can press Tab button to see your current objective. It says: clear mortar pits and all caves. It’s quite vague. I can’t use grenade to destroy these crates and boxes. Turns out all I need to do is walk through caves and mortar pits while killing all enemies. But that’s what I basically did in previous missions. Progressing through the map and killing enemies.

 

The inside of the box is weapon I can use. Turns out it is! It’s M9 flame thrower! Speaking of weapon I can use, I can also operate the mortar but it’s not beneficial because I can’t change the direction on the mortar.

 

Pyro_jeers01.wav. The flamethrower is super disappointing! It deals little damage. Enemies flinched when get hit by any weapon including flamethrower but the response so little! They just grunt a bit and then keep firing their gun. That’s not real response of getting burned alive. They should drop their weapon and flailing their arms while scream in panic while I burn them. The burning damage over time also small. The developer should ramp up the flamethrower damage really high! Like in Gunforce, a split second of flame spray is enough to kill every human soldier. The flamethrower replaces the knife, by the way. I suspect the developer is Anti Pyro and Pro Spy. >:(

 

I reluctantly ditch the flamethrower and keep using the M1 Garand. At least, I love the rifle. Apparently, enemy can kick grenade but that one is already too late. I think the grenade throw has constants range because there’s no power indicator when you hold the grenade. So, you hold it to cook it so enemy don’t have time to kick it back to you or anywhere else.

The mission went relatively smooth until I get new objective to destroy tank! There was no tank in mission briefing. What are you talking about, game? It’s certainly better if I still have my rocket launcher but no. All I have is this slightly fat grenade. Thankfully, the tank behaves like stationary turret. It only shoots in general area in certain pattern and doesn’t realize I’m besides it. It can’t run me over or even turn the turret in my current location.

 

Once again, I late to realize that I have to destroy the target by placing explosive on it and the grenade that I threw does nothing. But to be fair, if I don’t throw grenade at the tank, the gunport will still be active and I can’t be safe near the tank.

Suddenly there’s a message says “3 more tanks to destroy”. If you excuse me but WHAT THE FREAK IS THAT CRAP? Not only the mission briefing doesn’t mention I have to destroy tank but also there are 4 tanks in total? To make things worse, my health is very Goddamn low! Only 14 points.

Next attempt…

 

Look at that coward tank hiding behind sandbag. I know howitzer behind sandbag but tank? I don’t think this strategy is historically accurate. Why tank who’s already impervious to small firearms, have to take cover behind sandbag? The only reason is to make me harder to approach the bastard and plant explosive right in its sorry arse. I really don’t like that I don’t have rocket launcher for this mission. At least give me that big fat stikkbomb anti-tank grenade like in Battlefied 1 (2016).   

 

The 3rd tank’s position is quite atrocious. Do you see sandbagged gun nest far ahead? That’s where the last tank and mounted machine guns positioned. If I try to plant explosive on that 3rd tank, they will start blasting at me and 2 enemy soldiers rushing at me. My solution is: snipe the machine gunner with M1 Garand. It takes a couple dozens of bullets to accomplish that because it’s not sniper rifle but it gets the job done. After that, I lure the 2 bastards by moving toward the tank but immediately retreating to this relatively safe spot. Once I kill them, I can destroy this tank in open in relatively safe situation.

 

Finally, I destroy the last tank with just sliver of my health. I think I have to save my last grenade to neutralize the gunport on last tank. There are some boxes with unlimited grenade to replenish my stock but there’s none beyond checkpoint which is past the second tank.

Assault on Mt. Suribachi

 

The mission starts with me at my camp which is only few steps from here. How can I sleep very near to battlefield, is beyond me? There are some allied soldiers that help me in this mission as you can see on the right. But once I enter bunker’s tunnel, I’m on my own. The allied soldiers aren’t programmed to walk to tunnel. By the way, my main weapon this time is Browning Automatic Rifle. Not eating the bullets as much as Thompson SMG while as strong as M1 Garand. I’m sorry, reader. I can’t take this anymore. I quit. I know that Mt. Suribachi is the place of historical moment where US Marine plants a banner on its peak but I can’t go on. The game is too atrocious. I leave to someone else who has strong America spirit, to finish the game. 

Fine. I can stay longer for quick Multiplayer session. So, in multiplayer mode there are various game type: Deatmatch, Team Deatmatch, and Capture the Flag. I can set bots for Multiplayer mode so I guess we can get on with it. I set the bot skill to easy. No use to go hard on myself.

 

The player’s arsenal is restricted to their class. There are 5 classes: Rifleman, Shock trooper, Sniper, Machine gunner, and Combat Engineer. Rifleman class is the one in Iwo Jima beach landing, armed with M1 Garand. Shock Trooper class is the one in tank town mission, armed with Thompson SMG and rocket launcher. Sniper class is the one in first 2 mission, armed with sniper rifle. Machine Gunner class is the one in Mt Suribachi, armed with BAR. I didn’t know what’s the deal with Combat Engineer class so I pick it for this occasion. So, Combat Engineer is armed with Thompson SMG and this satchel charge. I think it’s like that timed explosive, use by human Supply class in Terminator 3 - War of the Machines. It has relatively short throwing range but creates big explosion though not as big as that timed explosive. I don’t see the appeal of Combat Engineer class.  

 

Not only I can change class but also can change the faction. I try Japanese rifleman class. What the heck with this rifle that I assume is Arisaka? It’s more cumbersome than M1 Garand. I have to load bullet everytime I shoot. Also, I can’t reload when there’s still bullet inside the gun which is the only weakness of M1 Garand. Shouldn’t be Japanese rifle more flexible in reload department? I also find out that Japanese faction use Bren as light machine gun and Sten as submachine gun. That doesn’t feel right. I’m also baffled that enemy don’t get killed with a direct hit from rocket unlike in campaign mode. That also doesn’t feel right.

 

The match is over and I’m in position #3. I’m fine with that. Before you laugh/criticize on my profile’s name that contains word “Nob”, I have to stop you right there. It’s not Noob, ok? It’s high rank title in Ork of Warhammer 40K. It could be shortened word for Noble. Anyway, let’s end this.

 

Here’s the blurred image of the historical moment of US Marine plant a banner at Mt. Suribachi.

Groove Game’s World War II Combat – Iwo Jima (2005) is aggressively generic FPS game. I think it’s using Unreal Engine so it’s even more generic than you think. I suspect the game was built around multiplayer as base. The reason I say that because of the strangeness I found at the control which is lots of function are not mapped yet by default. When I play the multiplayer mode where I need to run around and shoot with my main weapon, there’s no problem. But when I play the single player mode, I need to map the handgun slot and use/interactive function first. If I hadn’t mapped the use interactive/use function, I couldn’t open door, search dead body/locker for ammo, and put explosive on mission target. That’s huge disability in single player mode. The worse of all there’s no mean to heal! Not at all. Don’t tell me that the existence of healing item only makes the game’s pace slower. I don’t see such a problem in number of FPS games, either in single player or multiplayer mode. The example is: Quake 2, Quake 3, and Team Fortress 2. If healing item exist in multiplayer mode, player can retreat to search for it and heal themselves. But that scenario doesn’t dampen the game’s pace because they become easy target for other player because they’re focus on searching for healing item and most likely not fighting back. I feel like the multiplayer mode close to my experience with Counter Strike. No mean to heal but at least you have armor in CS but not in WW II – IJ. The combat is more or less spray and pray. No room for sniper because the map’s terrain is relatively even and other player can just run around freely to avoid being sniped. Besides the sniper rifle is too cumbersome for Multiplayer mode. I also suspect that the game also Anti Sniper.

Back to single player mode, I won’t say it’s unplayable because of the absence of healing mean. But it’s still aggravating and atrocious. So, you have to play the mission in campaign mode like 1-CC elitist try not to get hit throughout entire playthrough. Every hit is regrettable moment. Maybe I’m exaggerated it. But only a bit and my statement there is not far from reality. This is even worse than my experience with Painkiller: Overdose in Nightmare difficulty (hard difficulty) in which reaching checkpoint doesn’t heal the player. Speaking of checkpoint, there’s only checkpoint that save your progress. I think there’s only 1 checkpoint for every mission. There’s no quicksave or even slow normal save. The combat is as tedious and boring as you get. If you aren’t stuck with sniper rifle as main weapon, you’re forced to use handgun that’s not really up for the task, in medium range combat. I wish I can replace the handgun with other guns. Which means: 2 main weapons that is standard modern FPS game. There’s no really interesting feature in combat. You can lean by holding a button and pressing either “A” or “D” button. But that’s barely interesting. Enemies get flinched a bit when get hit and headshot will instantly kill them. Standard thing. I feel like the reload time is 40% slower compared to other historical FPS game like Medal of Honor - Allied Assault. The allies don’t help me all the time. Either they die by minefield or refuse to get inside any building or tunnel. Or even not exist at all. I know that there’s collectible that may or may not unlock interesting feature but I don’t want to push my luck finding it out. At least the hit detection is quite accurate. Regarding non-combat aspect, I think the developer did something. There are some planes fly low in airport. Then there are cutscene about the tank move into position and that mortar sequence. The music only appears when my health reach 20 or lower, to indicate I’m in danger. It might as well as not exist. The sound effect is standard.  

In summary: World War II Combat – Iwo Jima (2005) is another case of “I play the game so you don’t have to”. It’s super generic FPS and also very boring because there’s no special feature in combat. Also, my arsenal only limited to 4 slots which is handgun, main weapon, knife, and grenade. You can say that this game is discounted Call of Duty without health regeneration. You better play Medal of Honor - Allied Assault even though I know there’s big problem with tanks and hidden snipers. As for multiplayer, my personal favorite Terminator 3 - War of the Machines is significantly better and people don’t like it. Also it came out 2 years earlier. Such a big shame. I think there’s another World War II with European front setting. Maybe that’s explain why this game feels rushed and too mediocre because it’s part of series that I assume as mediocre as this game. For now, I feel free that I don’t have to play this game again. At least I know how independence feels like. Even though it’s just 5% the feeling of national independence. So, I appreciate our national heroes even more.