The stigma of a budget-priced FPS is pretty glaring, especially in today’s day and age. City Interactive has a new line of budget FPS titles, and while they won’t be revolutionizing the genre for years to come, they’re reasonably priced for a quick run-through, and usually won’t leave a bad taste in your mouth. They’ve released several titles in this line, including the Terrorist Takedown series, the Battlestrike series (the next title, Battlestrike: Secret Weapons, is coming soon) and various flight/arcade titles. City’s next budget-FPS is called Code of Honor: The French Foreign Legion. The game puts you in the shoes of Claude Boulet and you’re sent off to various places in West Africa. What follows is standard FPS gameplay with relatively decent visuals.
A single player demo was released a few days, which samples two levels. The two levels are under the name Operation Savanna Hot I and II. They take place somewhere in West Africa as noted by the sparse vegetation, bleak wildlife and overabundance of brown colors. The first level has you eliminate a bunch of unnamed and generic rebel forces in some village, destroy their fuel supply and basically eliminate all that oppose you. The second level is more of the same.
City licensed the ChromeEngine, developed by Techland and used in their 2003 FPS Chrome and 2005 FPS prequel Chrome: SpecForce. While the ChromeEngine is starting to show its age, being 4-5 years old, it suits the budget-priced marketplace. You have your barely-functional physics system in an engine that can render grass, a decent view distance and other various visual aspects. One thing that is always satisfying is explosions, and you’ll get your fill in the demo.
You’ll get your hands on a few weapons, namely the FAMAS assault rifle, AK-47, Colt-45, RPG-7 and the SPAS shotgun. There is an unnaturally long pause in-between reloading then firing and switching weapons, so if you’re trying to reload or change your gun during a firefight, the enemy will squeeze off a few more shots before you can retaliate. Health is regenerated by health packs and it looks like CITY is using the ‘once you get a health pack, a bunch of enemies come out of nowhere’ tactic, so beware when attempting to gather one. In my experience, the RPG-7 ended up taking center stage and for whatever reason, the rocket, when launched, appeared to go in a parabola but still hit objects miles down the road with perfect accuracy.
As stated, Code of Honor is your budget-priced shooter. The game went gold last month and should be released sometime soon. The game promises ‘a full-blooded solo campaign taking place in authentic locations in the Ivory Coast’ among other things like real-world uniforms, weaponry and equipment, so you might learn some history while blowing away hundreds of foes. There’s no word on the price, but I wouldn’t wedge it higher than $19.99.
