There is no in-game map to follow, but the steady-stream of still-breathing Nazis serve as a trail of breadcrumbs to lead you through the levels. The Nazi's robotic actions all feel strangely scripted, rather than reliant on any form of A.I. They often pace back and forth with no reason, other than to give you a moving target from time to time. It also feels as though you need to trigger their reactions too often. You can walk into a room with a Nazi crouching right in front of you, and not have him so much as blink until you fire your weapon. Get too close to a baddie and they seem programmed to either stand still to let you shoot them or turn and run away. With battle-smarts like this, it is hard to believe they made it out of Germany alive, let alone took over two of the world's superpowers.
The graphics, when not tearing and jittering, are passable at best. The animations of the enemies look very stiff; though looking back at old World War II footage, this may actually have been a creative choice. The environments seem are all draped in darkness, and when the light hits, the bland design becomes apparent. The sound in the game is hit and miss, with accurate sounding German and New York accents enhancing the decent voice work throughout. The sound effects are another story, with about one in every four head-shots you nail pinging as though the Germans have metal plates in their head.
Live play feels begrudgingly tacked-on. With a scant two online game options and four maps, the ever-present Team and Solo Deathmatch, there is no reason to try (typically in vain) to find a match to play. Although, there is the entertainment-factor of getting the achievement called, "Next Time Take The Stairs", for falling to your death in a multiplayer game. Never has a negative achievement seemed so well suited for a game. So, you get to stop playing the game and get rewarded five Achievement Points in the process? Sure it was an accident.
Sadly, you will battle nearly as many bugs as Nazis through the course of Turning Point. For all the game gets wrong, which marks about ninety-eight percent of the game, they deserve credit for at least writing a solid, heroic ending to the game. The trick is plodding through four to five hours of bad to get to the thirty-seconds of goodness. Turning Point is unfortunate proof that a good concept is not enough. The lack of polish to the half-heartedly told story makes it a disappointment, but the bugs make it a disaster of Hindenburg proportions.
