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Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is the textbook example of how not to make a first person shooter. It utilizes the most basic of first-person-shooting while forcing players to deal with countless graphical and gameplay glitches, broken gun-play and randomly spawning, invincible enemies.

The one redeeming quality of the title is its interesting premise, throwing an alternate history World War II narrative on top of the nearly unplayable game underneath, but it’s not enough to cover up the cripplingly flawed FPS, which isn’t worth the time of the hardest-of-hardcore fans of the genre.

The highlight of Turning Point comes within the opening minutes of the game. German invaders are assaulting New York City, since Winston Churchill was killed in 1931 and was unable to prevent certain aspects of World War II in this alternate history FPS.

The first thing the player sees is a blackened sky loaded with zeppelins, paratroopers and fighter planes, and the harrowing escape of the construction site your character, a plaid clad nobody, has aspparently been slaving away on. New York crumbles around you as you flee the skyscraper roof you began the level on, as you progress to ground level.

Sadly, you can just hold the analog stick forward and dash through the crumbling building that falls under itself at your convenience, and continue to do so to make it to the genuinely cool finale that represents the single worthwhile payoff of Turning Point. Sure, assassinating the President of the United States with a grenade is cool, but it’s another “run forward, shoot gun” mission, of which the entirety of this title consists.

Sparse checkpoints across the game prove frustrating when killed, which will happen frequently on higher difficulties, and exactly zero times on the default. Bullets fired in to the face of a Nazi – who is likely stuck on a wall or shooting the ceiling, if he is doing anything at all – often proves fruitless. When a weapon is aimed, it’s difficult to perceive what you’re seeing down the sights, since the weapon takes up a bulk of screen space, and the dime-shaped hole players look down is blurred out due to poor use of special effects, which creates a less than enjoyable experience within the core gameplay of Turning Point.

Playing through this six hour shooter is a tedious task as you struggle with spontaneously spawning Nazis – who love to appear directly in front of you, out of thin air, with an insta-kill shotgun – or enemies who suddenly disappear from the world. Grenades will often kill you from immeasurable distances as you trudge through the arena-style levels, which consist of poorly textured, rectangular rooms that the Third Reich floods until they’ve all been mowed down.

Don’t expect a challenge – save for the “hard” mode, wherein the Nazi horde becomes extraordinarily accurate when aiming at your brain – since the AI rarely acknowledges your existence, even when you’re slaughtering a crowd facing your direction.

If you’re willing to suffer through the busted shooting, you’re likely going to be stopped in your stubborn tracks by the wealth of visual errors. Small rooms and large rooms alike, as well as the expansive view of NYC , rarely see textures load in full. Solid gray buildings, brown-‘n-bland floors and peanut-butter faced allies litter the game, which didn’t look particularly good to begin with. The single reflection in every sniper rifle scope features a haunting image of a man in a red shirt – presumably the primary character – standing in a casual pose, which is baffling and confusing while trying to traverse the poorly laid out cities that make up Turning Point, the most disappointing FPS in recent memory.

Hardcore first person shooter fans shouldn’t waste their time, let alone casual shooter fans. There is so little to offer in Turning Point, with very few highlights and minimal payoff. The visual, gameplay, and fundamental technical flaws will have gamers crunching and throwing controllers in frustration. Without extreme determination, players will likely not finish the campaign, never mind sinking their teeth in to the tacked on, plain, versus multiplayer.

A vote for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is a vote for fascism. Not really, but the results are equally as detrimental to your well being.

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