Falling in war

Let the record show that this is the first review in almost two months! On April 11, I wrote my last review for the Age of Wonders 4-addon Giant Kings, which is probably the longest time without anything newsworthy on this site since its creation in 2019. Although, something has slightly changed. Because MaybeMattis looks a little different now. Since April, I (together with ChatGPT) have been working tirelessly on the site and giving it a new look. What does that have to do with this review? Nothing, of course. That's why we're now coming to the actual focal point of this article: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.

As an outsider, the game can probably best be described as a ‘grounded’ Wolfenstein . The idea is quickly outlined: instead of standing up to the Nazis and proclaiming the defense of beaches, streets and landing grounds, in this alternate historical setting the British to-be-premier Winston Churchill dies in 1931. Since the Americans are also reluctant to get involved due to war-weariness, the Nazis are able to easily conquer Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In 1953, they head for the USA and the game begins with the attack on New York.

There, in the form of construction worker Dan Carson, we have to fight off the Nazis and save the world ... or something along those lines. At least in its premise, Turning Point comes very close to its spiritual role model, even if it doesn't play in a similar league in terms of quality. On Metacritic, the second work by developer studio Spark Unlimited (Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Lost Planet 3), which closed in 2014, achieved a disastrous score of just 43 points (5.2 user score). At least fans of Nazi shootouts were able to let off some of their frustration a year later with Wolfenstein.

In contrast, and in keeping with the more ‘realistic’ setting, the music in Turning Point doesn't sound like the metal carnage that Mick Gordon served up in the last Wolfensteinspin-offs The New Order (2014), The New Colossus (2017) and Youngblood (2019). On the contrary! With composer heavyweight Michael Giacchino, the developers were able to secure an experienced music maker who was already making a name for himself in the gaming sector with scores for the Call of Duty- and Medal of Honor-series. But the US-American is probably best known for his TV and film work, including The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007) and the series Lost. He later also composed for the new Star Trek-films and the fantastic Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), but perhaps more on that elsewhere.

Anyone familiar with Giacchino's earlier World War II works will recognize much of it here: The music feels like the standard genre fare of the time, like a mixture of Indiana Jones-Neugierde und Kriegsaction, ohne jedoch das Geschehen zu Glorifizieren. Ein Zusammenspiel aus Holzbläsern, Klavier und Streichern erzeugt gleichermaßen Hektik wie Besorgnis, die dem mutmaßlich knalligen Chaos auf dem Bildschirm Dramatik verleiht. Dieser Atemlosigkeit in Tracks wie Skycraping, Rescuing Donovan and London Bridge Is Falling Down is fortunately countered by a few pieces that take the edge off the non-stop action. Bullets and Strife for example, seems almost sedate in direct comparison and the outstanding The Zeppelin strikes heroically freeing notes with its Band of Brothers-strings. However, the score is never light-hearted. Conversely, with Axis on the March even the bad guys get a chance to sound - is that a word?

At least that's the first half of the 14-track original soundtrack. However, the 31 pieces on this Extended Edition are rounded off by a collection of Bonus-tracks. In addition to the Alternate 1 and Alternate 2-versions of The Zeppelin and the very pleasant Character & Weapon Art [Bonus] and Environmental Art [Bonus] these are primarily stinger and SFX sequences. However, this should not drag down the overall rating of this album, because as was to be expected, Giacchino delivers music of a very high standard. Although it does not manage to break out of the familiar pathos-ridden tropes of American war stories, it nevertheless continues them consistently. For those interested, there is also this review on greatestgamemusic.com..