Deadly Dozen

The story behind DD is told in the intro movie, so why should I bother repeating it here? Okay, the Deadly Dozen were an elite fighting force during WWII for those extra special missions.  But you’ll never get to control all 12 members (each with their own set of characteristics to consider) during a mission – only 4 at a time.  This in itself is not a problem because the team path finding is lacking.  You can only directly control one player at a time (either in first or third person view) and left to their own devices the other guys will do erratic things.  More than occasionally I entered a building assuming my squad was behind me – after all I did tell them, “Follow me” – only to turn around and find empty air.  Switching to the other team members is a simple button press and if you hope to succeed you’ll be doing it a lot, especially when navigating buildings.  Otherwise they run up against a wall and stop.  They do fire on enemies with fairly good accuracy, although even with that they have some quirks. (They’ll try to fire through hills at enemy positions even though you can’t see the enemy.)  You do have limited control over the other members – you can issue formation commands, to hold fire, attack my target, etc.  They respond in kind but make sure that everyone is within earshot.  On the other hand, they’ll also stay in formation when under direct attack.  Since the team will flank you no matter who you currently control you’re always the first to get shot – the rest of the squad won’t move forward two steps so they are technically in range of the enemy and provide you cover fire.  And since you must finish each mission with all your 4 members, having one guy die midway through a mission gets annoying. (You’ll learn very quickly that “quickload” isn’t nearly as quick as you’d like it.)

Missions emphasize stealth and sniping at every possibility.  Unfortunately (for me), my sniping crosshairs vanished on mission 4 and no matter what I did they wouldn’t come back – not until I uninstalled then reinstalled the game.  Also working against you is the inability to lie prone.  You can crouch – even do a squat-run – but lying in the dirt is not allowed.  There are ten missions to play through and you’ll need every move and weapon in your arsenal to finish them (and one or two or three medikits).

There are many WWII era weapons with which to equip your squad (done at the start of each mission).  Ammo conservation can play into things, but you can acquire enemy weapons and ammo so if your shooting is good you can have a healthy supply of ammo.  There’s the old reliable combat knife but when you’re facing a Nazi tank a bazooka is your best bet.

A variety of vehicles are also available for driving.  Be warned: you can very easily run over your own team members. (Firing a gun at the back of their heads causes no injury though.)  And the vehicles handle circa 1944 – no power steering or brakes here!  (Here’s a handy tip: When taking control of a vehicle have your lead guy command “Follow me,” immediately before entering so everyone piles in and no one gets killed for being too close to the vehicle.)

Audio is fantastic!  From the moody music to the rain – it creates a tense atmosphere.  Couple that with Nazi’s shouting your position and you’ve got one of the best uses of sound this year. (Of course, the enemy AI isn’t the best either but it does provide more than enough challenge.)  

As a budget title, DD exceeded my expectations even with the graphical problems and hit & miss team AI.  The controls are easy to learn and the tutorial session explains everything you’ll need to know in the ensuing missions: how to spot mines, use of heavy machine guns, driving vehicles, setting explosives, and using the many different weapons.  The missions are varied (and challenging) – steal some information, blow something up, etc. concluded by getting out alive – and there’s no set way to complete a mission so you can be creative in your approach.  If there had been more money pumped into this project I’m sure most – if not all – of the problems I encountered could have been remedied to some extent.  At $20 Deadly Dozen is a steal of a deal – it’s an entertaining and engaging game – it’s just too bad about the sometimes-crippling problems running it on a mid-range PC.

- Omni