UberSoldier Preview

Sometimes when you have been dead, all that is left is to inflict the same abbreviated lifespan on others – even if the others are those who brought you back to life using arcane methods.

Take a touch of the supernatural, throw in a lot of shooter action and insert into the backdrop of World War II and you have the setting for UberSoldier, a PC title from CDV. CDV sent along a preview of UberSoldier, and while the build was missing some elements, there was still enough there to get a solid feel for the game. 

Ernst Schafer’s expedition reaches the Tibetan city of Lhasa. He took the Anenerbe with him, a part of the SS that investigated areas of occultism. In reality, Schafer returned to Berlin empty-handed. But that would not have been a game. So, in a wry twist, the dev team wonders what would have happened had Schafer, with the help of ancient manuscripts, discovered the secret of bringing the dead back to life. 

Schafer returns to Germany and conducts the resurrection experiment and discovers that the death shock gives the resurrected incredible abilities. Thus is created the UberSoldier – fearless killing machines that are practically invulnerable. There is one little problem though – these UberSoldiers have substituted their incredible power for a complete lack of the brain function that allows them to adhere to orders very well. Schafer finds the solution to this problem, but it is years later.

The game begins in Northern France in the summer of 1944. A German convoy is ambushed by French Resistance. They are wiped out, but Schafer gets his hands on one of the deceased and resurrects him. Fast forward to September 10, 1944 in a psychopathic hospital where Karl (the hero) meets up with Maria and must escape. This is a straight-forward romp that acts much like a tutorial than a simple puzzle. Karl will learn to navigate, use his emotion system (more in a moment) and generally learn to use the environment and health packs sprinkled about to his advantage.

The emotion system enables Karl to unleash more devastating attacks. There is Anger in which Karl must perform three headshots with a short period of time. Doing so will increase the power of his time shield and as it more or less freezes time, you can shoot at the bullets that are stopped in mid-air. The other main emotion is rage – stab three enemies (left shift is the default melee button) in quick order and your maximum health will slightly increase. Of course, there is an icon on the screen that will let you know if you are gaining the required elements.

Once you have left the hospital, you are taken to a secret location with leaders of an organization that are going to discuss Karl’s future. These leads to more CGI and then the beginning of the mission and levels. From there it is off to Czechoslovakia and a secret factory.

Of course, like any good shooter, you have to make use of the environment, pick up health, duck and cover when you can. You will also have to use ladders, and – at times – allow other NPCs to duke it out while you pick off the scrapes remaining. There is a nice variety of weapons to use and you can toggle from reticule targeting to scope easily enough.

With three difficulty levels, UberSoldier can offer a challenge for just about anyone. And this is a single-player game. The game can be saved at any stage, and should you die – heaven forbid – you will be able to go back to the last save point. The linearity of the game really makes moving through to where you were before rather easy. And the Time Shield is an interesting element that suspends time and provides interesting effects.

The preview build had some music, ambient sounds and other sound effects but no dialogue to drive the story. Graphically, though, UberSoldier was crisp and very well done. Not all elements in the environment are destructible, but chances are if you put a bullet into it, you will see the hole.

The control scheme is also pretty straight forward, and players should have little problem with the short learning curve.

UberSoldier is not the type of game that will set the genre on fire with innovative game mechanics, but it is the type of game that will provide strong graphics, with solid gameplay and entertainment value.

Look for this title to hit store shelves in early April.