PixlBit

     Saturday I logged another 3 hours into Enemy Front before work. A lot of the time the game seems to be asking me to stealth my way through an area, but I'm finding this really impossible. You have no silencer or throwing knives, so getting close is your only option. Thing is, they see you very quickly, and then it becomes a firefight, which is more my style anyway. Oh yeah, I finished the campaign in a very slow 9 hours total. My friend did it in 6 and HowLongToBeat.com says it can be done in under 5. Well, I like to explore as I go and not race to the end.

     I watched all the credits at the end and saw lots and lots of Polish names, but I was looking for Stuart Black who co-created the Xbox game Black for Criterion back in '06, and I found him at the very end amongst the Thanks To list.

                                   

                                             Stuart Black, game designer

     I noticed the music reminded me of Black a lot, orchestral heart pounding stuff, and the title screen also. It's very metalic looking and somewhat in the style of Black. All the weapons sound very good too. I'm guessing Stuart Black was on the project in an advisory role or maybe started with the game and left early in development. Some of his influence seems to be present.

     Sunday I played a lot more of Enemy Front trying to do all the achievements. I found that being stealthy is not so bad once you start using the mini map at the bottom left of the screen. There you can see enemies and how they're facing and whether they are alerted to you. You are also given a meter to tell you how much the enemy can see you at any given moment.

                      

                          That circle to the left indicates enemies and alert levels.

     With both of these visual aids, you can sneak around pretty good. And there is one silent weapon, a special pistol that sounds like a dart gun. I managed to get the achievement for sneaking into the prison to rescue the priest without alerting anyone and get the achievement for sneaking into an armory and blowing it up with the enemy leader in the next room. I also mastered the use of throwing stones to distract or redirect enemies and turning on or off old phonographs to draw enemies into your clutches.

     Some other fun achievements were taking a hostage and then shooting three other soldiers before dispatching him, and getting ten kills during a loud noise. In several of the levels there is a loud noise that comes and goes. A graphic in the upper right tells you when it's in effect and then you can briefly run or shoot without being noticed. Of course, if you shoot someone right next to someone else, the cover of noise won't help you. The other guy will see it and be alerted.

    After a wopping 9 hours played on Sunday, I'm feeling that Enemy Front is more enjoyable than I thought it would be after my first playthrough. I think, by going after achievements, I've learned the mechanics of this game a lot better and thereby improved my experience.

    I'll probably get some more time in with the game tomorrow since my weekend is Sunday/Monday. I have some more collectibles to find and a few more mission based achievements to get. Then I'll consider harder difficulty levels, but I'm pretty sure I'll run out of time before that. I'll post another blog Monday night.