Enemy Front | Exclusive Video Interview & Screenshots

Once upon a time the FPS marketplace was absolutely littered with WWII-themed shooters, and though many classic franchises have been inspired by the famous war (Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Wolfenstein), the glut of crappy Nazi-killers started to become a bit overwhelming before the big shift to so-called "modern warfare." But despite the bad rap that WWII shooters have these days, Stuart Black of City Interactive believes Enemy Front offers a refreshingly unique take on the genre:

"What I wanted to do was get away from the Saving Private Ryan kind of attitude towards the second World War" Black explained. "The 'reverance for our grandfathers,' 'sacrifice,' and all that sort of thing. Get back into the fun 'rock and roll' sort of spirit." 

As Black explained, his desire to get away from the tired war epic makes for a game which draws more from cult war films like 'The Dirty Dozen.' Rather than re-visit the same World War II battlefields players have seen a million times before (Black seemed especially proud to have not included a Normandy beach segment in Enemy Front), the game instead takes players through some less known locales, laying waste to the destructable environments much like in Black's most famous title… Black.

You'd assume Black would have a big ego, having once named a video game after himself. However his confidence in Enemy Front seems more based on careful testing, and it was easy to tell that he cares deeply about the player experience, even requesting critical feedback after demoing the game for us. It's apparent that a lot of factors have been taken into consideration in order to make the game appeal to a variety of players, with Black mentioning that he developed the game so players of all types can approach the challenges differently:

"If you're the kind of guy who says I'm just going to go in and run n' gun, you can do that, that's fine. If you want to be slow and careful, headshot guys as you go, that's fine (…) it's all customization of the way you want to play."

Definitely a lot of cool new ideas here, but the question has to be whether Enemy Front will be noticed among the coming wave of futuristic shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops II or Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Strange to consider how the landscape has changed, where a WWII shooter sticks out in the crowd! Check out our video interview for more with Black, and some exclusive screenshots of this upcoming game.