WWII GI

The Good
WWII GI's creators had lots of good ideas for missions/levels, including the "Saving Private Ryan" take-off, which is very challenging.

It's nice to be able to seize enemy weapons, a feature which was not present in WWII GI's predecessor, Napalm. Also, the graphics are much better than Napalm.

The Bad
Weapons in WWII GI are lagging. Unlike its predecessor Napalm, which had 10 clearly differentiated weapons with different levels of effectiveness in different scenarios, WWII GI has lots of overlapping weapons (for instance, the Thompson submachinegun and MP40, which have almost the same capabilities; the BAR and sniper rifle, which serve similar purposes; and the TNT and explosives, which are identical as far as I can tell) as well as ineffective weapons -- aren't Bazookas supposed to be able to destroy enemy tanks?

The grenades are also a problem, you can't throw them that far and they don't seem to destroy Nazis 50% of the time, even if one detonates right next to an enemy soldier.

AI is useless. Fellow US soldiers randomly fire shots in a certain direction, even if you have to go in that direction -- this makes getting past the first level, D-Day, extremely tough as you are constantly riddled by bullets from other GIs as you run up the beach!

The Bottom Line
Fun way to kill a couple of hours, but this is no Half-Life.

The Good
WWII GI is a sequel to NAM; instead of fighting in the Vietnam war, you fight in World War II, as the title suggests. My favorite thing about WWII GI is the level design - the entire game takes place in France, and WWII GI succeeds in that. You'll fight in towns taken by the Germans, and it definitely looks like it. WWII GI has lots of cool features that are pretty cool for a build game. You'll find Anti-Aircraft guns that actually shoot missiles into the air, as well as planes that fly by and drop missiles/supplies down at you. Pretty cool. There's also tanks, and while they don't move they succeed in sending a chill down your spine when you hear their grinding noises.

The Bad
WWII GI was definitely a step down from its prequel, NAM. In NAM, you could use gun-emplacements on your enemies. Not anymore. Also, the weapons are cool but lack reloading animations, except for the Thompson and MP-40 - the rest just shake around when reloading.

Also, the developers apparently didn't take a hint with NAM's difficulty - WWII GI is even worse. You now have a morale meter - whenever you are shot at or your buddies die, it decreases. The lower it is, the worse your accuracy is. While this is an interesting feature it just makes you hate the game even more.

Finally, WWII GI has very little music - as such, they repeated the same songs over and over again. You'll probably end up turning it off.

The Bottom Line
If you enjoyed NAM then you should probably get WWII GI. It has the same gameplay with a couple bad points, but you'll still have a good time with it.

The Good
I dislike this question. It suggests there could be something positive about this game, but this simply isn't the case.

The Bad
Everything else. When I got it from a friend, he commented "well, it's done with Duke 3D's engine, but I can't believe they did it in 1999". I can't believe that either, but it's true. But in 1999, the BUILD engine was hopelessly outdated (can you spell QUAKE?) and you really can smell the odor of decay coming right out of the box.

The graphics are a farce. BUILD didn't support real 3D characters, so they used sprites which are zoomed in and out. With Duke, it was okay because they used it wisely. Here, it's hilarious: enemy soldiers standing right in front of me are tall as a house and "pop up" like cardboard men. Everything is so grainy it could be made from LEGO. Textures? Uhhhh...

Sound? Whoa. Don't even think of it. Speaking of "sound" or "music" is a fist in the face of every sound chip on the market.

Weapons? Gameplay? Yes, you get to play D-Day! But NO, it's not cool because the level is a) hilarious small, b) hilarious unfair and c) hilarious hilarious - man, did they see any good war movie before creating this crap? There is NO SCRIPTING! No events take place, nothing. You just get on the beach, shoot everything that moves and get killed. Repeat if neccessary until bored. No storyline, nothing. I don't know how anyone can finish level one but I refuse to care...

The Bottom Line
Sorry kids, but I had to burn the box with all it's contents. It's the pure evil, you know.