{tag [Review]} {tag [PC]}

Code of Honor: The French Foreign Legion is an action packed FPS that has a great return value to cost ratio and won't take hundreds of hours to complete.

That's mostly because this game only has 8 levels and comes in at the low cost of  £4.99 (less than $10 USD).

Graphics - 85%
The first thing I did when I fired up Code of Honor was to crank up the graphics. I found it unfortunate that the highest resolution the game would yield was 1280x960.  I didn't take the time to tweak my own settings in the game, but opted to choose the "high" setting and get right into gameplay. The game having a lower resolution than my desktop may have lead to some of the jagged edges around hills and such at a distance but the detail was excellent up close.  

The game opens on a mission in a desert valley called "Operation Savanna Hot". This outdoor area has excellent details on both the ground and in the sky.  Overall, the gun models looked very realistic and so did the enemies in the area.

Sound - 90%
The sounds in this game are very spot on. From the crunching of the ground to the explosions caused by shooting barrels full of explosives, all of the sounds occurred in just the right places. The only negative about the sound is the music would get a bit over dramatic at times when there wasn't much action in the game.

Gameplay - 70%
There are two game modes to choose from: Easy or Hard. The gameplay starts off slow but the barrage of enemy's that look the same is non-stop. Your first mission is to get to town and blow up some carefully placed items. The game walks you through using the map and is very intuitive while showing your current location and the location of your objective. 

You start your adventure armed with a knife, pistol, rifle and grenades.  Upon my first encounter with resistance, I walked right up to two men standing by a tree and opened fire.  The AI in easy mode seemed a little too easy as they didn't move as I promptly gunned them down.  It continued like this until I reached town, but I did take a few bullets and actually kicked the bucket on my first run! 

After completing my first objective I was assigned a second: destroy another set of fuel barrels in another town across the map.  While leaving the first town, I grabbed a rocket launcher and headed out. On my way down the road, I ran into some heavy armor resistance which required the use of the rockets. The power of the weapons seemed accurate as one shot took out a jeep and two were required for heavy armor.

As far as the accuracy, I personally seemed to have better luck shooting without using the iron sights. While zoomed in, I didn't seem to have more accuracy than using the unscoped cross-hairs. I also found that while I was leaning my accuracy seemed to be much further off than standing straight up.

Controls/Interface - 50%
The controls play just like almost every other FPS on the market. Since they had a standard setup they were fairly easy to pick up.  The knocks in this category come from the interface. The first loading screen had a little story that contained some small grammatical errors. When the first map loads, it shows you a quick hints chart pointing out what some of the buttons, but not all of them.  This was frustrating since I was lead to believe certain features were not available but then found they were in the usual locations.

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Summary - 74%
Overall I enjoyed the short time you get in this game. It only ships with 8 levels but you can hardly complain for under $10.  The pros included the graphics, sound and obviously the price. The cons are a lack of multiplayer, only eight levels, the grammatical issues in the menu, and the uninspired controls.

Publisher: City Interactive
Web: http://www.city-interactive.com/indexf.php?page=code_of_honor
Developer: City Interactive
Release date: 6/13/2008
Format: PC
Genre: Action, First-Person, Military, War
Rated: 16+ by PEGI