The phrase “Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery” has been used countless times in discussions about videogames. Assuming that’s true, Foreign Legion: Multi Massacre is going out of its way to flatter a lot of other titles.
FL:MM is the sequel to Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood crafted by Sakari games. Haven’t heard of them? You’re not alone, I’d never heard of them either. In a way, you can’t blame the creators for not trying to be revolutionary with this outing - making games is an expensive business, particularly for indie developers who don’t have the cash on hand from publishers to help them out. But I hoped that they would have at least tried, even just a little. This sequel started life originally as a promised free update for the original game. Seeing it being sold as a standalone sequel for $4.99 must feel like a smack in the face for players of the original.
As the name suggests, a lot of blood is spilled in this cartoon-like game. The focus here is on multiplayer; although you can easily play on your own private server, it’s one step above watching paint dry and two below staring out of a window; the game is undoubtedly best played online with friends. At least that way, everyone can share the pain of its basic gameplay and graphics.
The graphics don’t amount to much more than you’d expect to see on a mobile game. It goes for a basic cartoon style that gives me an endearing smile but I can’t imagine the developers spent more than a day with it. Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have anything to worry about. Combined with the shallow controls that only allow you to move, shoot, change weapons and shoot, there’s little depth here. It looks and plays like something that was rushed through development to be sold on Apple’s App Store, not a modern PC.
There are only three variants of enemy grunts in a standard game: suicide bomber, one grunt wielding an assault rifle, and another wielding a rocket launcher. On the airfield level, there are suicidal dolphins. Each possesses the best accuracy I have ever seen; if one can see you there is an almost certain chance they will be able to hit you with every bullet - but unless you’re playing on higher difficulties, they don’t pose much of a threat. The basic pistol you start off with is oddly capable of making headshots from across the map - it appears that the enemies have also been given hitboxes a mile wide.
Oddly, what you’d imagine would be more effective weapons, are completely ineffective. The machine gun, and every subsequent weapon unlocked by leveling up, eat through entire clips of bullets before enemies go down, and what should be long range weapons have the most atrocious accuracy I’ve seen since… well, I don’t know. Since a long time ago, that’s for sure.
The only time I managed to have the slightest bit of fun was playing the graveyard map, but it was still a mind-numbing chore. The graveyard map treats you to a 5 minute slog against undead enemies who will happily still walk around after you’ve blown their giant heads off. Sadly the countdown timer only runs down while the generator is on, which is the most innovative element to the entire game, but there’s never any feeling of being overrun by the large number of enemies; it’s a mere inconvenience when the lights go dark and you find yourself slogging your way back to the generator just to get to the relentless and mind numbing end.
Even the smallest amount of effort results in rewards. The game is insanely generous when it comes to giving out money and XP. XP unlocks the ability to buy what should be better weapons - if only they worked accordingly - and money goes towards purchasing them. You can also spend your currency on kitting out your faceless stumpy grunt with all manner of different textures and cosmetic items, such as badges and cigarettes. There’s a couple of items with practical uses - like the flashlight - but as every level is well lit aside from the aforementioned graveyard map, the flashlight has no reason for existing.
Which sums up the game; nothing new, nothing special, and forgotten in a week.
Going into the game, I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of innovation. But there’s really not a whole lot to like here; the graphics are fit for a smartphone or tablet, while the gameplay doesn’t amount to anything more than defending a certain objective, or killing all of the enemies in a level. Much more enjoyment can be gained from free-to-play games and nothing is offered here that hasn’t already been done better. It takes its influences from about every major shooting game of the last ten years, but completely fails to bring the fun along with them.
Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but if I was any one of the games being mercilessly aped by Foreign Legion I wouldn’t be flattered. I’d be insulted.
