Tiscali Games Interview

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Tiscali Games crossed enemy lines for an exclusive debriefing with Spark Unlimited, the development team behind the shooter every gamer is talking about.

What if Winston Churchill never led the allies to victory in WWII? What if the Nazis went on to claim Europe? Welcome to the alternate reality of Turning Point: Fall of Liberty - a shooter that promises to flip the script on a global stage.

Developed by US studio Spark Unlimited, the game looks set to turn the shooter genre on its head. Set in 1953, in the midst of an alternate reality where Nazi forces win World War II, the game opens as the Third Reich launches a decimating attack on New York. Nazi battleships quickly take the harbour, monstrous Zeppelins fill the skies, jet aircraft execute bombing runs and, as armed paratroopers descend on to the streets, the city is taken block by block.

As Dan Carson - a reluctant New York City construction worker turned freedom fighter - players must survive the initial invasion before regrouping with other resistance members to take the fight back to the Nazis. Always outmanned and outgunned, players must use guerrilla tactics as they attempt to stop the world's most notorious war machine.

Tiscali Games: What, in your opinion, made Churchill such an important figure that his absence could have changed the history of the planet so significantly?

Spark Unlimited: The history of the 20th Century.....continued below

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

is about personalities, and that's particularly true of WWII. From Hitler, Mussolini, and Rommel to Churchill, FDR, and Patton, we remember the period largely through its heroes and villains. In the biggest conflict in human history, no single individual made a greater contribution to victory than Winston Churchill.

Churchill took control of Britain at a pretty dark time. Most of Europe had fallen to the Nazis without much fight, and the German war machine seemed poised to add Britain to its conquests. Some within the government favoured a negotiated peace with Germany, but Churchill remained resolute, and his conviction inspired his country to fight. Churchill's greatest strength was in his conviction, even in the jaws of adversity, that Britain could not and would not be conquered.

Tiscali Games: What inspired the Nazi weapon and armour designs for Turning Point?

Spark Unlimited: The biggest piece of technology and one of the levels for the game is our Aircraft Carrier Zeppelin. We figured this would be a great way to invade New York, from the building tops down. It gives you a lot more options to deploy troops and aircraft.

Tiscali Games: Did you draw inspiration for the technology from any sci-fi literature?

Spark Unlimited: Conceptually, we drew some influence for the Zeppelins from Phillip Dick's 'Man in the High Castle'. In the book, written in the early sixties, Dick speculates that the Nazis have air superiority and are unchallenged in the sky. People were riding around on Rocket airliners, which can seem dated and kitsch now. So instead of using rocket power, we decided to go back to the Zeppelins that they were already using in WWI.

Tiscali Games: How do the Zeppelins support themselves in addition to transporting the tanks and planes?