With the era of World War II titles still proliferating, it takes moving a game to another level in order to garner the attention in a genre that is continually improving.

Unfortunately, one of the newer titles drops players into the heart of the action, but does not have all the elements for a truly immersive experience. It does try, but just comes up a little short.

Battle Borne's Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers is a title that borrows a smidgen from the Eidos Commandos series in look and other fantasy titles, and although it offers a nice amount of level-driven missions, they just seem somewhat simplistic at times.

Throw in combat elements that are not all that challenging, as well as arcade-style power-ups and you have an average game that is a decent if unexceptional experience.

The game begins with the paratrooper drop on D-day, one that went awry and scattered paratroopers all over the countryside. Along, and with Germans about, the first priority is to find a friendly unit to link up with. From there, as one of the three starting avatars available, you are tasked with finding an officer that was hit as he left the plane.

And while there are exclamation points along the way, as an in-game tutorial, you had better make certain that you have cleared the area before you spend time reading about game elements. You see, the enemies continue to target you and shoot, even if you are reading tutorial content and cannot retaliate.

There are 18 enemies in the level, and some walk in a line. But the initial mission highlights some of the problems that accompany the game. Though the game is built with the Snowblind Studios engine (Snowblind’s reputation is well founded in titles such as Champions Of Norrath and the Baldur’s Gate series for console), and does have a rotating camera, the angle is slightly canted about 50 feet above the buildings with no zoom-in or zoom-out ability. That translates to enemies shooting at you from places you can’t see and off screen to boot. The targeting is a locked system that jumps from one object to the next. If you watch the tracers, you may see the direction from which the attack is coming. If you can get the targeting reticule to that area, and hit the attack button, you can kill the enemy and never see him once.

Another one of the problems encountered was with med packs. Walking over them and picking them up, using the square button to collect, and then hitting the L2 button to use them failed on a few occasions. At least three med pacts were collected, with no immediate heal on the hit point bar, and yet trying to use them failed, and they did not show up in the inventory.

The path through the game is rather linear as well. Graphically, the game is decent, but there are discrepancies that jump out – such as the puffs of dirt that pop up with every step taken on dirt or grass.

The game’s control system is rather simple. There are two attacks that can be triggered during your trek through the game – and if you accidentally drop a grenade – RUN.

The game does have a decent audio track and a variety of options, which include more than 40 missions encompassing some of the biggest battles of WWII, including D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge; the ability to rise through the ranks, and receive promotions which translates into new skills for your avatar; and historically accurate weaponry.

Combat Elite is an arcade shooter title that fails in giving a rewarding shooting experience and has gameplay that is so linear as to be less than enthralling. Yes, the environments are bordered, but somewhat free roaming, but you can count on the enemy appearing at the same place each time.

If you put Combat Elite up against other WWII shooters, it fails. On it’s own, it provides marginal entertainment, but not much challenge. This is a dash-and-shoot game.

Gameplay: 6
Run and gun, promiscuously spraying bullets about – you may not see your target, but you will likely hit them. The camera angle makes this a tough game to be tactical in, and skulking cautiously does seem to improve your odds any more than running and shooting does.

Graphics: 7

A good graphics engine and some decent effects are the payoff here, but so much is taken out of the hands of the gamer – like pinpoint targeting – to make this a viable experience.

Sound: 7

The musical score, decent voice-over work and some solid battle sounds are offset by walking sounds, which sound surprisingly like someone munching on corn flakes.

Difficulty: Easy

The game sports three levels of difficulty, but the challenge would be vastly improved with better camera controls, and with shooting controls.

Concept: 6

This game is simple and arcade-like, and while those are not bad things, they just don’t really make for an immersive experience in the way they are presented.

Multiplayer: 7

This game features a two-person cooperative mode in which both players battle on the same screen. A nice idea, but the game itself fails to really give co-op play a challenge.

Overall: 6
Nice graphics and solid sound, but the general gameplay and linear nature of the game make this a mindless, linear run-and-gun experience.