The Next Gen graphics are but one of the many brilliant factors that made me lose myself in this title. It looks real, plain and simple. The detail in the character faces, the beautiful snow falling, and the bombs going off next to your squad members, flinging them across the streets of Stalingrad are almost enough to make me thank a higher power for being born 41 years later and not living through that hellish experience both my grandfathers did. After a while of gameplay though, I started to notice the lack of limbs leaving peoples' bodies. I don't normally hold a game back for its inability to gross you out with gore, but this one is an exception. I think if they would have put the extra effort into it, body dismembering would have made the game that much more real and frightening. If you're fighting alongside a member of your squad and in an instant, his arm is shot off and blood is getting everywhere while he bellows in excruciating pain, you're going to really need to keep it together in order to survive.
I was slowly creeping up on a Nazi when a grenade went off between us. It was loud and scary as hell when my character flew back and lost his ability to hear. His hearing was replaced with a ringing, much like what would happen if a real grenade went off next to you. Yet another thing that sold me on the realistic experience. The sound effects are top notch. There was so much auditory stimulation that sometimes, you couldn't hear what people were yelling, and then at times, it was so quiet that when some Nazis got the drop on me, I almost pissed my pants.
