This makes Allied Assault look like a vicar's tea party!
One of the interesting features of this game is its strong narrative drive. The actual structure of the story - and it is a story as seen from one soldier's viewpoint - throws you right into the action from the off but it's actually a false start. Private Tom Conlin is reliving the moment when he was either fatally or seriously wounded and you then go back two years to his training experience in the US. Training missions on games like this (and Call of Duty) are a tad superfluous for experienced gamers but PA's one has the chance to win medals, although that's not apparent at the time.
You as Tom become part of a squad and PA is different from many FPSs in that it is squad-based: rarely are you expected to do the job alone. As the game progresses - getting really underway at the seismic point at which the US entered what was then "a European conflict" (some two years late, standing back as Hitler ravaged Europe and Britain faced its darkest hour), Pearl Harbor - the action rarely slows down afterwards.
Indeed, young Tommy is required to man all kinds of weaponry so be prepared to take control of anti-aircraft guns, powerful Bofors and the more usual light machine guns. Pvt Conlin shows himself to be a truly versatile marine as he's called upon to even fly a plane at one point!
From Japan's pre-emptive strike on Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal and Tarawa, you're in the thick of it a good deal of the time. The action is quite varied so, even though you'll be fighting through jungle a good deal of the time, you'll also be scrapping on beaches, piers, cliffs etc. I personally found the Tarawa pier and beach invasion missions the hardest to complete but the flying levels were also demanding. The graphics are awesome at times and the ability to store screenshots when your monitor is truly ablaze with colour is very useful. Overall you bond with your squad and so they come to respect you and you them. It brings a very human dimension to the game. There are moments of true poignancy along the way and these help to round out the story a good deal. It's not all running and gunning.
Drawbacks? There weren't many but the long loading times between levels were a pain as were the (thankfully optional) info screen which fed you snippits about the real war in the Pacific and the men who fought it. It wasn't that I wasn't interested but they were a bit distracting.
At over twenty-five single-player missions it's long too so there's plenty to get your teeth into. I'd say it was about five steps further on from Allied Assault and the gameplay is truly immersive. If this is anything to go by, Airborne (soon to appear on the PC) will be truly the business.