Well, I'm back after yet another hiatus(a camping trip). Why do I always end up reviewing trash after these breaks?
This game really is trash. I literally could not find one redeeming quality to it. I'll start with the gameplay:
Driving tanks around in a maze was the basis for the arcade classic Tank Batallion, which this game is definitely a clone of. However, June 22: Enemy at the Gates takes literally everything fun out of the concept, namely controllability, enemy AI, and strategy.
Supposedly, according to the instructions, either Insert or Control will make the player's tank fire its cannon. No matter how many times I tried, neither key elicited a response from the game. Getting the tank to move can thankfully be done, but it's next to impossible to control. It takes about a second for the tank to turn, and it has to be lined up perfectly for it not to crash into the maze walls. Here's a basic overview of my attempt to move through the maze:
1. I waited about a second for the red spikes protruding from my tank to disappear, before moving forward at a scale speed of about five miles per hour.
2. Coming to an intersection, I turned right. At least, I hit the right arrow key - it took about a second for the tank to actually rotate in that direction.
3. I hit the wall. Apparently, I hadn't really lined my tank up with the intersection.
4. I went forward(well, up on the map) a bit more, again waiting about a second for my tank to move.
5. I went right again. Now, I had overshot my turn, and had hung up on the other wall.
6. I repeated the process until I finally was able to move right, before being promptly shot by an enemy tank - which I couldn't defend myself from as my cannon wouldn't fire.
That doesn't sound like fun, does it? Well, it wasn't at all.
I also mentioned a lack of enemy AI. The tanks randomly move through the maze, occasionally shooting at the walls, getting neither closer to nor farther from the Soviet flag that I'm supposed to "defend". Occasionally, one will end up in the same part of the maze as me, and actually fire, killing me. That hardly ever happens, though.
Finally, the whole balance between attacking tanks and defending my base is ruined by the aforementioned lack of AI. Should I attack the enemy? Should I defend my base? Does it matter? The answer to all three of these is NO.
My impression of the game might have been softened by generally good polish, but that is nowhere to be found here. The graphics are horrible, consisting of 3D-modeled blocks with blurry, nonsensical textures like brick patterns and what appears to be brushed aluminum. The tanks are also badly-done, filling up entire tiles in what appears to be an attempt to simultaneously drain the game of fun(because there's little room to maneuver) and realism(because I have never seen a square tank in my life). On top of that, the walls are at an angle that obscures the maze itself. Why the developers couldn't use 2D isometric graphics is a mystery to me - it would have looked better.
The sound is also hideous, too. A bad MIDI track of what is supposedly an electric guitar plays incessantly, making my mute my speakers. The sound effects are ill-suited for their purposes, too. The game may have sounded better if the developers had skipped adding sound.
June 22: Enemy at the Gates PURPORTS to be based on the events of June 22, 1941, in which Soviet tanks defended Russia from the Nazis. In the game, though, the only correlation that I could find to the theme was the inclusion of tanks and Soviet flags - and the tanks were barely recognizable. Without the Communist references, it could have been based on anything(most likely a built-in model set for some low-end modeling program). It didn't help that I was playing as bad guys against other bad guys.
Finally, the game didn't even set itself up to be very good. The installer was nice(well, as nice as an installer that doesn't give me the option to omit a Start Menu icon can get), but my first sight upon starting the game up was a waving, 3D-modeled Soviet flag, with the game's main menu floating in front of it. When I began the first level, an image depicting the controls appeared on the screen, obscuring 90% of my view. Tucked away at the bottom of the image was the instruction that hitting F1 would hide the thing, but it took about five seconds for me to find it. At least the enemies were incompetent enough that it didn't make a difference.
As a bonus, though, it worked without the need for Vista's Compatibility Mode.
Overall, I give June 22: Enemy at the Gates a score of 2.2 out of 10(one for gameplay, two for graphics, two for sound, two for theme, and four for presentation and finish). This is the lowest score that I have ever given a game, and if you play it, you'll see why.