By Gwendolyn L. Spelvin

If any staunch National Socialist supporters ever wondered what video game propaganda would have been like had it existed during the reign of Hitler in 1939, IS Defense, for better or worse, gives an alternate perspective of the history that could have been.

Development house Destructive Creations doesn’t disappoint players driven by shock value in their latest sophomore effort, continuing the irresponsible xenophobic ideals that made their debut title Hatred infamous.  Shamelessly, the moral of IS Defense is not for the faint of heart; the entire premise is centered around the rationale that the only good Muslim in Europe is a dead one.

The liberties Destructive Creations takes in creating the unseen lone protagonist fighting for his principles is at the sacrifice of all nations involved.  All countries invaded are painted as weak, and obviously devoid of any military force that can actually stop the invasion.  This leaves the lone hero fighting to restore xenophobia, murdering and maiming all Muslims for the good of Europe.

Such accomplishment could not be possible without the help of the painfully obvious assets from the Unity store.  While the scenes are lush and one of the better graphic achievements for an exclusive PC platform run and gun war shooter, theater like stage levels divided into off-Broadway acts are no consolation for an attempt at visually stunning license free backgrounds.

Avid players can conquer this short quest of islamophobia in roughly half an hour.  There is little challenge in a point and shoot war epic where the hardest part of finishing a level is straining to clearly hear invaders screaming religious chants during attacks.  Each wave of invasion happens on the meager three levels given as battlegrounds, but resemble tourist areas than war torn scenes.

Sicilian Shores is a nice touristy type beach level that gives you a great view of the Mediterranean, and little else.  Spanish Harbor is a nice exploration of a Spanish dock warehouse with the cleanest floor I’ve ever seen in war, and the Croatia Mainland looks like the backyard to Dracula’s house in Castlevania.

These William Shatner inspired Priceline.com highlights of Europe are simple sightseeing levels from the stationary front of your Gatling gun rig; a rig, by the way, that lacks the genre expectation mechanics of a tactical defense system.

Everything from health, ammo, airstrikes, artillery support, and supply drops are available, but only if you save up enough points for them.  That literally could make or break your effectiveness on the battlefield, if this were a real game.  Since this is just IS Defense, it will have little to no bearing on your level completion, since it’s all about the body count at the end of the day anyway.

The higher your dead Muslim count, the better available resources you have for the next level.  Considering at the end of the level you are expected to kill at max 2000 Muslims, replays of the same mundane mission may be mandatory to level your stats up to something efficient.

This type of strategy would not be annoying if the protagonist could explore the terrain and reload items from respawn points.  However, since he’s locked in tight off camera to the rig the point merit system and its convoluted rules are all you have.

But hey, at least the window seat view is limited to panning left or right picking off enemies from future vacation spots after the war is over.  As I said before, it’s extremely clean for a bloodbath.

Between the limitations of battle engagement combined with the very boring Phantom of the Opera type soundtrack, IS Defense makes any NES era game of the same genre cutting edge technology in comparison.

The only redeeming quality of the title is complete support of controllers, and very fluid navigation of all side screens that allows you to pick your poison of irritation before you go into battle.  The options screen offers the same fare of windowed/full screen mode, turning audio on/off, and adjusting the quality of the images as did its predecessor.

IS Defense abruptly ends without rhyme or reason; Europe is just so tiny, that a mere three levels and thirty minutes of gameplay saves the day.  The conclusion is worse than a Dynasty cliff hanger; more promises of Eurasian xenophobia are on the horizon to keep the genocide sentiments flowing.

Take away the controversial storyline and central thematic concern of the game, and you are left with a very limited, boring, uninterested, wanna be Duke Nukem: Time To Kill type shooter that doesn’t know its ass from its elbow.  Were it not playing on the hearts and minds of the discriminative, this game wouldn’t even be worth the spit it takes to curse it.

Two hours of gameplay will give you four complete plays of IS Defense from start to finish.  Expect no special or secret rewards or endings for the trouble.  A boring, uneventful feat that deserves its rating.  -1/100.