A super slick action FPS with big explosions Hollywood slant Good sound, music, graphics. Bad enemy AI
So how do you get started? Well, its easy, you can choose from three difficulty settings, then the fourth difficulty setting must be unlocked. Should you choose to take the game on in Normal mode then decide you want to play on Hard, you must start from the first level; unlike Timesplitters 3 whereby you can try any mission on Hard, which leads to less frustration once unlocked in Normal. Normal mode allows you to pick up health packs and use them at a later time, when you may need it most, compared to Hard mode where you can only use a health pack dropped by a dead guy immediately.
The introduction is so silky to watch and with the Dolby Pro Logic II pumping out the surround sounds, its as if you were actually there and the graphics are the best we’ve seen for most FPS games, even though the PS2 version is not as good as the Xbox (having played both). I’m impressed by the fact that these graphics don’t seem far behind that of Call Of Duty 2 on the X-360. You soon pick up the typical FPS controls and head off into trouble; pick up some weapons. The movement is quite slow and there is no run action, you'd expect a better movement engine; worse still, I expect they will use the same engine in the next Black - it hasn't moved on from much older games. Now I’ve said how good the graphics are, but I have noticed slowdown on the PS2 in big gun fire exchanges, yet its still very smooth.
You’ve been dropped in behind the enemy and you get to take them by surprise. So now what do I do? Well that’s easy, you’ve played FPS games before, go help your buddies and shoot some bad guys along the way – let the fun begin! Instantly you realise this is not a simulator (such as COD2) but instead it’s a hard hitting shooter; it takes several bullets to take down a grunt; body armour means you could use a whole clip on him, more like the days of old (Wolfenstien). Headshots mean something, so try to aim well, (easily done with the analogue) as the harder grunts have body armour and seem to take hits all day and the hardest grunt has a facemask – you’re best option is to use a shotgun upclose.
This brings me nicely onto weapons. There are all the guns you’d expect to see and some rather fun ones too; take the RPG which launches a big bada*s rocket that devastates all destructible objects. You can pick up a silencer for many guns, making the stealth approach an option if you’re that way inclined. Unrealistically the hand pistol offers greater accuracy at a long distance than some more powerful guns (AK47). The sniper rifle has two distance modes and packs a massive punch that launches grunts off their feet in spectacular style. Oh yes, the death scenes are good, they clutch at their throats, or dive off balconies of which some guys try to hold onto the balustrade in their last feeble attempt to stay alive. When reloading your weapon, the action is done very nicely, but your vision goes blurry and I cannot decide if this is a good or bad thing. The bigger guns also give a good level of kickback, but tilt your aim a bit lower and hold down the trigger, however the firing pattern also spreads wide, meaning several shots miss (good).
Another weak part of the game is the 'easy kill'. We've already said it takes a full clip to take down a guy, but I've found that the melle action is too easy. Just 2 hits on hard mode kills a guy. So an over easy tactic is to shoot the guy, he flinches very slowly, giving time for you to run up and bosh him in the face. Its a nice action when creeping up in stealth style, but not in full action.
Whilst you’re running into all sorts of trouble you’re going to take a few hits along the way. As said before there are two types of health pack. If you’re playing on Hard mode then you cannot use the second type which is kept in your pocket. The second type of health pack used on Normal mode allows you to restore health at a later date when your health is low; this is handy when you went in too hot. A very neat trick is when your health gets very low, the music and sound effects become muffled and there even seems to be a bit of slowdown (on purpose), all adding to the manic effect, just like war films do such as Saving Private Ryan. On a side issue, you will notice your buddies are indestructible, meaning the act as a shield and can take a rocket full in the face; sounds silly but a dead team-mate would lead to too much frustration. I also found the buddies a bit useless, as I have found them stood in the same room as a grunt, with neither taking notice of each other = glitch.
Other than your buddies running off, so do the enemy. At first it seemed like a good idea, as sometimes the grunts will hide behind a crate, but too often it was the case that I met a grunt face to face and he did not shoot but instead turn and ran – thus allowing me to shoot him in the back, making it all too easy. This has got to be another glitch.
Now something everyone is raving about is the destructible environment. Basically it’s the same as Redfaction 2, but you may be able to blow holes in more stuff. You start to realise the limitations of the game and not everything can be blow apart. This works well with the convenient way in which the game is told, ie you are looking back in time. It becomes too predictable and obvious what is going to happen when you see a guy sniping you from a window or your crosshair turns black, because this means its an opportunity for a big explosion that results in taking out several enemies in fantastic style – hence the novelty wears off.
The actual levels are very cool. Set in the mean streets or a deserted dockyard the levels are massive and give good opportunity to use the sniper rifle on occasion, although the enemy are often hidden until you pass a trigger point. Each level was taking me about 45 minutes, allowing me to meticulously search for hidden items. About half way you will get a checkpoint where the game will reload should you meet an untimely death. In addition to the vast expanse of space the levels are actually quite high, where building-scapes soar up. Obviously the levels have the occasional indoor stint and thus enable you to utilise your shotgun with gut wrenching annihilation.
And you may have realised that this game does not have multiplayer. It relies solely upon the story mode, of which it does a good job. Should you want a multiplayer game, then there is Star Wars Battlefront or battlefield war games for that. Instead this is a story game where you travel from A to B. Because the levels are large, some of them are not too linear but allow you to take different routes, which is good. The side missions are poor and add little if nothing to the game.
Now you know there are only 8 levels, but when you consider how long they are, it is equivalent to about 16 levels on a regular game. But because they are long missions, you are forced to complete them. It seems they were running out of time, money or ideas because the latter levels are poor. Suddenly there seem to be only a couple colours on the screen and it felt like I was playing an arcade shoot-em-up from 1995, like Time crisis. The first 3 levels are great*; but as a whole package this game is not worth the money.
* Thats an understatement; the first 3 levels are awesome; the last 5 are very poor. The first 3 levels seem to have taken all the developers time and money to create; the woodland level could easily be split into two. The level of detail is great for a PS2. There is so much attention to detail, be it moving grass/trees, or whatever.
CONCLUSION
It’s a 2006 version of Redfaction 2 (2002). This is a very good looking shooter, allowing you to go in all guns blazing and only thinking of the consequences after. Its all the explosions you’d expect to see in a blockbuster Hollywood movie but now you get to control the good guy. Some of you may miss the multiplayer option that other games offer you, but I’m more worried about the enemy AI, because the rest of the game rocks and I’m sure the next instalment of Black will be better and longer. Come on Criterion, you can do better, surely.
Too many people completed this game too quickly. We need bonus items, unlockable cheats and more…
Play, enjoy then return