A good co-op 3rd person shooter.
Gameplay. This is something I'm a little concened with. It's a bit hard to keep your aim on the enemy perfect and in most 3rd person shooters I didn't have much of a problem with. An aim assist would have helped in the single player portion of the game. The ability to carry 2 weapons in the game is alright but it's when you have to swap your important weapon with the one on the ground that it seems a bit silly. Basically you can only have one good long range weapon like the sniper rifle or even the minigun that's good to use from a distance and one short range weapon like the pistol or shotgun.
Each character has a special ability when pressing the white button. Tex can pull out two miniguns and totally annihilate the enemies, Brutus can go into feral vision where all the enemies will be highlighted and his health will slowly regenerate. Hawk can cloak herself for stealth and Flint can lock on to enemies making her the perfect shot. These are a nice addition to the game and tilts the odds to your favour when the battle becomes tough.
Graphics wise, this is a very gorgious xbox title. Character models look real good and sometimes the scenery is hard not to admire. On Brutus's home world you can see the sunlight through the leaves of the canopy and and the place really does convince you that it's a swampy place like it should be. At other times though the scenery is alright but you grow bored of it soon. The lava planet and the desert world just don't look as pretty and most of the time I just want to beat the place and get it over with.
Sound doesn't really impress me. Brutus's voice seems a bit cliche and the voices are just recycled over and over to the point where you're sick of listening to it. The enemies definatley need more lines to say so the battle would atleast be kept fresh with different taunts of the enemy. The guns sound good though.
This game's multiplayer should atleast offer something a little more interesting for the shooter fan. There's co-op which is really simple to use. Just play the single player game and during it you can add up to 3 more controllers and the screen automatically splits up with your friends taking over the team mates. There's the traditional multiplayer and system link too but as for xbox live there is no option to play online with the game.
Overall this a good 3rd person shooter but far from being the best. It doesn't stand out too much from the others and the fact that there is no good plot probably won't keep you hooked to the game especially when you start revisiting worlds which makes the game start to feel a bit repetitive. If you're on the fence about this game then atleast give it a rent to see how you feel. Otherwise if you're into a great single player game then stay away from this one.