they should have just called it "crack"
this game isn't fabulous. it's too short, it's too simple, it's too linear and yet ...
i'm completely addicted to it.
some of the reasons for my addiction are that the learning curve is really short. point, shoot, drive, kill bad guys. another reason for my addiction is the humor. i'm not about collecting 'hos' and building territory and generally perpetuating urban violence mythology, those games just piss me off. but this game does not even come close to offending my militant feminism. seriously. as i'm shooting my way through exaggerated-ly stereotypical bad guys with their comical accents and their ridiculous taunts ("you're a waste of skin! and "eat **** and die!") i can't help but laugh out loud at the achievements you can earn for keeping a body aloft with shoulder mounted explosives or performing suicidal/homicidal stunts in your vehicle.
i sat in my SUV honking at a woman in my path and not only would she not move out of my way (the other characters tend to flee like lemmings from the swerving vehicles and the shooting fray) , she shook her fist at me, clearly castigating my aggressive honking. another female character picked up a machine gun and started blasting away at bad guys. she totally had my back and she was an NPG in a mini skirt and a tube top. i laughed out loud. yanking people out of their cars to commandeer them and falling off rooftops to bounce repeatedly before you can right yourself is just nihilistic fun, i don't know how else to describe it, but it's light-hearted, silly and in some ways, totally awesome.
the controls are simple to master and respond reliably, thank heavens! the graphics are pretty. in some cases, the graphics are even awesome, they're not universally jaw-dropping like Gears of War. but they're clean and consistent. even while you're wreaking mayhem on the city's crime lords, you'll find yourself childishly amused at what you can do with explosives and bullets.
it seems like this is a good place to mention the sound track which is atypical and energetic. it's not the most innovative music to hit the xbox360 but it's fresher than most and i like the grittiness of the tunes. it's better than a lot and that's saying something.
sure, the game should be longer. it's pretty short. and yeah, it can be repetitive. it can also be frustrating getting off the ground. the character you start with has terribly agility and can't drive his way out of a paper bag. but if you keep working at it, you can progress quickly. which brings up another complaint. you can't play a girl. and while i'm used to a limited selection of characters aimed a grrl games, would it kill the makers to include ONE Trinity? still, i'm finding myself shooting my way through the night into dawn because i think it's fun and ridiculous. and sometimes you just need a mindless shooter to distract you from your reality-saturated existence, no?