A review for the PS-2 Shoot-Em-Up title "Endgame". Sounded promising, but ultimately comes up short - 4/10.
Considering its' peers, the Time Crisis, Point Blank and Virtua Cop series, it had a lot to live up to in this genre, but unfortunately it falls spectacularly short. In none of the gameplay, storyline, graphics or playability categories does it come out on top, perhaps indicated by the bargain price that I purchased it for.
The gameplay is lacklustre; the boring cutscenes take a year to load, the music quickly becomes very repetitive and despite the novel idea of "Hypermode" the actual in-game action still feels slow and tiresome.
The plot is described to be "absorbing", making references to the "cinematic feel" of the game. Indeed it does have a "cinematic" feel, although I feel that is perhaps just a euphemism for the endless and rather boring cutscenes. Often it does feel like you are watching a poor, straight-to-dvd film compared to playing a game with the epic number of cutscenes... I do not feel that "absorbing" is an appropriate way to describe this game, especially when you consider how involving the Time Crisis series is for example. Endgame pales in comparison.
The official UK Playstation 2 Magazine described it as "one of the best looking shooters around", which unfortunately I am inclined to totally disagree with, surprise surprise? Indeed it is a massive leap forward from the PSOne classics that we have come to love and treasure, but that is to be expected considering the vast graphical superiority of the PS2 over its' little brother. However when you compare it with its' PS2 compatriots in the same genre, it falls down.
As far as playability goes, this is a one play-through wonder. That is if you can stand to play the game long enough to complete it. There is no replay value, no incentive to keep playing the game after you complete it. The scoring system works around your time to complete the game, similar to Time Crisis, however there is no accompanying hit-score, which lightgun players can truly use to differentiate their scores. Anyone can complete Time Crisis, not everyone can score over 1,000,000 in the process. Empire have tried to increase the longevity of the game by introducing another mini-game, "Mighty Joe Jupiter", but this is pretty unimpressive to say the least. Needless to say, "Point Blank" will always be the king of the mini-games. Something about shooting little aliens fleeing awkwardly across the screen doesn't compare to the mini-game madness of shooting targets in the original arcade classic.
So to summarise, what could have been a very good game in an already competitive market with a tried and tested formula, has fallen short of the mark. The gameplay feels slow and the storyline is clichéd and uninspired. If you see it on eBay or in your local game store for a few pounds, go ahead, buy it! You might think it's worth a punt, but to be honest I wish I'd spent that £4 down the local arcades with my mates, completing Time Crisis a couple of times.