No Jaws licensed product can be as bad as Jaws: The Revenge, but Unleashed comes damn close.

User Rating: 3.5 | Jaws Unleashed XBOX
By DIMANICUS | Review Date:
Ah, Jaws. Is there a horror film fanatic in the world that hasn't gazed upon the Jaws quadrilogy on the big screen (or, if it was after your time, on the silver screen)? Jaws, 1974, an epic Steven Spielberg horror film acclaimed by critics and viewers alike. 1978, Jaws 2 hits the screen, this time Jeannot Szwarc is behind the camera. Five years on, in 1983, the cash-in on the re-introduced 3D feature in cinema, Jaws 3D is released (renamed Jaws 3 when released on VHS and DVD). And finally, 1987 (same year as Superman IV: The Quest For Peace), the final part of the series is released, Jaws: The Revenge. Terrible, terrible film. Sharks swimming an entire ocean in 3 days, a shark wanting revenge, a shark following someone into a ship wreck, manouevering through cramped corridors, ultimately stopping, an anomoly within the fish kind, as usually, when a fish creature comes to a stop, there fins stop filtering oxygen and they ... well die. And also, this shark can roar! Yes, it can roar. Mix all that with a character that miraculously survives despite being obviously mauled by the shark, and water lapping up against the horizon. But this review isn't about the film (no, unfortunately there's a limit to the amount of words I can use), this is a review for Jaws: Unleashed.

Jaws Unleashed on the Xbox and PS2 (as well as PC) is a terrible game. There is no denying that. But it manages to do something Jaws: The Revenge didn't, and that is having it's existence noticed. As you may know, Jaws Unleashed was voted "Worst Game Everyone Played" in 2006, meaning the buyer's have ignored the reviews and bought a cheap game where you get to play as a shark and maul people. How fun.

It is. Jaws is very fun. It's violent and it's tabboo. The game is developed by the very same team that made Ecco the Dolphin (imagine a confrontation between Ecco and Jaws, would bring an end to the child friendly audience of Ecco wouldn't it). So having made Ecco, you would think they could pull off a 3D enhancement of sed game, while adding a different story and lot's of gore.

The game is free-roam. The player can destroy anything or anyone in his path. The wonton destruction of various submarine creatures is indeed a guilty pleasure, but this is buried deep beneath a sea (get it) of severe flaws. Lot's of glitches, both major and minor, constant freezing and a pretty shabby camera form the majority of this briney blue of bollocks. Textures look bland, yet the audio is passable (just a last minute word on the audiovisual presentation).

So you want to be a shark? Who doesn't. To my knowledge, there are no other games that offer the same visceral underwater intensity of Jaws Unleashed. This is a sad truth when this factor is weighed against it's numerous flaws which emphasize that the game was severely unfinished.

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