The shooter that could have been...
User Rating: 6 | Miami Vice: The Game PSP
I picked the game up with high hopes after seeing gameplay footage videos. The game looked like RE4 in terms of gameplay, and in truth it was. The controls were great, they all worked perfectly and made gunplay interesting. Only problem is with controls like that gunplay is the only thing you can really do. There are some contextual events like knocking cover down or vaulting over a desk, but aside from that all you can do is point, shoot, and run. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because we all know how RE4 turned out, but the thing that game did that this one didn't was involve interesting elements to the gunplay. Elements like puzzles and bosses. Miami Vice is a simple combination of the same types of enemies just placed in higher and higher numbers. There are no bosses, there is nothing difficult to solve, you just run from room to room taking cover and shooting. By the middle of the second level this routine starts to get stale, and considering I bought and beat the game in one night, well, lets just say that doesn't do your purchase justice. Between levels there is a map of Miami where you can buy/upgrade weapons and sell the drugs off to the street dealers. This could have been further developed to be a lot more like a drug investment game, where you could actually make money rather than a few hundred or thousand at a time. There's plenty of drugs in the levels to sell, so you'll never have to worry. To upgrade weapons you have to hack FlashRam which is a really stupid minigame. It's a little intense and hard but in reality playing a varied version of Asteroids is in no way hacking and really takes you out of it or makes you feel stupid. Also, some stages involve driving a boat and shooting other boats, which is almost impossible to lose. You would have to sit idle for 3 minutes in front of an enemy to die. The stages are far too linear as well, you can beat them in about two minutes.
So the gameplay isn't very special, but how about the presentation? The graphics are on par with GTA Liberty City Stories. Polygon counts aren't too high, but there are some nice lighting effects. Framerate isn't bad either compared to some other games. The sound is forgettable, the voices are fairly amateur, and without Farrel or Foxx voicing their likeness I would have to say the cutscenes aren't interesting at all. Weapons don't sound like real weapons either, they sound really generic. The character animations are pretty nice though, the way you pop out of cover and back, and when you run you get the little "camera man can't keep up" effect.
Bottom line: the gunplay is interesting, but only for a short time with little variety of enemies and no boss fights. I would reccomend this game if you only had to pay $10-$15 considering the staleness of the gameplay, lack of presentation (save for animations) and shortness (maybe 4 hours). 
