No excuse for such poor controls in a 3RD PERSON shooter, on PSP. The multiplayer is just as disappointing.
There are a vast number of 3rd person shooters available for PSP out there. Socom, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Syphon Filter even Splinter Cell. All did extremely well in overcoming the single analog conundrum that has been plaguing PSP since its very beginning. Even a more diverse control scheme or a variety of control schemes to appeal to a greater audience could have improved this game.
All of the time and effort in developing this game has been wasted due to the one aspect that actually draws in the player for action games. The ability to control your in game hero. Also the lack of capability to skip the FMV's disappoints as well. The lack of ability to save the game when and where you want also limits the appeal of this game. Let us save when and wherever we want. Anything else is just pure laziness on the developer's part.
To compensate for the pathetic controls, the aiming box (for the auto aiming feature) takes up about 60% of the viewing space on the screen. It's almost like guiding a movie, more than playing a game. I'm not sure if this one is even worth keeping in my collection.
As for the multiplayer capability, it's a waste of my time. The emphasis and effort put into this aspect of the game is again lost by the clunky choppy controls that are a disgrace to the system. The deveolpers should have taken a look at alternate solutions to truly capitalize on the wonder that this game could have turned into. From other reviews the multiplayer "makes this game totally worth it". I doubt it. If this game failed to impress with the single player campaign, I can't imagine how the multiplayer could improve the experience. Also no coop campaign capability in the Multiplayer.... FAIL. Just the same old routine. Same old tired multiplayer games, with the same trash talk in the chat room. Nothing new here.
I give it a 6.5 due to the story, graphics and sound only. The multiplayer is a tragic waste and it will only be a matter of time before someone figures out how to hack and crash that network too. The auto aim feature to compensate for the horrible controls is simply an admission of failure by the developer in my view. They should have consulted with THQ for the control setup from Syphon Filter to make this game a true winner.