Oscar
04-06-2009, 04:41 PM
The Story:
The thing that impressed me the most about the story is that they didn’t just make an interactive version of the movie. Universal teamed with Top Cow to create a pair of storylines that sandwich the film, making this game both a prequel and a sequel to the movie and still manage to make the whole thing cannon.
The first story arc is all about Wesley and starts just five hours from where the movie left off. You’re tasked with finding the iconic suit and taking out more corrupted agents. The second story arc seems to be the more exiting. You get to play as Wesley’s father Cross and find out exactly what happened between him and Sloan.
Graphics:
The game looks good. Well, as good as most games seem to look these days. But many of the environmental effects that detract from the “prettiness” of the game were actually put there on purpose. Effects like a harsh glare from snow or sunlight shining through a window to your face are all part of the “hide the enemies in plain sight” approach the game employs. Yet, in a game where enemies hiding in cover remain both visible and targetable, it still kind of works.
Gameplay:
The game is fun. The game gives you more options than the usual, find cover, wait for the enemy to shoot, kill enemy, rinse, and repeat. If your enemies keep ducking into cover you can simply go around the obstacle by curving your shot. This won’t actually kill your enemy (except for the occasional headshot) but it will stagger them out of cover allowing you a much easier target.
You could also run from cover to cover at super fast speeds and go for an awesome melee kill. The type of melee kill used depends on the situation. As awesome as the kill animations are, I would warn against using them too much as they start to loose something after about the tenth time you see the same kill animation.
Should you find yourself surrounded by a small army there’s always the “assassin time” (this should really be self explanatory by now).
I think my favorite thing about this game was the way they redesigned the “quicktime event”. The problem with the way most games choose to handle these events is by either covering the screen with a giant button icon, or placing a small icon in the corner of the screen. The problem is that I usually end up missing most of the cool action sequence looking for the next icon to pop up. Instead the developers chose to turn this game into their own version of “Time Crisis”. The character will begin to move on his own through the scene until he is placed in a combat situation. The character will then jump into “assassin mode” and give you control of your weapon in first person view. It’s up to you to take out both the enemies on screen and the bullets they’ve just fired at you before you can continue the action sequence. Finally, a game that lets you play rather than ask you to push the play button for the next animation.
As for the enemies themselves, don’t expect a lot of variety. I can understand why all the security guards look alike but why was everyone else in the level was wearing either a hoodie or a suit. Fortunately the game is meant to played at such a fast pace you hardly have time to notice it.
When I asked about multiplayer I think I may have hit a nerve. It was made perfectly clear that there will be NO MULTIPLAYER for this game. Universal is a company that tells stories, and that was what they wanted to do with this game. They didn’t want to waste resources with tacking on a multiplayer mode when the story is the heart and soul of the experience. While I applauded this point of view I realized two things. The unlockable characters they mentioned (confirmed their existence but wouldn’t give any names) must be little more than a new skin for your character and I can’t see this game being more than a eight hour experience (I’d be surprised if it goes past six).
Bottom Line:
I think anyone who likes shooters should play this game. But I’m not really comfortable suggesting the purchase of a short game with little to no replay value. If you’re on a gaming budget I suggest renting this one. If you have a whole bunch of money lying around then go ahead and buy a copy (hell, if you’re that rich, pick me up a copy too).
The thing that impressed me the most about the story is that they didn’t just make an interactive version of the movie. Universal teamed with Top Cow to create a pair of storylines that sandwich the film, making this game both a prequel and a sequel to the movie and still manage to make the whole thing cannon.
The first story arc is all about Wesley and starts just five hours from where the movie left off. You’re tasked with finding the iconic suit and taking out more corrupted agents. The second story arc seems to be the more exiting. You get to play as Wesley’s father Cross and find out exactly what happened between him and Sloan.
Graphics:
The game looks good. Well, as good as most games seem to look these days. But many of the environmental effects that detract from the “prettiness” of the game were actually put there on purpose. Effects like a harsh glare from snow or sunlight shining through a window to your face are all part of the “hide the enemies in plain sight” approach the game employs. Yet, in a game where enemies hiding in cover remain both visible and targetable, it still kind of works.
Gameplay:
The game is fun. The game gives you more options than the usual, find cover, wait for the enemy to shoot, kill enemy, rinse, and repeat. If your enemies keep ducking into cover you can simply go around the obstacle by curving your shot. This won’t actually kill your enemy (except for the occasional headshot) but it will stagger them out of cover allowing you a much easier target.
You could also run from cover to cover at super fast speeds and go for an awesome melee kill. The type of melee kill used depends on the situation. As awesome as the kill animations are, I would warn against using them too much as they start to loose something after about the tenth time you see the same kill animation.
Should you find yourself surrounded by a small army there’s always the “assassin time” (this should really be self explanatory by now).
I think my favorite thing about this game was the way they redesigned the “quicktime event”. The problem with the way most games choose to handle these events is by either covering the screen with a giant button icon, or placing a small icon in the corner of the screen. The problem is that I usually end up missing most of the cool action sequence looking for the next icon to pop up. Instead the developers chose to turn this game into their own version of “Time Crisis”. The character will begin to move on his own through the scene until he is placed in a combat situation. The character will then jump into “assassin mode” and give you control of your weapon in first person view. It’s up to you to take out both the enemies on screen and the bullets they’ve just fired at you before you can continue the action sequence. Finally, a game that lets you play rather than ask you to push the play button for the next animation.
As for the enemies themselves, don’t expect a lot of variety. I can understand why all the security guards look alike but why was everyone else in the level was wearing either a hoodie or a suit. Fortunately the game is meant to played at such a fast pace you hardly have time to notice it.
When I asked about multiplayer I think I may have hit a nerve. It was made perfectly clear that there will be NO MULTIPLAYER for this game. Universal is a company that tells stories, and that was what they wanted to do with this game. They didn’t want to waste resources with tacking on a multiplayer mode when the story is the heart and soul of the experience. While I applauded this point of view I realized two things. The unlockable characters they mentioned (confirmed their existence but wouldn’t give any names) must be little more than a new skin for your character and I can’t see this game being more than a eight hour experience (I’d be surprised if it goes past six).
Bottom Line:
I think anyone who likes shooters should play this game. But I’m not really comfortable suggesting the purchase of a short game with little to no replay value. If you’re on a gaming budget I suggest renting this one. If you have a whole bunch of money lying around then go ahead and buy a copy (hell, if you’re that rich, pick me up a copy too).