Time Crisis 4 - 7/10
Namco's classic Time Crisis games have always been a big hit when it came to gaming in the arcades, sure the voice acting was as bland and dull as an episode of Home & Away and graphically, the game never really aimed to reach big heights, the big focus of Namco's lightgun series was the gameplay. This theory has obviously worked over the years when it came to the games success in the arcades, the amount of coins the TC arcade machine has eaten from peoples pockets would have to be that of a massive tally and rightly so, because when it comes to what you can play in the arcades these days, Time Crisis has always been an acade fave along with Tekken and Street Fighter.
Sadly on the negative side of things, Time Crisis 4's lightgun compatibility wont operate on a crt TV, thats right, if you want to actually be able to use the gcon gun with TC4, you will need an LCD TV, this alone, is a pretty tough pill to swallow for those who dont have LCD's. Whether this was just my CRT TV im not sure, but luckily it played like a gem on my LCD.
If you have experienced a Time Crisis game before, wether it be Time Crisis on PSone way back in 1996 or the lesser important Time Crisis Project Titan, you will know what to expect from this latest offering from Namco. The good old duck behind cover mechanics are back and work fine when reloading your gat and the co op gameplay is as addictive and user friendly as it ever was. There are two modes of importance, the two player co op mode, which you will find spending most of you time on, and the story campaign, which is a one player slog through the games rather dull as ditch water storyline.
When my imported box set of TC4 bundled with the orange lightgun, arrived in its box daubed in Japanese text, i was very eager to try it out to see what had changed from last gens gcon to this gens gcon gun, sadly i found it disapointing. There is absolutely no reticule now, the modes that do have reticule are quite boring anyway, which means if you decide to pop out from behind cover to shoot a soldier in the face, but instead have to shoot that flying axe hurtling your way, it simply a shoot and hope mission, almost like you're aiming a gun in the dark hoping to shoot a falling leaf with one bullet. The control calibration is also quite off target and pretty tough to adjust. At the end of the day i was asking myself quite a few questions, why the change in gun mechanics? When was Time Crisis based on total realism? Why couldnt Namco just keep the same old simple gcon blasting mechanics instead of using a wonky motion sensor approach? Alot of gamers will probably love the IR sensors used in TC4's gcon, but to me, it just didnt feel the same.
In gameplay some nice new touches have been added, the ability to weapon switch from a lightgun to a shotgun or a submachine gun is quite refreshing and although novel, is a welcomed addition that wasnt apparent in previous titles. Enemies are pretty much the same deal with the older games as well, colour coded characters are back, blue = weak, red = strong, yellow = medium, but not all guards are brightly over the top decked out in one colour anymore, the more heavily equipped soliders are the tough ones, the grenade lobbers are the tricksters and so on. The cast of characters are nothing exciting or new either, the two lead agents, Bernard and Bruno are a pretty embarrassing mismatch considering one is a young blonde headed french rookie and the other is an Italian Mafioso old enough to be bernards father. The villains are also the same stereotypical generic types as usual, the only half decent villian in the game is Wild Dog, the gun- for-an-arm bastard from previous TC games. The rest are your usual, cigar chompin biotech weapon grunts, or rich bearded folk, stroking a cat, decked out in white business suits and a pet crow/animal by their side. Like i said, nothing new.
Visually, the game wont be blowing anyones mind or making you think *Wow can graphics get any better* You will be spewing out comments more on the lines of *Thats it?, or *This is a next gen PS3 game? Apart from a dab of fresh PS3 paint, TC4 fails to melt the eyeballs with pixel prettyness. No biggy, because at the end of the day, TC focus has always been the arcadey gameplay, the gcon, the mindless fun, and it delivers the goods in TC4, as expected.
Overall, i must say, i was bitterly disapointed in TC4, not alot has changed since its arrival on the big stage, the whole IR sensor gimmick for the gun just didnt float my boat, and the severe lack of reticule grates. Plotwise, it was paper thin as usual, characters were as cheesy as usual and voice acting was as F grade as a highschool role play. On the plus note, if its the gun + gameplay you care about, then TC4 will more then win a few souls and of course, will save you some small change as well as a few trips to the arcades. Its mindless cheap thrills fun as we have come to know and love with TC, but the fact that little to nothing has changed, and what has changed has made things worse, is pretty off putting for a next gen game and next time, if there is a next time for this dated and dieing series, atleast let the fans have a black gun or choice of colour instead of throwing in some orange plastic that looked like it was purchased from King Kong or the 2$ corner shop. The fact that games such as Devil May Cry 4, UT3 and Turok are just around the February corner doesnt help TC4 bid for success either. Fun but very flawed.
Submitted by callan5
29/01/2008
18
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