The opening level makes impressive use of the DC skyline. |
Granted it's a budget development and as such the scope for large-scale outdoors environments is limited but that doesn't excuse such plain, basic geometry. The texture sets do include some very nicely rendered stonework, complete with high quality shaders, which could have been used to far greater effect, without increasing the art budget, just by crafting some more detailed interior designs to place them in. It's perfectly possible to create tunnels and bunkers without resorting to flat, boxy corridor constructions at every turn. And this is the core tenet of the problem, repetition not only in texture use and level decoration, but in the very geometry itself. Yes the game has it's moments visually, with beautifully polished granite flooring, intricately normal mapped flock wallpaper and highly detailed floor coverings but these few pieces are repeated over and over in the course of a level, there's no variety. Disappointing though this is, it's the basic AI coupled with the repetitive design choices that really kill the playability.
Some nice texturing can't hide the overall blandness. |
Barring the basic pistol there's rarely any need to even change the guns that you are using. Combat is all of the close-ranged variety and ammunition is extremely plentiful, it's rare to run to less than four clips at any one time. Except for one level, where the player is instructed to use their stun gun for US personnel, you're left with the same combat scenarios repeating themselves on a loop for the story's duration.
There's also a serious issue with the controls - they lack precision. There's far too high a degree of inertia to the analogue stick movements, regardless of whether or not you have your iron sights up. When the screen does start to turn the velocity almost immediately jumps up way too much. So you go from slow, lethargic aiming to wide, sweeping turns with nothing in between. The same lack of responsiveness is manifested in the sprint controls where the player must both push the left stick forward and keep it clicked in for the entire duration of the run. The end result is not only that it's very hard to make quick, accurate movements but that a lot of the time the game feels like you are moving through treacle, each input is a force of effort on your behalf. Thanks to the somewhat redundant enemy AI, the regenerating health system and the lack of too many open spaces these issues don't actually make the game overly hard in any way but it still feels uncomfortable all the same.
This makes up far too much of the game. |
The great thing about this is that the mode can be accessed in its own right from the title menu and is entirely configurable, crank all the settings up to the maximum and you get some well balanced, tense, rapid-fire puzzle action. The exploding cell pieces offer a nice element of risk that come into play on the harder settings, as they complement the harsher time limits well. It's refreshing to have so many options under the player's control for what in many games would have been treated as a more throwaway element, although it would have been a good idea to have also provided a more structured level sequence for players to work their way through.
At least they won't have to repaint the wallpaper. |
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Score: 4/10