A shut-your-brain-off cover shooter. Shoot grunts, shoot bigger bullet-sponge guys, shoot boss in weak spot, rinse-repeat for 5 or so hours. Not a bad time for an afternoon, but not a blast either.
It would be a lot more fun if the game had a big arsenal of unique and satisfying weapons to match its sorta goofy vibe, a la Resistance or Ratchet and Clank; but the only ones that felt any good to use, to me, were the most rudimentary: shotgun, assault rifle, HMG and rocket launcher. Suffice it to say, that got old.
Stray thoughts:
- The sliding-around-real-fast gimmick is fine, but sort of ancillary-feeling. Certainly not as foundational to the game as the marketing made it seem.
- I do really like a lot of the animations and enemy designs (the melee feels really bad but looks cool).
- The story is just mind-numbingly stupid.
- Played this on the 360, and goddamn were we tolerant of performance issues back in the day; the frame rate in this thing absolutely crawls in crowded sections, and the untoggleable motion blur looks like smeary ass, but I don’t remember anyone complaining about that in their 9-score reviews.
- Music is completely anonymous—not mixed loud enough? Seems like a missed opportunity for a game like this.
Bottom line, this is crazy overrated, but it’s got its charms if you go in with modest expectations. Grunt enemies DO fly backward when you hit them with a shotgun blast, which is my litmus test for good gunplay, so thumbs up.
It would be a lot more fun if the game had a big arsenal of unique and satisfying weapons to match its sorta goofy vibe, a la Resistance or Ratchet and Clank; but the only ones that felt any good to use, to me, were the most rudimentary: shotgun, assault rifle, HMG and rocket launcher. Suffice it to say, that got old.
Stray thoughts:
- The sliding-around-real-fast gimmick is fine, but sort of ancillary-feeling. Certainly not as foundational to the game as the marketing made it seem.
- I do really like a lot of the animations and enemy designs (the melee feels really bad but looks cool).
- The story is just mind-numbingly stupid.
- Played this on the 360, and goddamn were we tolerant of performance issues back in the day; the frame rate in this thing absolutely crawls in crowded sections, and the untoggleable motion blur looks like smeary ass, but I don’t remember anyone complaining about that in their 9-score reviews.
- Music is completely anonymous—not mixed loud enough? Seems like a missed opportunity for a game like this.
Bottom line, this is crazy overrated, but it’s got its charms if you go in with modest expectations. Grunt enemies DO fly backward when you hit them with a shotgun blast, which is my litmus test for good gunplay, so thumbs up.