$fbc|1-Review of Time Crisis For The Playstation



$fbc                  Rented a while ago, but now bought.

$df0                            by kenco/carnage
$fff
Some  of  you  may have read a short review of mine a few issues back of
the arcade version of Time Crisis and that I said it was the best of its
type.  If not, then here's an overview of the game...

When you buy this game (or rent it, like I did) for your sixty (or three
pounds  fifty)  quid  you get a big box with a very nice lightgun in it.
This  lightgun  is  unique  in that it has an extra bit that plugs in to
provide  pixel  perfect  accuracy.   I was worried that it wouldn't plug
into mine, but it's dead easy as the bit that plugs in has a throughport
for a scart cable.  Nishe.

The  gun (the Namco G-Con45) feels light and durable.  The main trigger,
I  think,  is microswitched, which is cool.  Two other buttons (A and B)
at  the front and on both sides of the gun are for ingame use.  Button A
is  effectively  the  foot pedal of the arcade game - you can set up two
options  with  this  button,  either  have  it so that you hold down the
button  to  stay up or so that you have to press it to stand up and then
press  it to duck - button B pauses the game which brings up a menu that
lets you either continue or quit.  Great.

The  disc  boots  up and you can select either English, German or French
language  version.   You then get a nice GCon setup screen whereupon you
aim the lightgun at the middle of the target and fire.  Wow, a very nice
gunshot  blast  rings  through  your  ears.   The game then loads fairly
quickly.  Cool.

The intro sequence is exactly the same as the arcade version, opting for
realtime  3d  instead of the usual pre-rendered sequences.  It does look
quite blocky, but that's comparing it to a several thousand-pound arcade
machine.   The  options let you set the screens view by shooting arrows.
You  can also load and save game data (Best Times and suchlike) and also
reconfigure the GCon.  Funky.

There  are  effectively  two games you can choose to play from the title
screen.   The  main  one  (Arcade)  emulates  the  arcade  version  very
precisely,  in  fact, my opinion is that, apart from a lower resolution,
it's  exactly  the  same!   No,  really!   In the arcade option, you can
choose  to  play  the  Story mode or the Time mode.  The story mode is a
realtime  rendered  environment  where  you  play  the  hero of the game
through  his eyes.  The game camera stops at certain points allowing you
to  pop  up  and  shoot  the  bad  guys.   The  environments vary from a
submarine  harbour  to a factory floor.  The game tells you when you can
pop  up,  when WAIT!  is shown, the camera pans across to the next scene
until  SHOOT  NOW!   is  shown,  so  that you can pop up and cap the bad
dudes.  You have a limit of six bullets until you have to reload and you
reload  by ducking.  Smart.  Ingame, you are also timed per scene, so if
the  time  runs  out then it's game over.  You also have health as well.
In  easy mode you get five health, in normal you start with three.  When
you run out of time, the counter turns red and is a bit bigger, to point
out  that  you  really should hurry it up a bit.  The Time mode is a bit
like  the  Story  mode, apart from all the action is timed and you don't
have  to  worry  about health.  The fastest wins, or something.  I never
really bothered with that.

Then there's an extra bit.  It's a hotel level where however well you do
determines  the  course  you  take.   A bit like the way you chose which
route to take in Outrun.  There's a bit where you're shooting guards and
bellboys and a lift opens to your left, and if you kill all the bad guys
in  time,  you  take the elevator and see another part of the level.  So
this  bit  would  last  you  a while, until you'd seen everything.  This
could  be a game in itself, but I guess Namco found that there was a bit
of  room  left on the cd, so bunged the other game on.  Way cool.  Watch
out for the, er, car on legs sort of thing.

So that's the hardware and software explained.  Sorted.  The game itself
is  bloody ace!  Time Crisis, but at home, is well smart!  First I tried
it  on  a  big  tv  and  it was ace!  I then tried it on my own scart tv
(which is a bit smaller :) but it still played brilliantly!  I found the
difficulty  curve  rose very sharply towards the end, stages one and two
were fairly easy, but stage three proved quite frustrating as there were
grenades  involved  and  you  couldn't  really tell when they were being
thrown  at  you.  That is only very minor though and against the rest of
the game, is nothing to moan about really.

So then :

Graphics     94% - Very smooth and very fast, although a little blocky.
Sound        93% - Couldn't really hear any music over the constant bang
                   bang bang! of gunshots.
Playability  94% - Instantly playable.
Lastability  96% - Very hard to put down.

Overall      94% - Use the new analyser and you'd get it in hi-res.
                   Probably.

Might even be a sequel..

-ende-