Time Crisis: Crisis Zone
- September 15, 2004 15:48 PM PST
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As expected, the action in Time Crisis: Crisis Zone, was typically awesome.
We recently got to spend some serious quality time with the latest installment in Namco?s perennial shooting series with Time Crisis: Crisis Zone, and as expected, the action was typically awesome. This Playstation 2 exclusive is an ?enhanced? port of the arcade title of the same name, but features several new enhancements not found in the original.The preview build we played, though still early, featured an already impressive level of detail and real-time damage modeling. Nearly everything in the stages can be destroyed and the enviornmemt?s realistic reactions to your gunfire create a highly believable and thoroughly satisfying feeling of chaotic carnage. Put simply, when you shoot something on screen, you?ll know it.
Graphically, Crisis Zone is looking very close to its arcade counterpart, with detailed characters and fluid animations. Namco is promising an increase in the framerate in the final version, but with silky smooth visuals like these its hard to believe the PS2 has too much more to offer. The music still leaves something to be desired (unless you harbor some sick fetish for watered down hair-metal), but the pleasing sound effects of gunfire and broken glass are superb.
Control with the GUNCON2 controller is excellent and the simple calibration setup makes accurate firing an cinch and leaves little room for griping and accusations of unfair deaths (though you will die a lot in later levels!). A huge bonus for luxuriant gamers with two GUNCON2?s lying around the house is the awesome ability to unlock the dual gun wielding ?akimbo? fighting style and take on hordes of henchman John Woo-style with a sweaty peacemaker in each palm. Crisis Zone can also be played with a standard PS2 Dual Analog controller with relative ease and very little hassle (though this obviously detracts from the intended arcade experience).
Being an enhanced arcade port, Crisis Zone also sports an impressive number of extras and most of these were playable in the preview build we handled. The final version will feature two full episodes (with each episode being comprised of three selectable sub-stages) with the second being unlocked following the successful completion of the Garland Square mission.
A number of minigames, called Crisis Modes, are also included in this PS2 version and provide gamers with an opportunity to replay specific boss battles or complete previously unlocked stages under special circumstances or with special weapons. Speaking of firepower, Crisis Zone also features a handful of unlockable extra weapons like the accurate pistol and the high-powered shotgun, as well as a few special situational weapons (like the cool flame-thrower and gattling guns) hidden in the special story mode.
A convenient auto-save feature will also keep track of your high scores and will record your progress on a statistical rankings menu. All told, Crisis Zone looks to be promising much more than a standard port of a modern arcade classic with so many extras and hidden bonuses for diligent gamers to unlock.
There were, however, a few minor shortcomings that we encountered in our play-time with Crisis Zone. First, there was no mutliplayer mode ? anywhere. Part of what makes great gun games so enjoyable is the ability to play with a pal and team up against an unreasonable number of adversaries. Also, the preview we played was incredibly short (like the arcade game). This is due, of course, to the fact that Crisis Zone is an true quarter muncher at its heart, and great quarter munchers are always fast, fun and difficult and over in under an hour.
The impressive number of extra bonus features should help boost Crisis Zone?s replayability well beyond the dreaded one-time play through, but players unfamiliar with the typically short length of most light-gun games should take this as fair warning. Even so, both longtime fans of the Time Crisis series and newbies alike will much to look forward to when this trigger-happy title hits home on the PS2 this fall.
