24: The Game

Live a day in the life of Jack Bauer in the latest TV-to-game conversion.

Given terrorism's place in the nation's psyche, 24's themes are more resonant than ever. You couldn't ask for a cooler game character than Kiefer Sutherland's weathered and scarred all-American bad-ass, though you'll also play as Chase, Tony, and others during the interval between seasons two and three.

Preaching to the Converted
TV show games are often a mixed bag, and 24: The Game in many ways exemplifies the problems with crossing from one medium to another. What works as broadcast drama doesn't necessarily work in an interactive milieu. Breaking the screen into pieces, each featuring a simultaneous event, gives the show a sense of living reality, of a universe separate from what's currently visible, but all it serves to do in-game is distract the player.

The lowered production values don't do anyone any favors, either. Though most of the voices are from the original actors, their muted performances indicate that direction was minimal, so the plot and human relationships never really comes to life. The graphics are unspectacular despite focus effects, character animations are awkward, and music oscillates a little too readily between high tension and subdued interlude.

The Last Place You'd Look
Despite its often clumsy presentation, 24 still manages to deliver a fair amount of fun for the money, even if it's not in the modern way you'd expect. Each hour of time is split into a few missions, featuring a wide range of objectives, many brought to life in unexpectedly fun mini-games. You'd think anything that didn't elaborate on the awkwardly controlled and too-conventional gunplay, or spice up the too-slow car chases, would feel extraneous, but it turns out that defusing bombs, resurrecting hard drives, and hacking passcodes are among the most enjoyable moments of the game.

24 isn't the ambitious action opus it should've been, but its engaging quirks and variety of gaming experiences still raise it above the cash-in gutter.

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