A Dirty Bomb
Black Ops Fugitive
Hunter: War on Terror is a bad game. It is in no, way, shape, or form
worth buying. The graphics are grainy. The screen is dark. The sounds
are sophomoric. The gameplay is choppy. The boards are tedious; the
weapons trite.
My review would end
here if Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror was not such an interesting (and
troubling) game conceptually...
Para(militaristic)texuality
A French literary
theorist came up with the term paratexuality. When describing books
Gerard Genette explained that the text is the words that make up the
story. Everything else, the cover of a book, the picture on a cover, the
font the words are written in, the size of a book are all paratexual.
One of Genettes reasons for investigating paratexuality was to theorize
how paratextual elements reinforce or subvert textual ones. One of the
interesting aspects of paratexual and textual elements are how they
blend together and blur the distinction (for instance, the font of the
words in a book is paratexual because the font type affects how the text
looks. However, the font type is also, literally, the text itself).
In videogames the
distinction between textual and paratextual is equally complicated. Are
the cinematic sequences one watches part of the game (i.e. texual) or a
part of the complete game that is outside the gaming event (i.e.
paratextual)? For the purposes of this review I will deem everything
that is outside actual gameplay as paratexual. Why this English Lit.
crash course? Because, even though Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror is a
terrible game that warrants little to no comment, the paratextual
elements of the game are intriguing and (at times) disheartening.
Your Run-of-the-Mill Save-the-World-from-Terrorism Game
Fugitive Hunter: War on
Terror doesnt exist in a bubble. When an audience reads the words War
on Terror specific and recent images, persons, and emotions are brought
to the surface: The Twin Towers destruction; Osama Bin Laden; Sadam
Hussain; Afghanistan, anger, fear, suspicion and Black Ops game hopes
to capitalize on those contemporary connections. The game itself though
fails to push the proper buttons.
The player controls
Jake Seaver a former Navy SEAL who now works for CIFR (the Criminal
Interdiction and Fugitive Recovery task force) and hops from place to
place (Florida, Utah, the Caribbean, France, and Afghanistan) capturing
the worlds most wanted criminals. Each level revolves around one of the
eleven (Bin Laden is the bonus criminal!) most wanted men (all of whom
are terrorists and/or are linked, sometimes indirectly, to terrorism) in
the world.
Fugitive Hunter: War on
Terror is a less-than mediocre first person shooter with a mini-game
thrown in at the end of each level. After completing the prescribed
objectives (your usual: 1) find evidence 2) locate suspect 3) capture
suspect) the player makes his or her way towards the end of the level
where the boss waits for you. When the player meets him, the player must
shoot him once (to disarm him) and then bumrush em. Once this occurs
the game switches into a third person fighting game where the player, as
Jake Seaver, gets to beat up one of the most wanted men, subdue him, and
then arrest him; thus, making the world a safer place and your wallet
that much fatter.
The bad guys are so
numerous it is ridiculous. The first level takes place in Miami and
youre running around with grenade launchers and uzis shooting at people
jumping out of garbage cans. Wouldnt the cops arrive at some point?
Where are all the innocent bystanders? At one point you pick up an
invulnerability icon and can kill with impunity and without remorse.
Although the action is very fast paced, the shooting is weak. Bottles
explode when bullets hit them. Sometimes skulls in the desert levels
yield hidden ammo caches when shot. When Jake Seaver delivers a head
shot does something particularly damaging he mumbles something snide in
the vain of the Duke. I am still supposed to be impressed with that kind
of stuff?
The hand-to-hand combat
is button mashing at its worst. The opponents taunt each other during
scuffle. You can do a super-move to a bad guy if you press the right
buttons in the right order. Simply put, this is just like everything
else youll find on the market. Theres absolutely nothing that
separates Fugitive Hunter: War on Terrors gameplay from any other
really bad FPS thats available today (or five years ago for that
matter). Although the game itself (the text) is sad and pathetic all
the paratextual elements are strangely and scarily patriotic.
Fictional Facts
The game opens with
Will Lymans voice. It is a voice that has that odd universal quality
that every documentary narrators voice has. Hes telling you about the
creation of CIFR as the screen flashes pictures of the U.S.S. Cole,
destroyed buildings, terrorist camps, people in bio-hazard suits, and I
think, (although I may be mistaken) a wall of pictures of missing people
after the Twin Towers bombing.
CIFR isnt real though.
Although after listening to Lymans voice you wouldnt think it. What is
so interesting about this game is that so much energy was spent making
the paratextual elements as real as possible (to the point where its
hard to discern between fact and fiction) and yet the gameplay is so
unrealistic.
Another element that
has a strange realism is on the pause screen. Whenever paused the game
runs a news stream similar to the one utilized by CNN and other news
channels. The ticker on the bottom of the screen reads telegraphically
and makes statements about Bin Ladens known whereabouts, new government
reports, and that the economy is on the rise etc.
As for the ten most
wanted criminals, just having Osama Bin Laden at the top lends credence
to the list; however, everyone else is fake. You wouldnt know it though
if you didnt check the FBIs website or listen to the game designers
admit it. With Will Lyman narrating, each criminal sounds believable
(from Casey Webber, a gang banger, to Hostinec Drobek, a money launderer
with connections to Al Queda). What is ironic is that the game designers
used people that they knew (co-workers and even someones dad) as the
models for the terrorists. This had a peculiar resonance when our
president tells us to remain vigilant because anyone (even a neighbor!)
can be terrorist. Using everyday people as the face of international
terrorism has a strange McCarthy-era quality to it that didnt sit well
with me. The other extreme of stereotyping was utilized as well. In the
first and final levels which take place on the Afghan/Pakistani border
all of the bad guys are dressed in saris and carry rocket launchers or
sport machine guns. Dealing with such a sensitive issue and not falling
into ridiculous stereotypes requires finesse that the developers of
Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror lack.
Hail to the Chief
One of the game
developers in the hidden video that accompanies the game (paratextual)
talks of the teams response to the September 11th attacks. He says that
for a three or so week period of time (after 9/11) there was thought
that the game might be scrapped. However, the company heeded President
Bushs urging that life go on as usual and that we could not let
terrorists control our lives with fear. So Black Ops (in a beautifully
patriotic move) continued to make the game. It is supposed to be an
empowering moment. Seconds later, that same developer tells his viewers
that if they want to burn terrorists with flamethrowers or blow them up
with rockets than Fugitive Hunter is the game for them. Two sad things
emerge from this interview though that need addressing:
1) During the interview the game developer claims that when Fugitive
Hunter: War on Terror began it was not so interested in terrorism. He
claims that at the time of September 11th terrorism played a small part
in this game. The finished product, as the title would allude to,
centers around terrorism. This leads me to believe (and Ill admit it is
quite a cynical take on the interview) that the game was changed after
9/11 to include more terrorists in hopes that the game would sell more.
And 2) the same game designer talks about all of the research that went
into making Fugitive Hunter and how, for years prior to 9/11 (as he was
conducting research for the game) he was reading about terrorist
activities that mirrored the 9/11 attacks. He lists eight or more
terrorist actions against international targets and then plainly states
that when he heard that the Twin Towers were struck he knew it was Osama
Bin Laden finishing the job he had started. Theres not a hint of
surprise in his voice when he makes that claim. Its as if he knew it
would happen. Why didnt our government?
A Post-Script for a Post-Saddam Iraq
Each level ends with
you, as Jake Seaver, beating up a terrorist who viciously fights back.
Its just about as Hollywood as you get. Good guy versus bad guy. White
hat versus black hat. When the player corners Bin Laden, Osama fights
back tooth-and-nail. With the recent capture of Sadam we know that life
doesnt always mirror the movies. Instead of the traditional last boss
guy being the strongest of foes why not model him after a character
like Gollum or the King on a chess board. Crafty but weak. Dangerous but
elusively so. What if during the game Jake Seaver met with resistance by
women and children armed with machine guns? Or by terrorists who used
women and children as human shields? And how would a player react to the
last boss being found hiding in a hole pleading for mercy like a
despicable wretch?
Steffan Ralph DelPiano (01/01/2004) |