Does Take 2 hate us? I'm
serious here. Do they? [No, they don't hate us. They're actually very nice folks. --
Ed.] Not only must they unleash the plague unto the world that was the first Spec
Ops, they figured they had a series on their hands and decided to cheapen the PSX even
more! Worse yet, it's ten dollars, so sadly you may be getting this game from
"Santa" as a stocking stuffer.Where to begin? I guess I'll list the game's
redeeming points first since that'll be quicker. Hmmm... Nice cover art. The sound effects
are supposed to be serious, but end up being undeniably funny. You can play Co-op. The
music is pretty good. It doesn't kill you. It only froze up on me once. I think that's
about it.
Now for the bad and 80% of this review.
Ok,
they may pass it off as realism, but the game is far too difficult. I mean, when
you can die by stepping on a one pixel large bomb, and your enemies are indistinguishable
from the rest of the game, you've got yourself a problem. One of the only ways to see an
enemy is to be shot by them, as that is the only time your radar will show them. Why?
What's the point of a radar if you're already being shot? Not to mention that your
"buddy" (as the game calls him) doesnt help you much. I think they added
this "buddy" in as a way to lower game difficulty. If a game is too difficult,
what do you do? Why, you give the players more lives! Genius! As if that wasn't bad
enough, the controls are piss poor as well. So, in reality, elite Rangers maneuver about
as well as a shopping cart with two missing wheels? Our country is more vulnerable than I
once thought.
The graphics arent anything to shout about either. Id swear that the
animation on these Rangers used to be twice as fast, then they found out that made them
run too fast, so instead of re-doing the animation, they simply slow it down by half. What
results is a character that looks like he came out of a poorly funded stop motion
animation. The game world itself isnt exactly up to PlayStation standards. I
couldve sworn we were out of the stage where trees were four polygons. As Ive
mentioned before, land mines are about one pixel wide. The only way to know if
theyre present is by walking over them, and remembering on your next try. The only
upside I could see to these graphics is the loading animation. It looks pretty cool.
Another
thing about this game is that some of its objectives make little to no sense. Maybe I
should rephrase that. Some of the ways of going about your objectives make little to no
sense. Do you disarm bombs by picking up little red cards? No. For a game that is trying
to impose its reality on you, it seems quite odd that theyd have slop like this in.
The music is actually above decent. It totally set the tone for some action. Sadly the
rest of the game didnt deliver. For how good the music was, the sound effects and
voices were proportionally as bad. I mean, just listen to the intro, where a guy is
reading the Rangers pact (or whatever it is). He sound so fuzzy youd think he
was on a second generation N64 game. The game is filled with barbaric sounding grunts. It
is stupid, but pretty funny.
Frankly,
this game just shouldnt exist. Its just a jumbled mess. If this game is all
about stealth, then why can you shoot a guy down and the guy right next to him
doesnt notice? Ok then, its not about stealth. Its an action game. Then
how come you die so easily? Ok, its not either of those. Its emulating real
life terrorist situations. Then why are there only two men sent in for a mission?
All in all, just avoid this game. Maybe if the sales are low enough, thisll be
the last Spec Ops title we see.