In
the last year alone I have complained ad nauseam about the lack of love
given to the fighting engines on action/adventure and fighting games. I
even started getting sick of hearing myself say it (and thats saying a
lot, as I love to hear myself talk). After almost despairing, I finally
pop in a game where the fighting is wonderful. I have tons of different
combos to chose from and more to unlockall carried out in a smooth and
intuitive style thats a joy to witness and kick ass with. There is only
one problem. The game surrounding the fighting can be summed up in one
wordlame.
James
Camerons Dark Angel has a great plot, taken straight from the
television series and augmented for the game to keep it new. The heroine
of our story is Max, a genetically enhanced soldier who was created to
be a weapon of destruction, but escaped from that life as a child and
now, as an adult, attempts to reconnect with other children from the
project while simultaneously trying to take down the evil -I- Corp. The
backdrop of this story is the streets of post-apocalyptic Seattle, and
Maxs friend, cyber-journalist and dissident Logan Cale, helps to
navigate her through her numerous struggles to defeat the evil and
monolithic -I- Corp. Both Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherby have
returned to narrate their characters in the game to add authenticity.
Along
with a solid storyline, Dark Angel also has one of the coolest fighting
engines Ive seen in a while. It has tons of punch-kick combos along
with some great grappling moves thrown in. And with the "rage meter"
fully activated, more moves can be unlocked. The fighting is getting
much closer to a Tekken feel, which Ive been impatiently waiting for in
action/adventure games. Added to that are great wall attacks, aerial
side rolls, and flips that make playing Max just like starring in a John
Woo
er
James Cameron film. Max also has stealth moves where she can
sneak, roll, and hang from the ceiling (where she can also get an enemy
in a leg scissor lock to defeat them). During fights, Max can target
lock on an enemy, which is very handy to use when one of the characters
has a gun and you need to take them out first (if you dont use the
target lock to specify a target, Max has a tendency to want to fight
with those in front of her rather than pursuing a more necessary
target). She walks, she runs, she jumps, she rolls, she kicks butt
all
the while letting out quips that (shock of all shocks) are really cool
and dont get so annoying you want to throw the controller. So with all
of this, whats not to love about Dark Angel?
The
game surrounding all this coolness is extremely weak. It gives you
section objectives, provides you with a map, has the seemingly
omniscient help of Logan to call on, then also tells you what items to
use and where to use them with its icon system. Added to that, the game
has very specified/limited routes and almost no interactivity with the
environment. Sure, you can kick dumpsters (yippee!), but there are
objects which you should theoretically be able to jump up on, but the
game wont even let you do that! The section levels are very small and
contained and have a limited amount of creativity needed to get through.
The stealth function is all well and good, but when you kill an enemy he
disappears, so theres no body to be discovered. On top of that, the
environment is so simple that there isnt really a lot of cover.
Finally, youre told where you need to use your stealth, so theres no
personal volition as to whether or not the situation calls for it. For
the most part, it is already decided whether or not you will be
discovered immediately or if your goal is to sneak around to complete
your objective. Extremely limited, non-interactive environments with no
volition in gameplay is an insane premise at this stage in gaming. Had I
never seen Tomb Raider, Metal Gear, or Hitman, it might be ok, but I
know what is possible, and this falls so short of it (with the exception
of the fighting engine) as to make me think Im playing something off a
system that is several generations old. And thats one of the worst
insults I can think of applying to a game.
The
graphics are only average, which is puzzling considering that the
environments were so small that they really didnt have a large scope of
things to deal with. One would think, with such a limited environment,
that some fabulous detail would be a given. Shows what I get for
assuming, huh? The Xbox version is a bit clearer and more defined than
the PS2, but that is more of a system issue than design, per se. The
camera is solid and responsive, which is good for a fighting game, but
the environment doesnt really give you much that would challenge the
camera, so that isnt really a surprise. The 3rd person view
is pulled back enough to allow six or seven people to fight on screen
comfortably, but other than that, there isnt much to tell on the camera
issues.
So
as not to leave out some of the other pluses of the game, Ill mention a
few things that are indeed positive (in case there is a sequel in the
works). The inventory menu is easy to access (although it would be nice
to have a hot-slot for weapons and health). The sound effects are great
and the character acting is very well done. There are also some nice
extras on the disc. It contains interviews with cast members, James
Cameron and Charles H. Eglee, and snips of convention Q&A in Japan. It
also features seventy-four pages of the new Dark Angel novel, Before the
Dawn, as well as a photo gallery (mostly Jessica Alba pics).
In
summary, perhaps what makes me most irate is that this game has so much
potential. The storyline is great, the fighting is awesome, the music is
beautiful and encompasses a full range of mood and genre, and the
feeling that is created through the cut-ins, quips from Max, and the
slow-mo battle segments makes the game a huge tease when the rest of
what makes a game great is missing. I cant tell you the depths of my
despair when I realized that the gameplay wasnt going to get any
better, and that even though I had all these awesome skills as Max, the
game really wasnt going to require that I use them. I think that the
low star rating is inversely proportionate to the amount of wasted
potential I perceive this game to have. It really could have been one of
the best gaming experiences Ive had in a while. As it is, I leave it
hoping that if we see this title again, its next installment will
deliver on the promises that this game couldnt keep.