My girlfriend picked up this guy for me last night. I had pretty low expectations for the game since I heard pretty much nothing but bad things about it, but being such a huge fan of the show, I figured I had to give it a shot. If anything, I thought it would be worth it for the story.
So far, it's pretty bad. I only had a chance to play for about an hour last night, but I'm already pretty unimpressed with it. My first issue is that the camera is absolutely HORRENDOUS. You know how in games like Eternal Darkness and God of War the camera isn't dynamic, but it tracks really well most of the time? You almost always have a perfect view of the field? Well picture the exact opposite. The camera makes it fucking impossible to see what you're shooting at about 80 percent of the time. You can adjust it manually with the right analog stick, but it's very slow to track, and at least for me, kind of disorienting.
The gun combat is decent enough. There seems to be a pretty large selection of weapons to pick up and go through, and Jack (or Chase... if you play as him) takes ammo and guns off of dead soldiers throughout the levels. You aim by using "L Targeting". If you hold the L1 button a target reticule surrounds the closest enemy, and then you can "flick" the right analog stick to select different targets. If you gently nudge the right analog, you can precision aim in the reticule to get head shots and such. The hilariously useless part of the game so far seems to be the R2 "scare" button. If you hit R2 Jack screams out "CTU PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" or something along those lines and the enemies in the room may or may not put up their hands and surrender. At that point you can choose to handcuff 'em or just put a bullet in their head. You're ranked on the levels though, and usually you'll want to arrest a certain number of baddies instead of capping them in order to get high level grades.
So in regards to the onfoot shooting aspect, Jack is completely invincible. You have the ability to use cover in the game by pressing the X button near a crate or behind a wall, and Jack will find cover behind the object and then pop out to take shots, but it's really not necessary. You can easily just run out in the open and shoot everything in sight without really taking any damage. If you do happen to get hit, you can fill up on one of the dozens of health packs that seem to be littered everywhere. A challenge this game is not.
Other than the on-foot shooting levels I've played, I also played a driving level where I'm supposed to tail a suspect. The car controls like a boat on the roads, but it works for what it's trying to do. The driving wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't great either. Another decent.
Then you've got minigames where you have to disable a bomb by choosing different wire routes through a microchip, and honestly, they're an interesting little diversion. Kind of a fun change of pace for a minute or two. You also have the interrogation mini-game where you have to keep a suspect's stress level in line by pressing either X, Square, or Triangle depending on his heart rate. It's a little weird, and the conversation doesn't seem to flow normally, but it's another semi-interesting diversion.
The only things I have been really impressed with so far are the graphics and the sound. The cut scenes in this game are really well done, and all of the actors seem to be voicing their own parts. The only one I've noticed that is different seems to be Chloe. The game sounds great with a lot of the trademark 24 orchestrated music, and the graphics are pretty damn good for the PS2. The game displays in widescreen and progressive scan, so it's great for those with HDTVs. The game also makes use of the 24 multiple camera shot screens pretty extensively, but those can be PRETTY annoying at points since you're actually trying to play the game by looking at two different angles at one time.
So far it's a pretty bad game. Without the 24 license attached, nobody here would give this shit a second look, but with the 24 license attached it becomes bearable. The graphics and sound are great, the acting is good, and the cut scenes are pretty well done. If you're a huge fan of 24, I'd give it a shot just to get the story, but if you're not a huge fan, you'll probably want to avoid it.
So far, it's pretty bad. I only had a chance to play for about an hour last night, but I'm already pretty unimpressed with it. My first issue is that the camera is absolutely HORRENDOUS. You know how in games like Eternal Darkness and God of War the camera isn't dynamic, but it tracks really well most of the time? You almost always have a perfect view of the field? Well picture the exact opposite. The camera makes it fucking impossible to see what you're shooting at about 80 percent of the time. You can adjust it manually with the right analog stick, but it's very slow to track, and at least for me, kind of disorienting.
The gun combat is decent enough. There seems to be a pretty large selection of weapons to pick up and go through, and Jack (or Chase... if you play as him) takes ammo and guns off of dead soldiers throughout the levels. You aim by using "L Targeting". If you hold the L1 button a target reticule surrounds the closest enemy, and then you can "flick" the right analog stick to select different targets. If you gently nudge the right analog, you can precision aim in the reticule to get head shots and such. The hilariously useless part of the game so far seems to be the R2 "scare" button. If you hit R2 Jack screams out "CTU PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" or something along those lines and the enemies in the room may or may not put up their hands and surrender. At that point you can choose to handcuff 'em or just put a bullet in their head. You're ranked on the levels though, and usually you'll want to arrest a certain number of baddies instead of capping them in order to get high level grades.
So in regards to the onfoot shooting aspect, Jack is completely invincible. You have the ability to use cover in the game by pressing the X button near a crate or behind a wall, and Jack will find cover behind the object and then pop out to take shots, but it's really not necessary. You can easily just run out in the open and shoot everything in sight without really taking any damage. If you do happen to get hit, you can fill up on one of the dozens of health packs that seem to be littered everywhere. A challenge this game is not.
Other than the on-foot shooting levels I've played, I also played a driving level where I'm supposed to tail a suspect. The car controls like a boat on the roads, but it works for what it's trying to do. The driving wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't great either. Another decent.
Then you've got minigames where you have to disable a bomb by choosing different wire routes through a microchip, and honestly, they're an interesting little diversion. Kind of a fun change of pace for a minute or two. You also have the interrogation mini-game where you have to keep a suspect's stress level in line by pressing either X, Square, or Triangle depending on his heart rate. It's a little weird, and the conversation doesn't seem to flow normally, but it's another semi-interesting diversion.
The only things I have been really impressed with so far are the graphics and the sound. The cut scenes in this game are really well done, and all of the actors seem to be voicing their own parts. The only one I've noticed that is different seems to be Chloe. The game sounds great with a lot of the trademark 24 orchestrated music, and the graphics are pretty damn good for the PS2. The game displays in widescreen and progressive scan, so it's great for those with HDTVs. The game also makes use of the 24 multiple camera shot screens pretty extensively, but those can be PRETTY annoying at points since you're actually trying to play the game by looking at two different angles at one time.
So far it's a pretty bad game. Without the 24 license attached, nobody here would give this shit a second look, but with the 24 license attached it becomes bearable. The graphics and sound are great, the acting is good, and the cut scenes are pretty well done. If you're a huge fan of 24, I'd give it a shot just to get the story, but if you're not a huge fan, you'll probably want to avoid it.
