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Dom Robinson reviews
Sony
As the game is titled, “Chase the Express”
, I thought at first this was to bea belated sequel to the ZX Spectrum classic, “Stop the Express”, which pitted you as a shrunken Pillsbury doughboy’ character running and jumping across the roof of a train until reaching the frontand putting a stop to the speedy shenanigans. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You are Lieutenant Jack Morton, the sole survivor of a NATO operation that went pear-shaped. Nowit’s time to make amends and you’ll do this in a game that combines elements of third-personshooters and the ever-popular Resident Evil series.
A group of terrorist nutters named the Knights of the Apocalypse have kidnapped the FrenchAmbassador and his consorts. They want $20 million and safe passage to France to blow up Paris andtop this respected government official. This is important because everyone knows the Ambassador’sreceptions are noted in society for those delizious chocolate balls handed out by his butler.
Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn plays out in third-person perspective, similar to Tomb Raider at first asyou make your way across the top of a hijacked train, avoiding the bad guys’ bullets before gainingaccess to the carriages. From there the fixed camera points ape those the aforementioned gory monsterhit as the one nearest to you shows what you’re up to. However, like Big Brother, they follow youabout, although there have been times when I was ambushed and couldn’t see the enemy because theywere off-camera. It’s difficult enough to get the hang of moving about sometimes without such extrahindrances.
Perseverance is the key though and patience definitely is rewarded. The animation of your characterand those around is fluid and smooth with detailed graphics. Enemy A.I. is acceptable but they’re notreally required to have a brain here, unlike a game such asThief 2.Upon entering a carriage, you’reshown where any enemies are residing and if you want to take them on, that’s up to you, but if youget too close they will find you. One carriage early on had a hidey-hole enabling me to hold off firinguntil they came past and a clear head-shot eliminated the problem.
You can hold up to eight items at once, with a menu/storage system that’s lifted straight out of theResident Evil series, making that one part of the game that’s easy to understand. The puzzles aren’ttoo taxing though as many are a case of picking up items from one area and using it in another.
Overall, this feels at times like Soldier of Fortune Lite for Playstation owners.That game had a train-based level but the emphasis was more on killing than problem-solving. However you still get anumber of occasions in which to open fire and a small amount of thought should see you through thepuzzles (hint: search all dead bodies lying around for goodies).
PC owners will definitely feel short-changed, even if this one stills finds it compelling. Firstperson-shooters are advancing all the time and few games, Covert Ops excluded, can match the sheeratmosphere and terror brought about by the nemeses inThief 2.There I had to change my pantshourly, whereas here I don’t even break into a sweat.
Overall: 4/5
This review was on Freeloader.com before it closed.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.