Overall, 24: The Game doesn't feel like a complete experience. The run-and-shoot and driving
sections are like playing a load of individual mini-games linked by a tenuous storyline, even though
the show's own storyline can go a bit off-track at times. And then comes the actual mini-games themselves,
to break up the meat of the story. These include forcing a kidnapped baddie to tell you the truth,
interrogating him by pressing certain buttons at the right time (not quite the
Parappa the Rapper
that makes it sound like) or doing something or finding the right path between certain boxes in a
control panel to disable a bomb.
You don't want to press the wrong button at the wrong moment so if you're in need of a medkit then
can't afford a mistake when coming under heavy fire. Such a shame, then, that it's too much of a faff
to use your PDA (inventory) with the D-pad, since it doubles up for the weapon select as well, and
the PDA should've been made available from the Pause menu so you also get time to think while trying
to regain your health.
Jack Bauer isn't your only controllable CTU agent - you can also play as others including Chase Edmunds,
who we only saw onscreen in Season 3, but the gameplay and objectives give exactly the same experience.
In fact, it may as well be Jack throughout for all the difference it makes.
24: The Game reminds me of the problematic parts of
kill.switch
and
Enter The Matrix
in its implemenation, which is a great shame. If you really want to behave like a film/TV character
full of bravado, play
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
At the end of this review, if you still want to have a go then I'd advise a rental first, but I'd assume
the only inclination for you will be its subject matter. Had it been another character in another setting
in another game, you wouldn't have gone near it with a bargepole. Now paint Jack Bauer over that character,
paint CTU and the outside locations as the setting and stick on the high-profile name and... there's the
attraction.
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