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Dom Robinson reviews
Sony
- Price: £39.99
- Players: 1-2
Arcade perfect is the words you want to hear when Time Crisis 2,the 1998 arcade sequel, is mentioned for the PS2 and it’s fully justified, given the strength of theconsoles available at the moment and what can be done when they’re programmedproperly.
Do you need to be told what this is about? If so, there is a plot such that itis but these type of games, which have included Virtua Cop andConfidential Missionare just first-person shooters which involve you pointing a lightgun at thescreen, shooting the bad guys and hoping to last through each round as long aspossible.
Where TC2 differs from other shooters is in the ducking option. You’ll startoff each section hiding from the enemy, but pressing the red button on theside of the gun (I’ve been playing with the original G-con lightgun but thesehave since been superceded for reasons that will become clear soon) will bringyou out into the open ready to blast your foe before retiring to reload.
As stated above, there’s no detriment to this appearing in the home than whatyou saw in the arcade and if you’re playing on a 32″ widescreen set, or larger,you’ll experience the full fun of the arcade. It certainly can’t be played ona tiny portable as the screen wouldn’t be big enough to recognise the gun toany worthwhile degree.
Sonically, it’s all “bang bang bang” in stereo so that gets a bit repetitiveas does the overblown Hans Zimmer-esque movie theme music in thebackground. Dolby Surround, or even Dolby Digital 5.1, would have added somedepth, but what’s here will do fine. It just won’t make you sit up in surprise.
It’s very easy to pick up and play and those with the new breed of gun or, tomake a point, two guns will be able to blast away John Woo-style for thesingular gamer, whereas two-player options will allow an iLink hook-up to playwith two consoles over two TV screens, or both opponents having their smallscreens together on the same TV side by side.
As for the extras, you’ll get three mini-games to play first off with afourth available once you’ve completed the entire Time Crisis 2 storymode. Agent Trainer places you in a shooting range first close-up andthen from a distance, Quick & Crash is a shooting gallery which endswith blasting at a cup and Shoot Away 2 is the early 90s sequel to the80s original from the days when clay pigeon shooting as a computer game was allthe rage.
Undoubtedly fans of the arcade game should get this, but longevity must beconsidered, especially given the recent innovation in the arcade that isPolice 24-7 – like TC2 but with a motion-sensor unit in front of thescreen in which you stand and people nearby laugh at you as you ACTUALLYduck down so as to avoid the bullets onscreen, then stand up, twist aboutand reach around to pop a cap in the ass of the baddies. Now *that’s*what I’d like to see on here.
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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.