Play It:
For the Arcade and PS2.
Story:
What story? Oh, that's right, but not here. The terrorist group URDA
has seized control of Garland Square, a huge mall complex on the outskirts
of London (hey, a real place!) It has everything: the mall itself; a
hotel; a park; and an office building. The STF has been deployed to
combat this menace. Led by Claude McGarren (guess who you are?), they
are to secure the area and eliminate the leader if seen.
Yep, wafer thin, but they do throw something at you which I won't mention
here. The PS2 version features a new story mode which goes like this:
After Lynch's death, (what, spoilers!?! OH, I COULDN'T POSSIBLY IMAGINE
THAT THE BIG BAD GUY WOULD BE KILLED AT THE END!) another guy steps
up to take his place. He kidnaps the commander's daughter, knowing full
well that the STF will retaliate. Well, let them come; he's got a surprise
waiting for them. Its payback time...
You may have noticed that this game seems to be different than other
TC games. That's cause it is. This game does NOT involve Richard Miller,
Wild Dog, or even the VSSE. In fact, it didn't even have Time Crisis
in the title until the home port came out. Now it has a dumb ring to
it. Time Crisis: Crisis Zone. Titles with reoccurring words just sound
stupid. Not as bad as say, Cube 2: Hypercube, but bad enough. That being
said, it's not uncommon nowadays for sequels to be much different, but
this game is the only standout in this series.
Graphics:
Dating back to early 2000, they still look pretty good as of 2003. The
PS2 version has improved the graphics and redone just about all the
textures. Some quibbles about the new look aside, they look good. This
game also has realistic muzzle flashes! The screen turns whitish when
you're holding down the trigger (yep, no flashes; just a constant shade
of white) just like in real life! In all seriousness, I find this to
be fucking annoying. It actually makes seeing things (namely components
on a piece of heavy artillery) kinda hard.
Sound:
Music? I don't know about the arcade because I can't even remember any.
Now that I have the PS2 version, I can hear it. I don't really know.
Its well orchestrated, but it doesn't stick in your head like the earlier
games (TC3's was pretty forgetful too.) The sounds are well done, as
usual. However, the PS2 version conversion is a little sloppy. The sound
of projectiles are gone, and explosions are completely lacking. No,
there's plenty of explosions; you just don't hear anything. Voice acting
(what little there is) is nothing special in the arcade version, and
worse on the PS2 version (in my opinion.) What's up with that? Claude
sounds just like the announcer, both in voice and in tone (that means
flat.)
Difficulty:
Easy! Possibly even easier than TC2! And it's not because of the machine
gun. It is simply easy. The PS2 version steps it up with additional
enemies and also makes some bosses impossible to hurt until a certain
time. Still, I beat Very Hard on my second try. The PS2 exclusive scenario
is MUCH harder. Despite my awesome abilities, I was running out of time
damn near every scene (and if I didn't, it was because I got hit) my
first few times. Crisis Missions are very hard (probably an understatement.)
Enjoyment:
Oh, YEAH. This is probably the most fun TC game to play. The environments
are almost completely destructible. Glass shatters, magazines get blown
off the shelves, walls crumble, chairs swing around, and bullet holes
appear everywhere. If you thought the TC games needed more destruction,
this game is for you. However, this game is more like the first, and
is only one player. However, the PS2 mode features a double gun mode,
which must be unlocked. One thing I must point out is that the single-shot
weapons (arcade guys ignore this) are not very well implemented into
the game. At least a third of my shots don't even register on the screen
unless I'm ridiculously close. This makes their Crisis Missions freakin'
impossible.
Replay Value:
None for the arcade version. The PS2 port boasts Crisis Mission, another
scenario, and a Special Story mode with alternate paths will secret
weapons. Sadly, these alternate paths are few and can all be seen in
a single game.
Rant Session (minor spoilers):
So, anyone see them magazine ads? You know, the ones that say "It
takes a real trigger to make a real shooter". Hey, just like that
other saying "Its gotta be da SHOES!" Except Namco wasn't
satisfied. Naw, it ain't the gun; it's deeper than that! It's the MOTHERFUCKING
TRIGGER! It takes a REAL STEERING WHEEL to make a real racer! Who the
hell thought that slogan up?
Then it flaunts its status of "the only game with an unlockable
option of firing two Guncon2 guns at once." Who cares that you
could always use two guns at once in Virtua Cop, Lethal Enforcers, or
almost any 2-player shooter AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO UNLOCK THE ABILITY
TO DO SO. And thanks for pointing out that the Guncon2's are in fact
lightgun peripherals. I thought they were talking about the Guncon2
dance pads or something.
Remember what I said about the plot? Well, turns out that there
is more. Their real plans are to access a secret underground atomic
reactor and blow it up, destroying London as well. Well, its nice to
see Namco actually try having some plot progression, and this is actually
halfway cool. However, that also means it is also halfway totally fucking
stupid. C'mon, an atomic reactor? Underneath a mall? Yeah right.
Also, what kind of name is Croad Macgalain? Apparently a wrong name.
His name has been changed to Claude McGarren for the re-release, but
I hear that his name was merely mistranslated earlier. Makes sense,
except how you accidentally get Croad from Claude and Macgalain from
McGarren is beyond me. Didn't anyone notice what an incredibly stupid
name it was?
The game spans several levels featuring rather interesting choices of
names.
Drycreek Plaza: DRY CREEK? Do those words even go together? Even if
they do, what is that supposed to mean? A creek with no water doesn't
really provide a very good example of a business. Drycreek Plaza...
A good place to shop until everything around it dies. Hey, they might
actually be on to something.
Garland Technology Centre: Come on, its not even SPELLED RIGHT. I KNOW
the British have a different way of spelling things; random U's and
greys are fine, but shoppe? Centre? That's just fucking stupid. The
R sound clearly comes after the E sound.
Grassmarket Street: Located in Grassmarket District. Not very creative,
eh? Granted, it sounds like more the place I get my stash.
Belforte Hotel: Well, I don't really have anything here, although I
suspect Namco tried to pull a wordplay here. FORTE?
Crimson Beach: This title begs the question: "WHAT BEACH?"
There's no beach (or land) anywhere in this level! Hell, you didn't
even COME from a beach; you started the chase off a rocky cliff. Even
stranger was the fact that it was called Crimson Sea instead, but it
was renamed in the North American (maybe others too) release. Much more
fitting, so why did they change it?
Also, I got nothing against it, but I used to keep whacking the screen
with the gun by accident. Never actually damaged it, of course. I'm
used to pointing the gun off the screen to reload, and in TC games I
still point my gun away from the screen whenever I hide out of habit.
Of course, the machine gun is a bit longer than the handguns, so...
hehehe.
Bottom Line:
Basically Time Crisis with a machine gun. In other words, pretty sweet.
Home port slightly disappoints, but I don't regret picking mine up one
bit.