Play It:
For the Arcade and Playstation.
Story:
The daughter of the president of Sercia has been kidnapped. The ransom
demands military secrets in exchange for her safe return. The manual
doesn't seem to agree with this, stating that he want reinstatement
as Ruler For Life. Whatever. The kidnapper is Sherudo, the recently
overthrown dictator. Obviously, with his military secrets, he could
terrorize the country, so he might as well rule it! Agent Richard Miller
has been dispatched to save Rachel.
Pretty generic. Like you care anyway. The PSX exclusive Hotel Of Death
scenario has no real plot. You are sent to uncover the plan of the organization
Kantaris. Funny, I don't recall there being any 'plans'. I just remember
blowing the place up. The plot just serves as a reason to enter the
hotel and start shooting people, although you really don't need a reason
to shoot people in real life. Right guys?
Graphics:
From 1995 or 6. Outdated.
Sound:
Music: Nicely orchestrated soundtrack. Unfortunately, the music is a
bit repetitive, as many of them share good-sized identical bits. The
sounds are standard fare. However, they deserve props for making your
gun sound different when fired in or out doors. OK, so there are only
3 different ones, but hey they tried. Voice acting is all right. Bad
guys have a small vocabulary of words, including "shucks."
WTF? I don't know why anyone would yell "shucks!" in the middle
of a FIREFIGHT here.
Difficulty:
Pretty easy. The Playstation port is harder due to the go-back-to-the-start-of-the-area-after-continuing
rule, but still easy. It DOES require skill to advance though.
Enjoyment:
Fun game. The pedal system really adds a new dimension to the shoot
em' up genre. Although the home version does not feature an actual pedal,
a controller can be used and is a sufficient replacement. Please note
that Namco does NOT recommend this, but you should be fine. Just press
the buttons; don't stand on it. If you actually manage to break a controller,
you are a complete dumbass. If you can't do this for some reason, you'll
need to use the buttons on the gun, which is a rather retarded method
and pretty awkward.
Replay Value:
None in the arcade game. The Hotel of Death Scenario has areas with
the "Branch Reflected Actions" system, whatever the hell that
is. Thus, it has different routes through the scenario, and multiple
endings (6, to be exact.)
Rant Session:
Well, this game is good, but there are some problems with it. Well,
it is a shooter game, plain and simple, so it has everything you would
expect, including the Announcer man. You know, the guy in gun games
who shouts "RELOAD!" Here, he also says "Action!"
or "Danger!" Sure, it may be good for the completely clueless,
but its not very easy sneaking around a base with someone following
me around shouting "ACTION!" all the time.
Also, what is up with these 6 bullet clips? I have a handgun, not a
revolver! Handguns with 7 bullets existed in the 80's, so why
don't I get some up-to-date shit? And why are the bad guys color-coded
by accuracy? Apparently, you can become a Red Soldier once you can hit
something with 50% accuracy.
Also, throughout the game Richard never talks. Although I can relate,
in real life you have to say something every so often or else you come
off as a douche. Alright, so most (if not all) shooters prior to this
didn't have their protagonists talk either. But that was because the
protagonist was YOU. You never heard yourself, or even saw yourself,
so you could just pretend that you were the hero.
One final gripe I have is with the Guncon. Sure, it was the best lightgun
on the market (surpassed by the Guncon2, of course), but it has some
compatibility issues. It won't work on my perfectly normal (i.e. not
widescreen, projection, or any of that shit.) TV which was about brand
new when the home port was released unless I mess around with the brightness
or contrast a bit. The lower, the more you can shoot on the screen,
apparently! I'd be playing, then someone would appear who I couldn't
shoot, and I would have to turn the damn brightness down to hit him.
Sometimes, all I can see on the screen are the guys, and I can't really
tell what color they are. I don't have this problem using the gun on
other games (like Project Titan), so I don't know what the game's problem
is. Strange, making a gun that works well on any game except the game
it was specifically designed for.
Bottom Line:
A great start to what is widely considered the best shooter series ever.
However, the Playstation port has some serious gun issues which may
prevent you from enjoying it.