Time Crisis 2
System:
Playstation 2
Publisher & Developer: Namco
Released: October 3, 2001
Genre: Light Gun Shooter
Capabilities: Memory Card, I-Link Compatible, Guncom 1 & 2
Compatible (Guncom 2 Included with game)
Review Date: October 7, 2001
The Game
This is the first light gun game for PS2. It is from Namco, the same people who brought us several gun games for PSX with the awesom Guncom. Now this game comes packaged with the Guncom 2. The latest state-of-the-art light gun from Namco. Will this PS2 gun game live up to the greatness of the ones on the PSX? Let’s get onto the review and find out.
The Story
Standard gun game story here. Which is Terrorists are trying to take over the world with evil names like Wild Dog, and you and your partner are part of a secret organization trying to rescue a comrade the terrorists have taken hostage. For gun games, the story really doesn’t matter any way because once you beat it, most people usually skip the story cut scenes.
Graphics
Once you hop right into the game you’ll be surprised at how great these visuals are. Now they’re nothing life like at all, but they just look plain out awesome. They character models got a cartoon-ish type feel to them with the bright colors and lack of costume design, but the plethora of detail on the faces give them that lifelike feel. The scenery is a lot like the way I described the characters. I love how it interacts with game play also. Like how barrels come rolling at you and how you have to duck out of the way of falling trees. The game moves at a very fluid pace, and I mean fast, like faster than other shooters like Confidential Mission and House of the Dead 2. You will be surprised at how fast all the action goes. It’s like one second you’re just walking, and the next, five enemies are out at you. I just love how the games menus are designed. In the background you got various scenes of the game blurred, like they came right out of a movie.
Sound
You got a very basic, simple action tune in the background for most of the game. And by the way game flows, it fits the action right on the notch. The sound effects is pretty much the standard kind of stuff you expect from these games. The gun shots, death groans, and explosions all sound the way they should. I have to say I have finally played a gun game that has decent voice acting. Everybody in here sounds like they should and actually sound convincing, like the good guys actually make you feel you want to destroy the evil villains and so on.
Game play
You just have to give kudos to Namco for including the Guncom 2 with the game. It makes playing the game much easier. Now this kind of gun game is just a tad different from others. You have to hold a button throughout game play so you can shoot with your trigger at the foes, but you let go of the button to get cover and reload your gun. Also you got to watch your time limit. In each little area you have a certain time limit to clear the area of the bad guys or you lose a life. Most the time you beat it, but you got to watch your reload times.
The game has the standard arcade story mode of play plus a few extras. The main story mode is fun to play, but unfortunately, it only takes an average 20-25 minutes to beat it. And after you beat the game you unlock free play, which means each run will be even shorter. Thank gosh that Namco gave us several extra modes. First we have four levels of agent training where you shoot at targets and try to get as high of a score as you can. The other is four mini games, one is called Shoot Away where you shoot at balls being tossed in the air. Others need to be unlocked by beating the game. The last extra mode is the Crisis Missions where you play certain areas of specialty levels with special objectives like killing all the villains without using all of your ammo, and not being hit once.
Replay Value
Usually the Time Crisis games are just one player. But Namco wised up and decided to give us a two player mode. One is in the form of split screen two player where each player takes separate paths through stages. The action can get really small on screens that only take up 1/4 of the tv. Unfortunately it is in the form of the I-Link where you need two PS2's, two televisions, two copies of the game and the gun. But there is a trick to having two players without the I-Link, and having the full size screen, and that is by playing the double gun mode and instead of using both guns by yourself(which is still pretty fun to do) and give one to your buddy. The 2-player mode along with all the extra modes Namco packed along with the game makes up for the short story mode.
In Brief
+: Fast paced action, good voice acting, Lots of extra modes
-: Main story mode only takes 20 minutes to complete, Split Screen 2-Player gets really tiny and hard on the eyes
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 8.0
Game play: 8.7
Replay Value: 9.1
Overall: 8.5
Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 9
Comments
I have to admit, this is one of the best damn gun games I have played in a long time. Most PS2 games are usually $50. TC2 with a gun only costs $55, and extra guns are about $10 each. So this isn’t one bad deal at all. Sure, the story mode takes very little time to beat, but Namco packed along enough extras to make this game worthy of a purchase.