Mike Bantick
Thursday, 19 February 2009 11:41
Entertainment
Page 2 of 3
The
Call of Duty game-play crossed with the AI style of
F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin and destroyable terrain (even more so than
Battlefield: Bad Company ) means that all of your console FPS skills will be required to survive.
Luckily you will have some buddies – okay not directly controllable buddies, but still, buddies – to help you along for the most part. And generally Rico and co can hold their own in a fire-fight, in fact, as in Gears of War, downed allies can usually be revived with a quick push-button shock treatment. Too bad, unlike Gears of War, your buds cannot reciprocate the crash-cart treatment when you hit the ground.
The artificial intelligence will play according to their abilities, heavies will blast away standing in the open – until you shoot them in the head and then subsequently in their backpack tanks when they momentarily cower. Scouts will blast away and then draw a knife in an attempt to slice and dice at close quarters and the rest will take cover, toss grenades and take over from fallen comrades at gun emplacements.
Add to this the somewhat destructible cover and unrelenting fire-power the game contains its fair share of strategy and action. Scripted defensive sequences, and a small amount of vehicle moments, mix up the run and gun portions.
In particular the short vehicle sections are a mixed bag; great that it is limited when it comes to the tank section, not so when in the EXO, like the sections in F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, these mech sections are a bunch of fun. Hopefully stomping first-person mech action is a trend in game development that might see the return of a new MechWarrior game.
The use of the PS3's motion controls to open valves and set explosives feels forced, but it is not overused and actually adds a level of tension outside of the normal exchange of lead.
CONTINUED on PAGE 3
