Namco's Time Crisis series has always been the video game equivalent of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie: big, dumb, fun to watch, packed with lovely explosions and full of strangely bloodless mass killings. Crisis Zone, then, is more like the work of Michael Bay: it amplifies everything to an even more impressive level of big, dumb violence, but at the end of the day it's somehow less satisfying. The difference, of course, is that Crisis Zone is a light-gun game based entirely around sub-machine guns. While the regular Crisis games have offered SMGs in limited capacities (as a brief power-up in Time Crisis 2 and an alternate weapon with limited ammo in Time Crisis 3), their gameplay has primarily revolved around handguns. The limited clip size and slower rate of fire of a pistol combined with the series' trademark ability to duck out of the way of incoming fire have made for games which require finesse, a good eye, and sharp reflexes. Crisis Zone, on the other hand, ditches anything like technique and moderation and allows players to revel in pure manic destruction. It's great fun thanks to the detailed, interactive environments -- shoot something and chances are good it's going to explode -- but ultimately, it's a less substantial game than its comparatively subtle siblings. Crisis Zone puts gamers behind the riot shield of an anti-terrorist task force leader with a submachine gun in one hand and an unlimited stash of ammunition... somewhere. Bad guys pop out and fire at you, or knife you, or toss grenades at you, or occasionally send out attack copters and heavy-duty tanks to bomb you into submission. Fortunately, they're all pretty bad shots, so you only need to be concerned when you see a red warning indicator and hear the chimes which mean a bullet with your name on it is on its way. Ducking quickly behind your shield not only reloads your 40-clip magazine, it also makes you invulnerable to enemy attack. Bullets, knives, grenades, debris, even a full payload of bombs dropped from directly overhead are useless against your mighty riot shield. So you shoot, duck, pop out and shoot some more, all the way to the end of the game. Simple, but mindlessly entertaining. Namco has done its usual spectacular job with Crisis Zone's PS2 port, of course. In addition to the standard arcade mode, players may also choose from dozens of special challenge rounds which range from tough to insanely difficult. There's a copious serving of unlockables on hand as well; each successive playthrough opens up more health and credits. Successfully completing the story mode reveals a second mission, which is admittedly a bit less polished than the original four levels and a far cry from TC3's amazing alternate story mode. But it still gives you twice as many things to shoot up, which is nothing to sneeze at. Alternate weapon challenges can be unlocked as well, and so on and so forth. Given that Crisis Zone's story mode can easily be completed in 15 minutes, these extras add a vital dose of much-needed content. You can tackle the story mode's first three missions (of four) in any order you choose. Every environment has been designed to provide maximum destructive satisfaction: an office complex, a shopping mall, a plaza full of stalls and phone booths. Each section can be cleared in a matter of minutes, although you can certainly pad your play time by cranking up the difficulty -- unlike many games, the difference between each difficulty level is considerable. Very Easy is indeed very easy while Very Hard will humble you in seconds. Everything about Crisis Zone is endearingly ridiculous in its sheer excess -- the game's biggest selling point. Practically everything in sight can be destroyed in an impressive display of pyrotechnics -- papers fly, fruit explodes, fine art splinters, architecture is torn to shreds, computers spark and sputter. Oh, and should you decide to shoot the bad guys, they stumble and collapse appropriately as well. Some of the enemies can soak up an awful lot of damage considering your machine gun can down a helicopter with a single clip of ammo, but in a game where you can shoot grenades and missiles out of the air realism obviously takes a back seat to entertainment. There's no lack of options on hand, and definitely no lack of things to destroy. Even so, Crisis Zone seems a pale shadow of Time Crisis 2 & 3. There's little need for precision when you can simply spray the room with gun fire and hope you get a few hits in; while the explosive carnage that results from blasting everything in sight is undeniably gratifying, the action doesn't require much thought. It's especially obvious in the newly-created alternate story mode, which culminates in a shootout on the open sea with nothing to destroy but the bad guy. Without the lovely pandemonium of devastated environments to distract your eyes, the shallow nature of Crisis Zone really stands out. It's also quite a bit easier than Namco's other light gun titles, and even the warning indicator of an incoming hit seems to be a little more generous in giving you time to duck than in the other Crisis titles. The deadliest enemy in the game is the property damage you can inflict on the detailed environments -- it's all too easy to get so caught up shooting out windows and TVs that you forget to pay attention to more vital matters, like ducking out of the way of incoming fire. There's no question that Crisis fans will want a copy of Crisis Zone for their collections, if only to give their dusty GunCons a little workout. But it's ultimately a shallow diversion from the more substantial offerings of its predecessors.
The good:world is interactive and destructable.decent music and graphics. fun for aliitle bit. The bad:too forgiving and simple. story last only an hour. lacks any multiplayer,content, and challenge.barely any replay ... Read Full Review
Time crisis has always been one of my favorite arcade shooters. However once i got crisis zone and poped it into my ps2, i knew it was going to be very different. The biggest change is the automatic you use against your ... Read Full Review
