Capcom haven't truly made a terrible game, that is until this one surfaced! DON'T PLAY!
The series takes a new turn. Axl, a former member of Red Alert, who left after realising what his organisation was now doing, is captured by Zero and taken to the Maverick Hunter HQ. Red Alert then issues them a challenge to see who the official organisation for taking care of Mavericks is. I have to say, I prefered the old plot. It was a lot more dark, and had a sense of dilema about it. This just seems like a way of introducing a character throughout.
Graphically, its sub-standard. Surprisingly, we knew that already, but we didn't expect the characters to look that ugly. The enemies however and landscapes are nicely animated. The layout of the whole thing looks a little cluttered. Its almost as if its trying to make it look futuristic and never quite achieving it. The look is certainly 3D throughout, so the promise of 3D was achieved.
As to the actual gameplay, its seriously flawed. You control two characters at a time, each with their own abilities and health bars. X veterans will be sad to know that due to X's passive position, he is not playable at first, in fact, not for a while. Zero veterans will feel at home, especially with his new double jump. Axl has a few interesting abilities, including hover, and copy. The latter involves him assuming roles of certain enemies. Only humanoid enemies are copied however. The game itself is 2D/3D multi dimension. Parts of a level will be 2D and resemble the original style. The 3D segments which dominate the game, are a little weird. Weird as in unforgiving. The 2D segments work about as well as the older X games did. However, it shifts into 3D quite a lot, which is a royal pain, since pits are hard to avoid. This is what aggrivated me the most about the game, that the 3D elements just weren't good enough.
Sound is perhaps the most annoying, but also the best feature the game has to offer. Dialogue while the translation is poor enough, is just abismal. Zero sounds good, but everyone else sounds like just about every other imported Japanese anime dubbed voiceover you've heard. Axl has the worst voiceover ever! The sounds are crisp and clean, and the music is generally fitting. However, there are parts and tunes that will annoy you.
Its a shame they didn't think things through. It had potential, but it cut too many corners, and just didn't catch the spark. If you are a die hard fan of the series, you'll unfortunately have to play it. It seriously is that bad. Almost put me off the series entirely!