Forget what you previously heard about this game! Despite a few drawbacks, Mindjack was an awesome experience for me.
With that said...there are plenty of quality games that are guilty of some of the same things. So what makes Mindjack underrated but in addition a potentially fun and fulfilling experience? I'm glad you asked! Simply put...its core mechanic. It's what draws the line from making Mindjack just another generic third person shooter. In the case you weren't aware, the mentioned core mechanic is the ability to enter a weakened foe's body and resume gameplay as them! Mindjacking isn't just limited to weakened enemies, but also any innocent civilians that may be present during a gun fight (which there usually are plenty). When a player leaves their host's body, they enter what is known as Wanderer mode. A Wanderer looks like nothing more than a floating digitized cloud. The neat thing about when being in Wanderer form is that, you don't necessarily have to float around the screen to find another available host, you can simply tap R1 and the game with automatically scroll through each available target. None of this means that the prior host/central character is standing around doing nothing after you've left btw (well in the case of civilians it does). Upon entering Wanderer form, the game's A.I. takes over central character or friendly A.I. controlled partners/mind slaves. Civilians can be Mind hacked upon being found but enemies must first become a "Mind Slave" before they can be mind hacked. Once you shoot (or beat on) an enemy enough times, they'll fall down with a yellow marker over their heads which notifies their suceptibility to being mind slaved. After making the enemy a mind slave, you pretty much have two options...stay in your current host and allow you new ally to be A.I. controlled OR leave your current host and enter into your new ally's body. Multiple enemies can be mind slaved at once (4 is the max I think). Emenies rage from humans, robots, to primate/machine hyprids. There are so many enemy varities, that the gameplay is anything but repetitive if these mechanics are fully explored/exploited. However, some hosts are a bit more difficult to control than others (humans > primates > robots). Oh and apparently everyone in the future is packing heat because civilians are always armed with a gun of some kind when mind hacked. Mind slaves can only be created while in human hosts.
All throughout the game, the central character will have a story related A.I. controlled ally. These allies all have the innate ability to heal a KOed player and vice versa. For some unknown reason, healing is only limited to some human hosts. I want to say that all female hosts allow the ability to heal but I'm not sure so don't quote me on that, lol! Mindjack also offers a decent arsenal of guns (two can be carried at once) and abilities. Abilities come in the form of "Plug ins" which can do things ranging from providing the central character with more experience points from a battle in order to level up faster to raising their defense, allowing them to withstand more hits before becoming KOed. Plug-ins are rewarded to the player as they level up throughout the game. The fact that Mindjack has a level up system and has a exploration mode and battle mode (the screen flashes in transition and everything)...its genre questionably flirts with identifying itself as an action or western RPG.
Now, lets get to the really good part of this game...MULTIPLAYER. The Mindjack multiplayer experience is very similar to Demon Souls'. Depending on the type of game session selected at the title screen, other players can mindjack enemies/civilians to either being your ally or enemy OR you can enter into someone else's game session and do the same to them. A Host session is your basic single player campaign which will allow outside players to join your game unless otherwise configured in the session set up menu. A Hack session will allow you to search for other players' Host sessions to hack into...the criteria of which can be specified or you can enter this upon invitation. You can also choose which side to be on when entering another player's session...enemy (Red) or ally (Blue). Multiple players choosing to be blue wanderers (up to 3 or 4 in a single session) can change the game from being a single player experience to a potentially organized Co-op Multiplayer experience. In the same respects multiple players choosing to be red wanderers in a session already occupied by plenty of blue wanderers can turn the entire experience into one big team death match played through out the backdrop of the game's story. Unlike the Host, hacking red wanderers can instaneously mind hack enemies while blue ones either have to wait for enemies to be mind slaved or instaneously hack civilian, neutral robots, or hidden primates. As imagined this can sometimes be a disadvantage to the "good guys" because many times, "bad guys" out number them or can take more hits than civilians can and depending on the battle, don't have to wait as long to mind hack a host. In addition to the ability Plug-ins mentioned before, rule Plug-ins can also be gained when leveling up which allows the Host to manipulate hacking activity within their game. For example, some rule plug-ins will reshuffle which side (blue or red) that hackers will belong to after every level or give the Host the ability to limit the amount of hackers allowed on a given side.
I found the whole multiplayer aspect to be more fulfilling than Demon Souls' (YEAH I SAID IT!!!). It doesn't require any items, isn't limited to locations nor forms.
My Breakdown:
What's Good:
- EXCELLENT multiplayer
- Solid third person shooting
- Even difficulty
- Mind hacking and Mind slaving is fun
- ^This mixed with enemy variety mixes up the gameplay experience
- Wonderfully rendered enviornments especially when outside
What's Not-So-Good:
- Some character models could have been rendered a lot better
- Some of the voicing acting and conversation is a bit cliched
What's Bad:
- Interesting story but badly told. It eventually falls apart
- The main character has this cool mind hacking ability in battle but somehow in the story he's completely ignorant to what mind hacking even is? Sorry, doesn't work for me!
In all, Mindjack has its flaws as do many games but its ability to execute what it does right more than makes up for it...at least for me it did. I really hope Sqaure Enix doesn't abandon the IP based upon the poor critic reviews. They have a very awesome concept here that can be built upon to create a very stong and entertaining franchise. I highly encourage any gamer reading this who has any bit of interest in this game to take the time to play it for themselves! They may be pleasently surprised or as in my case, have their expectations pleasently met. Highly Recommend!