Time Crisis 4 is a wreck of a game with a overly-gimmicky controller that just ruins the experience further...
Gameplay:
So, first things first, Time Crisis 4 is a light gun game, which means its a game where you point a gun at the screen and shoot stuff, like Duckhunt from the NES days. However, thanks to the HDTV age, Light guns don't work on these new breed of televisions anymore without sensors. So, here comes Namco-Bandai with there first attempt at making a light gun game on something other than that Nintendo System that already has a sensor on the TV. This is where the first problem evolves: the set-up. Not only is this time consuming, it is also frustrating to setup since the sensors have to be in specific areas of the TV and you have make sure its as close to perfect as possible. To top it off, these sensor bars(thats right, its made up of two of them) are connected to the PS3 via USB, which isn't a big deal until you see that your system will probably have to be on a certain side of the TV for this setup to function (hint: its not the side in the instructions.) So after all of that, its time to hook up the Guncon3, which has got to be the worst Guncon yet. First, its not wireless. Yep, Sony went to all the trouble to make the PS3 read bluetooth devices, and Namco pretty much said "screw that" and made this thing corded and also have its own USB cord. Yea, this game uses two USB ports so don't expect to be charging your PS3 controllers on the two ported PS3s. So, anyways, you get this hooked up, and the first thing you notice is that the PS3 doesn't recognize it without the game disc playing...useless information, but sad that it needs the software in every copy of a game that uses the Guncon3. Alright, as the game loads, you will notice that you need to use your PS3 controller a few times until you get a calibration screen, aka the "fun" part of the setup. So, with my 37" HDTV, I start the process of calibrating, only to be unsatisfied with my results every time I finish the process. You see, for some reason, there is a nice delay between my guncon's aim and the screen's display. I also noticed that the crosshair in the calibration setup went as fast as it wanted to whenever it wanted. sometimes it was slow, sometimes it kept up, but there definitely was problems occurring. Anyways, you finally decide to move on after 6-7 calibration efforts and re-adjusting the sensors usually makes this process worse.
Now, after all the jumbo, what about the game itself? well, this is where things get worse. The options in the game are pretty limited, with an arcade mode, a complete mission mode, and a minigame mode. All of them involve shooting at enemies or targets, just with different styles. First up, is the arcade, which is a nice half-hour journey with three guys, two of them being you(remember, this is designed for two-player offline co-op). The two character that are you are just...wow. One of them is Tidus from Final Fantasy and the other is Rico from Just Cause, two completely different worlds, and neither look they belong in the Time Crisis world. To make matters worst, there is this Capitan Rush, the guy you play as in complete mission mode and the the tag-along character in arcade. This guy states the obvious a great deal and also has cornrows for a hair style. He also talks a great deal, and introduces people in the middle of gunfights all the time. Anyways, the game is actually alright in arcade mode, but thanks to the guncon being so weirdly shaped, you never really feel comfortable playing the game, and I also ran into that delay issue being a big problem when the playing fast pace, and my invisible marker is slow to keep up, and it also leads to many inaccurate shots, something important to have in a light gun game.
The other mode is the new "NEXT GEN" mode called complete mission mode. This mode is pretty neat at first, until you realize that all the problems with arcade transfer over and the button layout on the Guncon is terrible. However, the control sticks were actually working well, but the buttons were very confusing and pressing the C buttons never felt comfortable. Still, this mode is better than having nothing after arcade mode and it is better than most will probably state. I just wish the sensors worked better on my TV.
Graphics:
Good graphics...for a Playstation 2 game. This game has probably the worst graphics on the Playstation 3 so far, outside of movie titles. Sure, they spruced it up with a great lighting system, but remove that, and you might as well just released this on the Playstation 2 for Guncon2 users waiting for their final dance.
Sound:
It could be worse, but this is pretty bad. The sound effects are from Time Crisis 2 and the Voice acting is just horrid. The guy who does Dash is so annoying that it makes you just wanna point the guncon at yourself and keep clicking the trigger. The soundtrack is also unmemorable and the script is laughable. I mean, "terror bites"? thats the best name you could come up for a secret weapon of the government? "disaster game" probably would have been better and made more sense.
Overall: 1.5/10.0
This has got to be the worst game I played in the 2007, and should definitely get that award from everywhere. This game should have just came out on the Playstation 2 for the Guncon2 so that people actually saw this a swansong for that segment instead as a doomed beginning for light gun games for Playstation 3. It probably would have given the developers a chance to come up with a better designed Guncon3, too.