Make sure your retailer takes returns before purchasing.
Releasing a FPS for the PS2 now everyone's all hyped up about similar games on the PS3 and Xbox360 was never going to be the brightest idea.
But maybe with the semi-success of 'BLACK' they figured what the hell lets see if there's any money left for the taking in the PS2.
So this particular FPS tries to stand out from the crowd by having a few novelities of its own. Most notably the use of a riot shield and some rather basic and unique squad functions. The unbreakable riot shield prevents you from taking damage from enemy gunfire, which you can move around holding up. You may think doesn't that make using cover (or any tactics whatsoever) pointless? and you wouldn't be wrong but i'll get to that later.
You play as Nick Mason a member of an elite police force named T-Zero who is trying to regain control of a city taken over by rioutous insurgents with a fondness for molotovs and chopping knives. Get used to them because that's the only gang you'll meet which seems to be comprised of about 3 character models (all with the same unimaginative and non context sensitive phrases).
As far as gameplay goes you have to perform rather mundane tasks such as rescue hostages and so forth in a rather brisk manner although there isn't usually any time restraint. You use the occasional bystander (Fireman/Paramedic/Policeman) to perform actions as diverse as 'open door', 'heal civilian' and um..actually that's about it. The shooting itself is all presented in a less than serious manner with lots of blood and ragdoll physics all over the show. However apart from an exploding head animation none of the enemy gang take any damage according to where you shoot them. I thought that effect was common practice for the last 5 years?
Dated graphics aside which can't be helped, the controls are terrible. Aiming with a dualshock is a challenge to start with, but when it's as slow and clunky as in this game then achieveing headshots and so forth proves to be far more fiddly then it should be. Also strangely enough for a FPS, you can't run. Yes, you can't run. Instead you seem to shuffle about the place like a duck. This means that rather than feel like a real person, instead you are now a train with a broken undercarriage.
A nice touch for the PS2 is a Doom3 style flashlight which you can use, it builds up suspense somewhat during missions but as it's all been done before it's really not jaw droppingly amazing as it tries to be. It also has a near unusuable thermal vision which just looks like a giant splodge of colour which you are forced to use at times.
There's a substantial amount of unlockables and multiplayer modes, most of them are what's billed as extra weapons/armour. This is somewhat of a lie. There's about 6 weapons in total, all of them very similar (2 revolvers, 2 shotguns, 2 assault rifles). There's really no difference in either version of them. You occasionaly get upgrades for armour and weapon damage but rather than be something exciting to try it just makes the game even easier.
There's also a stun-gun to use which is the most boring weapon ever invented for a FPS. You unlock some of the stuff above for using it but it really won't be any fun to do so.
There's many many complaints about the game. Most common is the enemy textures. There's nowhere near enough. One of each of the level objectives is to capture an enemy gang leader alive with your tazer. Easy enough you might think - no. Not when he looks identical to all the other enemies from a distance of more than 2 feet. The enemies also all say the same phrases, and the bg music is also overplayed and unatmospheric.
The levels are also very very short, you can often finish one within 5-10 minutes. The riot shield might make the action seem more intense but not having to take cover or plan your attack or just about anything 'fun' totally detracts from the entertainment value of what a FPS should be about.
When there's a million other FPS's with multiplayer which also have a decent single player experience I doubt anyone would be able to find a game to join let alone be able play in one. There's no split screen mode so unless you have the Xbox version you won't be playing that anyway i'd guess.
Overall if this game had been released 3 years ago there's some original touches included that would have been somewhat groundbreaking for a PS2 title. But unfortunatly it's just a rather lacklustre ru..shuffle and gun game for a console which just can't match the previews of things to come (or in quite a few cases those which have already been and gone).