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 - Sounds Fun...Until it StartsI wanted to like this game. In a market swamped by 'blow up the alien' the idea of playing as an alien sounded like a breath of fresh air. Even better than just a little role reversal, you get to play as the alien trying to blow up the world. And wait, it's filled with satirical comedy poking fun at the whole genre and era, with moments where it's brave enough to laugh at itself? I asked: how could that go wrong? Then the game arrived. The story is definitely not engrossing. It works enough to get you from point A to point B, and the greater story is actually fair, but the game is bogged down in everything between the rare moments of actual plot progression. If you want a deep, engaging story then try elsewhere. The game's greatest success - making fun of the genre and era - is also one of its greatest weaknesses, the interesting general idea being pounded into oblivion with bland repetition with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Story: 4/10 Graphics can break a game, but they cannot make it. This saying holds true here, but thankfully the graphics (besides the occasional anomaly) is one place where the game generally gets it right. The lightning bolt from Crypto's appropriately if unimaginatively named Zap-o-matic is fair and close-in shots during conversation 'cinematics' do give a 'reflective mirror' illusion to Crypto's eyes. It's also interesting to see the hexagonal-sphere of Crypto's shields when he's knocked down to critical health. Unfortunately, though the general map layouts are interesting, beyond Crypto's saucer the objects - from humans to vehicles and even buildings to an extent - look plain and blocky, particularly the humans. The environments also don't show weapons fire, so beyond the 'hit' flash a building will look perfectly healthy until the moment a convenient cloud of dust obscures it sinking into the ground. At least a smudge effect would have been nice. It's a shame that each 'good' moment seemed more to highlight something that could have been better rather than just being good. Graphics: 7.5/10 The sound effects vary from being cheesy (the disintegrator gun sounds like somebody shooting spitballs through a straw) to appropriate (the zap gun does sound like high-voltage energy). The 'appropriate' ones tend to fade into the background, while the ones you'll notice will end up being the ones that just aren't good enough. The voice acting ranges from mediocre to decent and due to the probable comic intention I can't drop the score for linguistic butchering, but I would say it's neither bad nor good. Sound: 5.5/10 I don't know if it was intentional, but with rare exception the only music I recall was cheesy throw-back-to-the-60s music that made me grind my teeth. I know it doesn't have a score written by masters like Fukuda (and coming after a soundtrack like .Hack//G.U. would be difficult to do) but failing so dismally like this only added to the sense of disappointment. Music: 2/10 When you start off, it looks like you can roam free and do anything you want. Then you have to interact. The camera wasn't as bad as some games, but I found it a little too sluggish and after having gotten used to the ability to snap the camera to a convenient 'behind and a nice height above the shoulder' from games like Ratchet & Clank or .Hack//G.U. it was almost disorienting to have to manually deal with it here. Yes, it does automatically come in behind you, but it isn't very intelligent about adjusting in the vertical field and you have to go for quite a ways before it will swing around so you can see where you're going. There's also no first-person-view option, though the draw distance and your weapons don't reach far enough for this to be an issue. Unfortunately, targeting is a big issue. Before I continue, I want to state that I formally hate most console shooters - if I'm going to have to rapidly deal with people coming at me from multiple directions and varying heights, I want to make quick, precise movements. A mouse or trackball is perfect for that. I've never yet played a console shooter that didn't feel either too sluggish or 'sticky', overshooting when I wanted to make small adjustments. And that will happen often in this game, which is extremely finicky about aiming and won't give you the benefit of the doubt no matter how intense the firefight is getting. There is a 'lock on' option, but that is intended for psychic abilities and disrupts firing, and I found it to be highly random - often a police officer with a shotgun would run up to me and I'd move towards him and hold the 'L1' to lock on, only for it to target a distant policeman coming with a pistol as the one with the shotgun either blew Crypto away or gave him a buttstroke to the face, either way ending with the irritation of being knocked down and having the lock-on broken, and without the benefit of the camera centering to show me the action, so sometimes I'll wonder why Crypto isn't shooting and not figure it out until seconds later when the crawling camera reveals that soldier was closer than I thought. I will concede that the idea of upgrading weapons to shields to the jet pack was nice, but the difference in performance was negligible and getting the Furotech Cells necessary to upgrade was an unpleasant hassle whether completing irritating side-quests or jumping over the city rooftops to try to snatch an overly well-hidden one. The lack of being able to turn on a 'cell detector' on the map doesn't help. I thought the saucer would be better, but its weaponry was so ineffective I found it better to use the 'abducto ray' to snap up and throw vehicles than to blast them with the meager guns. The cloaking device, which one might imagine helpful from running from a situation running out of control, doesn't last more than a couple seconds and takes minutes to charge, ending up being useless. Other reviewers have mentioned that the game is also too easy, with 'dying' being nullified by the near-instantaneous creation of a clone of Crypto whenever you 'die'. Unfortunately, if dying meant Game Over then you'd be seeing that a lot, particularly when one of the several requisite 'big shoot outs' occur, so I didn't see this as an issue. Gameplay: 4/10 You can go back to previous areas, but besides completing side-quests that are available before you leave the first time or collecting more 'stock' for the gene blender there's really very little reason to return to a previous area; that's besides the unskippable 'flying around in orbit' cinematic that you wish they'd have made optional. There's also nothing to be gained by going through the game again - without even intending to, I ended up unlocking most of the game's "bonus features" (a couple crappy art galleries and the lame music) without even trying, and by the time I got to the end I didn't want to see if there was anything new in another play-through. At least Ratchet & Clank offered some neat streamlining with its Challenge Mode. Replayability: 1/10 The humor, this game's biggest selling point, I found uninspired and crude even before it became aggravatingly repetitive. The process of going out and killing people at 'point A' or escorting people to 'point B' was as maddening as it is in other games - plus the irritation of an uncooperative camera and the same unhelpful targeting as most console shooters. If you love playing shooters on the console you won't have as much an issue with the targeting, but if you're not a die-hard fan of them you'll probably get at least miffed as you struggle through, until eventually you come to the end of a game where you say 'At last!' not because it was fun but because now you never have to touch it again. Overall: 4/10 If you want a game with action, an engrossing story, beautiful visuals and breathtaking music, try .Hack//G.U. If you want a simple action platformer that's also a fairly forgiving shooter that allows you to upgrade your weapons, try Ratchet & Clank. This game won't deliver action or sound and its lackluster story will leave you saying "E.T., call home." Rating:  - Great experienceThe seller obviously cared about us when the product was not available and refunded us our money immediately. I would buy again from this seller with confidence that I would always be treated fairly. Rating:  - If you liked the first game, STAY AWAY from this one.Just plain awful. Why change the controls? What was so terrible with the first game that everything had to change? I bought this game because I absolutely loved DAH, but this seems like it was just thrown together over a weekend. First of all, the controls are just plain weird. The jetpack has an awkward feel, and the holobob feature from the first game is replaced with bodysnatching, which just does not make for a smooth gaming experience. The most obnoxious part of this game is that you are on a wild goose chase half of the time, and not knowing where to go. They don't offer you many clues as to what you are supposed to be doing half the time on your missions, and it ends up quite tedious. You would be better off throwing this game in the trash. This game completely compromises the integrity of the genius of the first game, so stay away from this pile of garbage. Rating: - PS2 gameGreat game, as much fun as the first one. Kids like levitating cows and people and flying into signs or lakes. Rating: - Fun fun funI love these games. This one really expands on the first with the locations you get to visit and the weapons you can use. It gets a little annoying having to follow that woman around keep her safe but that's a small part of the game. Big plus with being able to recharge your health while in the saucer. That was a big annoyance for me in the first one. I can't WAIT to play the next one on PS3! That looks amazing!!! Graphics: 4.5 Control: 4.5 Sound: 5.0 Fun Factor: 5.0
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