Preview: Time Crisis Razing Storm
Who knew the PlayStation Move controllers had such powerful rumble motors? Time Crisis returns to PS3, this time with support for Sony's new motion controller. (Although, you can still use a Guncon!) More so than previous Time Crisis games, Razing Storm is about causing as much destruction as possible. Instead of wielding a handgun, your characters are armed with machine guns -- giving the Move's rumble motors a thorough workout.
The gameplay will be largely familiar to anyone that's played an on-rails shooter before. You duck to dodge and reload and, in typical Time Crisis fashion, a countdown appears around enemies that are getting ready to shoot. However, the flow of the gameplay has drastically changed, as the player is far more powerful than any previous Time Crisis protagonist. Equipped with a machine gun, you'll be able to tear through the environment, bursting through cover. It makes it quite easy to mow down the dozens of enemies that are rushing at you on the screen.
"Are those zombies?," I asked a Namco Bandai representative. "No, those are terrorists," they responded.
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Considering the enemy "AI" of Razing Storm, I'm certain you'd have made the same mistake too. Hordes of "terrorists" simply run at you; very few actually bother to shoot at you. In many ways, Razing Storm is a much dumber game than its predecessors. For example, Time Crisis 4 encouraged searching the environments for different weapons, including machine guns and shotguns. However, Razing Storm is all about giving you more firepower than you could possibly need. In one segment (after battling a giant robot spider thing, obviously), I had a rocket launcher that let me hilariously destroy entire groups of enemies with one shot. While Razing Storm may sacrifice depth, its gratuitous nature is undoubtedly entertaining.
Razing Storm's arcade mode is probably worth the price of admission for shooter fans, but the package does include much more. Unfortunately, I didn't get to check out the two other games included on the disc: Deadstorm Pirates (gallery) and Time Crisis 4 (gallery). Returning from the franchise's last console iteration is a "Story Mode," a "free-roaming mode" that allows you to control your character like in a traditional FPS. Hopefully, the Navigation Controller will offer a better experience than the Guncon 3 could. There's also an "Online Battle Mode," which allows eight players to play against each other. I'm not exactly sure how, though.
Time Crisis Razing Storm seems to address many of the issues that plagued the franchise's first foray onto the PS3. You're certainly getting much more content than Time Crisis 4 -- in fact, you're getting that game as well! Best of all, unlike Time Crisis 4, you won't need to buy two copies of the game if you want to play multiplayer.
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