It was only a matter of time – how a franchise as successful and highly regarded as 24 managed to make it 5 years before a game came out is beyond me. Each season is packed with shootouts, car chases, violent interrogations and lots of glamorous people shouting. All of this is held together by a great story. How could a game fail? Well just read on.
Well the game has EVERYTHING that makes 24 24. It has the shootouts, it has the car chases and it has the interrogations. It also has a great story featuring the voice acting of all the major characters from the TV shows.
I will not say much about the story as I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone either planning on playing the game or who has not seen any of 24 beyond season 2. What I will say is the story is set between Seasons 2 and 3 and tells an interesting bit of back story, fills in a few blanks and answers a couple of questions. I was that impressed with the “24 feel” of the story and presentation I awarded the game 4 points just for being 24.
So what’s the problem? Well it’s all down to the gameplay. The game as with the TV show is broken down into 24 sections. Each one features a number of missions or quests with the story unfolding before, during and after each mission. The bulk of these missions are third person shooting sections and to be fair they are not that bad. However they are VERY easy and VERY repetitive.
It’s all standard stuff – run around – hold “L1” to target an enemy and tap “R1” to take a shot. The first few missions are fine – using the “X” button you can take cover and lean out and take a few shots at the enemy who are doing the same. When it works it does feel like a section of the show with a few impressive firefights taking place. However you undertake these missions so often that you realise there is very little point using the cover and you can do just as well firing as fast as you can and running faster. You are guided by the hand all the time, your objective is always clearly marked on a map and there is only one way through the levels.
As well as on foot sections the game has its fair share of vehicle related missions. These consist of either (1) driving from A to B as fast as possible or (2) driving from A to B as fast as possible whilst being chased. It’s hard to review the driving sections but I will try and sum them up in a word: “Awful” will do just fine – the vehicles handle in one of two ways – fast and twitchy or slow and heavy. The crashes are comical with big 4x4 vehicles performing in air 360s after hitting faster cars.
The first police chase I had saw me having to lose the pursuing police cars. Easier said than done in a game that defies any real world rules of physics. The police cars seem to appear from nowhere and are also the fastest vehicles on the road at that point. So fast in fact that it seemed impossible to shake them. The ONLY way I managed to complete this section was by fluke. Be it a glitch in the game or pure luck all three of the pursuing vehicles EXPLODED for no real reason after a collision with a hedge.
Other missions are nothing more than simple puzzle or reaction games. Though simple is perhaps too complex a word to use. All you have to do is press the correct button at the correct time. The interrogation sections also work along similar lines. One button causes Jack to shout and raises the opponent’s heart rate – another button causes him to be nice and the heart rate to lower. Your aim is to get the heart rate within a defined limit (clearly displayed on the screen) and then press a third button. This you have to do 8 times within a time limit to get the information from the suspect.
It is a real waste and shame as with some imagination this could have been a great section – beating and shooting a suspect to make him break without having them die or black out – but no it’s just a joyless button presser made even worse by having to repeat the whole thing from the start should something go wrong. It’s like having a dodgy Sky+ box which constantly repeats the same 5 minutes over and over and OVER again.
The ONLY thing that saves the game is the story – I would have given up on that one driving mission if it had not been for wanting to see “what happens next” – the voice acting is very good mainly due to the fact that the original actors are present (although Carlos Bernard sounds very wooden and uncomfortable at times) - any fan of the show WILL get a buzz out of seeing an untold story from the character’s past.
On the whole the game is most disappointing – a real waste of a licence and a good story. I suppose in a way it does make you feel like Jack – it can reduce you to tears.
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