Razing from the Grave

With the retail battle between the PlayStation Move and the Xbox Kinect fast approaching, launch titles stand as representatives of each motion controller’s capabilities and target market. The Nintendo Wii confirmed that motion controllers make gaming more accessible, opening up the gaming industry to families in particular along with their bank accounts. Time Crisis: Razing Storm is one of the heavyweights expected for the PlayStation Move in mid-September, and a lot is expected of the latest iteration of Namco Bandai’s classic arcade shooter.

The Time Crisis series has been providing Sony with an arcade shooter since 1997. Back then the series was regarded as one of the best arcade shooters around, with its unique pedal system allowing a tactical ducking mechanism and deadly accurate Namco GunCon. While the first three installments lived a long and fruitful life on both the PS1 and PS2, the fourth installment did not fare so well on the PS3. Gamers required better graphics, a more immersive story and more gameplay than an arcade port could provide. The disappointing sales of Time Crisis 4 on the PS3 seemed to signify the death of light-gun on-rails arcade shooters adapted for consoles. With the release of the Move the series has been given another chance, albeit without the GunCon.

Dumbed Down or Staying Strong?

It seems that Sony intends this title to appeal to the more experienced player, rather than other family accessible Move launch titles like Brunswick Pro Bowling and Eye Pet. Time Crisis: Razing Storm is set in 2030 during a bloody revolution in South America. You play as a member of the elite SCAR (Strategic Combat and Rescue) squad, aiming to take down the warlord of a terrorist organization who has declared war against the United States. The story has never been an essential part of the Time Crisis series, simply providing a backdrop and dialogue during the quiet moments when reloading, and this game follows the formula. Don’t expect any Bioshock-esque exposition – you’ll be shooting a lot of bad guys, and that’s all that really matters.

Speaking of bad guys, the enemies in Razing Storm consist of terrorist squads and futuristic war machines. You’ll blast through human militia, raptor robots, humanoid mechs, and even a Kraken, a huge machine that walks on tentacle-like legs fires everything from rockets to lasers and pulse cannons. The developers boast an intelligent AI that adapts to the players tactics and provides a unique experience with each play through. Unfortunately, this is quite plainly not the case. The human enemies are almost laughable - their ‘wave’ tactic is about their only tactic. They literally run at you or to a location, and when they do stop to shoot (if they make it that far) they barely hit you. Feel free to calibrate your gun without pausing the game, assured that you won’t get shot.

A further let down is the loss of the more dynamic parts of the game found in previous titles in the series. These included moments that required players to avoid shooting a teammate or switching between perspectives to cover multiple angles. The loss of these unique events reduces the game play to literally holding the trigger down and shooting all over the screen for ultimate destruction.

There are ten different weapons ranging from a shotgun to a satellite laser a la the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War, but it’s just not the same. Fans of the series will notice one major difference to the game, which is most likely effected by the games transfer to the PlayStation Move audience. The standard primary weapon is no longer a pistol - it has been replaced by the M-16 machine gun. Needless to say, the machine gun allows for continuous fire making the game a more spray ‘n’ pray rather than a point ‘n’ shoot type. At least the wasted ammo will come to some use as the environments are now fully destructible and the more damage you cause the more points you score.