Additionally, the time travel has caused freak wormholes in the fabric of time, allowing you to meet yourself at different points. This allows for a lot of humor as well. In the previous games i’ve played, Sgt. Cortez was always the commando type, strong and fearless, and always focused on the goal ahead. In this game, however, he has a lighter side as well. At times, he seems to be a complete idiot, and easily amused, using puns and very lame jokes all the time, much to the dismay of his comm officer, who has to listen to this all the time. When preparing to travel through time, he likes to say “IT’S TIME TO SPLIT”, then chuckle at his own wit….
But, story mode is only the beginning! In addition to story mode, there are 3 other modes, arcade, challenge, and mapmaker. In arcade mode, you have a series of missions that have nothing to do with the regular game. These missions can include anything from beheading zombie monkeys with a shotgun in a “House of the Dead” style ordeal, to picking up balls with a levitation glove and throwing them through hoops. Your rewards for the missions vary depending on how well you did, and can include cheat codes (which are very wacky as well) and extra playable characters. There are 150 playable characters in all, and some are extremely strange, including the gingerbread man, R-one-oh-seven (a man who thinks he’s a robot from the future, and runs around in a robot suit made from cardboard boxes), and various zombies. Additionally, you can set up your own custom arcade matches, played against bots or humans, in a variety of levels with many different modes to play them in.
Play Modes:
Deathmatch – Standard free for all killing spree
Team Deathmatch – Choose one of four teams, and beat the others into submission
Capture the Bag – Similar to capture the flag, except with a bag!
Bag Tag – There is only one bag, and the person who holds it the longest before time runs out wins
Zones – There are two teams, and at least four zones in the map. At the end of the time limit, whichever team held the most zones for the longest time wins
Flame Tag – When time runs out, the person who was on fire the least wins
Virus – One person starts out on fire. The fire is permenant, and the last person standing untouched wins
Bounty Hunting – Like a standard deathmatch, but frags don’t count as points. You have to collect a token the enemy drops when they die to score
Shrink – Your relative size is based on what position you’re in. If you’re in first, you are normal, but the person in last is extremely small
Vampire – There is another bar, independent of your health bar, that decreases over time. Once the bar is empty, you die. The only way to replenish your bar is to kill the enemy
Assault – Two teams, one defending, the other attacking. If the attacking team can infiltrate the defending base and take it over within the time limit, they win. However, if they can’t take the defending base before the time limit, the defending team wins
Gladiator – One player spawns as the Gladiator. Only the gladiator can score points from frags, and is surrounded by an aura that improves his defense and firepower. The only way to become the gladiator is to kill the current one
Monkey Assistant – Normal deathmatch, but with a twist: whoever is in last place gets several monkey assistants to fight with him.
For any of the levels, you can choose what bots you want to face, what weapons there will be in the level, and a lot of other options.
Challenge mode is like arcade mode, but with much harder missions.
Ah, the mapmaker. This is the coolest part of the game. With it, you have the ability to make almost any kind of map, whether for multiplayer use or as a single mission. This is by far the most detailed mapmaker i’ve ever used effectively. The only drawback is that it is still tile based, so there are some limits as to how it looks. The blocks can be stacked up to 5 stories high, and there is also an outdoor option, where the cieling is open and you can see the sky. Huge open areas can be made, as well as extensive corridor areas. There are dozens and dozens of different tiles to choose from, including tiles to make a bunker, trenches, bridges, and death pits. There is also a huge selection of items you can insert, including explosive barrels, driveable cars, remote control cats (don’t ask), various turrets, cameras (which can be viewed from any other area via switches), automatic guns (which can also be controlled from afar), and teleports. You can also control the lighting in each tile, as well as insert computer controlled NPC’s and logic functions. The logic feature is also interesting, allowing for detailed scenarios and adding another level to the game. Logic allows you to create triggers within the game that can set off certian actions. You can create timers, counters, objectives, and messages, as well as using the objects as triggers. For instance, you can create a scenario where you have to sneak into an enemy base without them noticing you and steal an item before a time limit. You could set up guards on patrol in certian corridors, a countdown timer to start when the mission does, and a logic section where you will fail the mission if any of the guards see you or if the timer runs out. You could also put in cameras as guards, or have armored troops warp in if you get spotted. You could have a locked door in it as well, with one of the guards holding the key. The possibilities are endless!
The graphics have been greatly improved since the last game, and it no longer has a vague cartoonish feel. The weapons have been expanded, and include a baseball bat, various plasma weapons, and a lot of explosives. One of the more unique weapons is the Injector, which fires darts that have some kind of expansion effect on the target. With each hit, the target gets larger and larger, eventually exploding. The enemies are also more dynamic, with smarter AI and some unpredictablility. If you sneak around, you can hear a lot of conversations between the various henchmen in one level. There was one guy complaining about how the male’s uniforms were so uncomfortable, and how the female’s uniforms are more free flowing. He was mentioning something about wanting to wear the female’s uniform before i made it a moot point by shooting his friend in the head and him in the groin. And this game has a nut shot death sequence for the enemies!!!!! That alone makes this game rock! There was a lot of blood splatter, the guy grabbed his crotch, fell over, writhed on the ground a bit, then died.
In short, this game kicks ass. You can customize anything you want, from the control scheme to the levels you’re playing in. The huge array of game modes provides endless entertainment, and an amazing degree of replayability. The incredible depth of the mapmaker is awesome, and I am currently working on several maps. The game is extremely challenging, but not impossible.
Things that help this Game
– Endless replayablitily, it would take you months to unlock everything
– Extremely detailed mapmaking feature
– Good graphics
– Nice Storyline
– Huge array of levels, no two are even similar to each other
– Extensive multiplayer action, which is available in story mode, arcade, and mapmaker
– Very good quality, no glitches that i’ve found, everything seems to be very well planned
– Extreme level of customization
– Lots of humor
Things that hurt this Game
– If you don’t like First Person Shooters, you won’t like this game…duh!!!
– Although the mapmaker is extensive and detailed, it is still run off a grid, and there are a lot of limitations as to what you can make. It’s still the best mapmaker around, especially for a console game.
– The cars don’t move nearly fast enough
Review Written by Avatarian86
