Fugitive Hunter |
PS2 |
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Review by Greg Wilcox |
Black Ops/Encore |
Action |
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Graphics: 7 |
Sound: 6 |
Gameplay: 6 |
Overall: 7 |
Gameplay is fast and furious, especially on the hard setting. Controls are easy to pick up and there’s even an auto target button (Square) if you get in a tight spot. Sure, it goes against the more popular stealth action trend, and the game definitely isn’t Halo quality, but again, the fun is definitely there to be had. While you can blow through some stages without using them, tracking down weapon upgrades and special ammo adds a hell of a lot of fun to blowing stuff up. Trust me, there’s nothing like a guided grenade shot or a bit of sniping to make things easier. Fugitive Hunter mixes things up a bit by including stages with different objectives as well as placing the fugitives in different places in the game. It’s not all “kill the enemies, arrest the boss” sometimes you’ll start off a stage with a one on one fight then move onto dispatching swarms of baddies. There are also arms stashes to destroy, a hostage or two to save, and more. One mission has you chasing the guy you’re supposed to apprehend through Paris streets and over rooftops into a building full of guards and a bomb on top. If you rush him too soon, you’ll have to track down bomb parts as a clock quickly ticks down, which is a bit frustrating. I failed the mission a few times before I realized I should track down the bomb parts first, then take on the boss and defuse the bomb- much less stressful. Speaking of less stressful, one cool thing the game does is let you earn continues as you play. This way, you can pick up from where you died last as opposed to getting dumped out to an annoying loading screen. As long as you have enough lives (and save carefully) you won’t be at all frustrated here. Well, the regenerating enemies may tick you off a wee bit…
Music and sound effects are a bit too basic for my tastes though. Seaver gets off a few snappy one-liners from time to time, but they tend to repeat, and most of the music sounds a bit too 80’s themed, but strangely, it fits the game. The rap song that shows up late in the game is pretty hysterical though- if someone makes a movie from this game, they definitely should snap up the rights for the title theme. Overall, I sort of wish that the game had more and longer levels, and that the action was a bit more varied. If you’re a skilled player, it’ll take a few hours to blow through the game thanks to the continue system. Some sort of multiplayer co-op mode would have been welcome, but that’s what sequels are for- hopeful improvements. I can see some folks getting a bit heated at the timing of the game what with the current situation overseas, but there’s a definite visceral pleasure to be had with Fugitive Hunter, and that’s part of what makes it so much fun. |