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Today's Bonus:
How come nobody's heard of this game? It's massively underrated.
Although I didn't like it for the first couple of days, once I got used to how this game works, I had more fun with it than with any other game I've played in the last ten years, easily.
What a winner: it plays like a Michael Bay action movie! This is probably the only game I've ever played where instead of eagerly progressing towards "100% completion," I was despondent every time I made progress because I didn't want the game to end. As soon as it did end, I played it through again two times straight: something I haven't done for any game in at least a decade. I usually just pop out the disc and move to something else.
In this game, you play a soldier of fortune who is in Venezuela trying to get revenge on someone who shot him "in the upper thigh." For the most part, the game plays like any outing of GRAND THEFT AUTO, with the following major exception: there are no police to rein in your behavior. In those games, if you start shooting up the town and mowing down innocent bystanders, sooner or later the police will come, and they are eventually undefeatable.
In this game, though, there's no police. You can just create havoc and, as long as you can keep yourself alive, there are no real consequences for destroying stuff. Hence there is a lot of fun to be had in destroying stuff, and -happily -the gamemakers have seen to it that virtually everything in this game (except maybe mountains) can be destroyed somehow. This is a lot of fun in its own right.
The programmers made several brilliant decisions that wound up increasing the fun, and minimized those kind of things that don't. I'm thinking specifically of all those annoying things that in typical games you manage your character with; in other words, things that decrease the fun (e.g., remember having to eat, sleep, and work out in GTA? Nothing like that here.)
For example, every time you're in a vehicle and the vehicle crashes or explodes, you're ejected totally undamaged. Also, if you exit a vehicle (such as a helicopter) from a great height and fall to the ground, you'll typically live, albeit with just a couple of hit points left.
Put together, though, these two elements soon inspire you to play recklessly, boldly, and cinematically, thus ramping up the fun. It's one of the few games that's as entertaining to watch somebody else play as play yourself.
There are, however, many negatives I can think of. While it's true that I certainly had hours and hours of insane fun with this game, it's not perfect. I list the following not only because I get off on making complainy lists, but also in case someone at Pandemic is listening, someone who might have a hand in making a sequel.
First and most seriously, there are a lot of bugs. True, there have been a couple of patches, but there are still some very irritating bugs even after all the patches. In fact, I'd say this game is famous for them.
I will only list the most serious one: there's a serious problem with the latest patch, at least on the PS3. If you patch the game, you won't be able to play it (your game will freeze on the screen where you get to select your character). The only way to get it to work is uninstall the patch, reinstall the game, and play the unpatched, straight-from-the-factory version. It's been this way for years and the company, Pandemic (if that entity still exists), shows no sign of coming to the rescue. Ergo I would say that the biggest drawback for you as a player of this game is that its makers have apparently abandoned it.
Second, the game doesn't have a lot of tutorials for learning how to do this or that. Ergo there's a steep learning curve: you might play for days and days before inadvertently learning how something is done. C4, for example.
Third, the assignments you usually get are unimaginative: they're things you've seen a million times before, such as keeping an NPC alive while under fire, destroying a building before a timer runs out, fending off an attack on a structure until a timer runs out, etc. I can think of no respect in which this game is original or creative. Further, a lot of the mission justifications are horribly nonsensical (although the plot as a whole certainly makes sense). On "Jungle Cruise," they want to test their boat in a minefield? Sheesh. Why couldn't they have just said that their normal boat pilot has been taken prisoner, and in the meantime they need a good boat pilot to deliver these vital supplies? Etc.
Fourth, your fun is ruined a lot of the time by meaningless timers. The game sets timers on a lot of missions in which there is no reason at all for there to be a timer (e.g., when you have to test-drive the mechanic's off-roader). This makes many of the missions infuriating rather than fun.
Fifth, I think the game mismanaged the whole thing with the battling factions. I think all the HVT's should have been VZ, or unaligned. The way it is, it feels as though you're being punished simply for playing the game. You work hard to build up good feelings, and then you're basically required to ruin things?
Sixth, the penalty for dying (outside of a mission) is too stiff: you're teleported back to the PMC, fined 10K, and -most annoyingly -stripped of all your weapons and vehicles? Yow.
Seventh, while many missions can be completed with a variety of approaches, there are several missions which must be completed in a certain way, and nothing else is permitted. Here you've painstakingly assembled all these supplies and air drops precisely for such situations, yet Ewan is mysteriously "busy." In the first "Get Solano," for example, the player is treated unfairly, I think. You MUST accept a ride from Ewan, MUST drive up the road, MUST use the gift bunker buster (and not one of yours), MUST grapple the Anaconda to return to the PMC, etc. I was able to think of many ways of getting to that bunker and assaulting it with a bunker buster, but only THEIR way was allowed. Railroaded.
Eighth, there should have been a way to keep playing the game forever, until you got sick of it. As it is, once you're done with all the contracts, there's nothing to do. Why couldn't there have been an endless supply of assassination / demolition / transportation contracts, even after you've taken care of Solano? What a shame.
Ninth, many of the weapons you get during this game cannot really be used. At first blush, there is a bewildering variety of weapons available, but you'll discover when you're actually out there in the field that you'll only use 4-5. For example, the game is very heavy on airstrikes, but they can be used only very seldom. In reality, an area of enemies will have a lot of AA and SAM jammers which prevent the use of airstrikes. The problem is, by the time you've cleared out an area of all these items, you're in enough control of an area that at this point an airstrike would just be a waste of money. Same with the sniper rifle. By the time you're actually close enough to use it, you don't really need it.
Tenth, it's really unfair and illogical that your character can't look directly over his head. An Anaconda might be right over your head ripping you to shreds without your being able to grapple because of camera restrictions!
Lastly, the game sorely needs stealth. As it is, it's a waste of time trying to sneak around: the enemy can always see you, even through walls, foliage, smoke, etc. What would be great is if it also turned into night and during that time you could sneak around unseen using sniper weapons and a silence. That would have been awesome.
I heard Pandemic tried to make a sequel but couldn't get funding. Pity.
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My kids favorite,but u sent me 2 both non working.one star is incomplete . When it works it is a 4 star.I loved this game and i couldnt find a scratch. Also showed up to my house 4 days ahead of date.
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