Customer Reviews

Time Crisis Crisis Zone with Gun

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Time Crisis: Crisis Zone marks another great Arcade Shooter from Namco, as well as a great addition to the Time Crisis series.

Crisis Zone is filled with the normal Time Crisis formula of duck for block, and shooting when standing, but this puts something different into the mix; instead of ducking behind random objects, you go behind a steel riot shield with a sight, letting you actually move around the place more as well as being able to see while ducked. The other difference is the main weapon, an SMG with 40 rounds per clip; you may think this makes it easy, but the enemies have enough health to make it a challenge all the way. Unlike all other Time Crisis games, however, this is a 1-player game only.

The basic story is that you're the leader of a riot squad called the Special Tactical Force (STF) in London, and you're trying to retake a new, multipurpose area on the outskirts of London, called Garland Square, that was taken over by terrorist forces. Garland Square itself is a modern, self-sufficient multiplex, with houses, stores, a park, and an office building with some of the latest technology in the world, and it is one of the most advanced areas for commerce and business in all of Europe, making it a BIG bargaining chip for the terrorist forces. Your main job is to go into the different areas of Garland Square and kill all terrorist forces you encounter, and taking back the multiplex, as well as trying to find the leader of this attack.

The gameplay has the normal TC formula with said changes, and it has more on the PS2 console. You get to choose which area to tackle first (I suggest going from left to right) when you start, and as you play the game you get to choose where to go next.

Besides the story mode, there are other extra modes to play. After you beat the normal game, you get to play an ORIGINAL story mode (for PS2 version only) set 6 years afterwards. While in this story, you can kill special brown troops for new weapons, such as a laser rifle and a gatling gun.

And if that wern't enough, as you earn these extra weapons, more Crisis Missions are unlocked. These missions are fun, but VERY difficult, and range from taking out enemies without shooting allies to surviving nearly a minute without a shield. The more you beat, the higher your completion will be for the whole thing. When you get to 60% completion, you get to use TWO Guncon 2's and dual wield SMG's in story mode. 100% gets you unlimited ammo (no need to reload).

There ARE rewards to playing story mode a lot. With every two game overs, you get an extra continue. When you beat story mode, you get to add health to your healthbar. So, this gets you extra insentive to play story mode, and the more you play the easier it gets. Difficulty can be set from very easy to very hard.

All in all, this is a good, but difficult, game for all fans of Arcade Shooters or machine guns. If you're looking for multiplayer, go for Time Crisis 3. If you're looking for a single player challenge with lots of extras, then go with Time Crisis: Crisis Zone. Believe me, you won't be disappointed. This is what got me hooked on the arcade shooter genre.

Crisis Zone was actually a stand alone Guncon Shooter that was not originally apart of the Crisis Zone series. It was so popular in the arcades (I know 'cause I blew tons of quarters on this arcade) that Namco decided to incorporate it into the Crisis Zone series. I thought it had hints of Crisis zone 2 but, it was overall much better than the popular series of shooters. The home version of the game added an extended story line and a new mode, it was also a perfect arcade translation. Overall a great shooter and I recommend this to everyone whose into shooters.

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING WARNING: I take whatever is listed on the box with a grain of salt, and in this case the 'Dual-Guncon' mode is actually unlocked once you reach 60% completion in the Story Mode. Even then I wouldn't depend on that for co-op play.

THIS IS NOT A TWO PLAYER GAME, IT IS ONE PLAYER ONLY!!! If you want co-op then get Time Crisis 3 as that is a pretty solid game.

Graphics
-Fairly nice, the environment is interactive (a lot more stuff to shoot at and destroy) and the player/enemy models are pretty detailed.

Sound
-Generic, meh. You can put in your own music without missing much. On-screen visual cues are well done and negate the need for paying attention to the audio.

Gameplay
-Your basic Time Crisis game. You move around a predetermined path and you shoot at the enemies/vehicles/objects within the specified time limit and making sure to duck behind your shield to avoid being hit. Its a bit more generic and limted then TC3 but its more suited for solo experiences. You get a machine gun, but each enemy takes several hits to take out and thus makes such an 'upgrade' nearly meaningless. I'd even venture to say its harder then usual since you aren't sure how many shots it'll take to take out an enemy (no lifebars like TC3). You run outta ammo really quickly (who the HELL has heard of ANY automatic weapon with only 40 bullets!?) and there is no way to switch to single-shot or 3-round-bursts which makes 'watching your ammo' a bit of a hectic frustration. Reloading is instant but an instant is all it takes to get killed.
The difficulty is pretty unforgiving, even on 'Very Easy'. My younger brother, a veteran of the series, mentioned that 'Very Easy' difficulty played like 'Hard' difficulty on TC3.
The Crisis Missions shouldn't even be attempted unless you've mastered the Story mode, but you're welcome to try (and fail several dozen times). Being semi-skilled, I was able to complete several of the Crisis Missions without even getting past the first level (on Very Easy) but only after a LOT of persistence. I believe the 'No Shield for 45 seconds' and the 'Don't destroy anything' ones were the hardest for me.

Overall feel free to buy this game if you have nobody to play with, otherwise stick with the much-superior Time Crisis 3.

I recieved this game, and was excited to play. Could not get the guncon to work. After reading the manual, in very small print it states not compatible eith HD tvs. I was not aware of this. I tried to contact seller to return product, who offered no help other than to try again to make it work. It didnt of course. The seller would not reply to my emails, and now im stuck with a game I cant use. do not buy from dkahn927!!!!!

Thanks to Amazon and the person selling this video game, my son had his x-mas wish come true. I could not find this game in any store, especially with the gun. Thank you again!

This game could be fun, unfortunately I have had nothing but problems. First, the description states "immerse yourself in double-gun shooting action". The second gun configures fine, however during game play it does absolutely nothing. This was the deciding factor for me: I wanted a game that my son and I could play together at the same time. Secondly, and which for me makes the game a 1 star, is the fact that when you hold the trigger for machine gun action, a weird hazy effect is shown on screen which makes it nearly impossible to see what you are shooting at. This is a horrible effect and totally ruins the game. Would NOT EVER BUY AGAIN.

I never got far enough to play the game. It might be cool. It requires that you buy another connector for some tv's and you have to get to the back of your tv to make it work. Something, which for me, is not worth the large amount of effort that it would take me. They should let people know this before the purchase. Also this product will not work with LCD monitors or projection t.v.'s. Wish they would have told me that before I paid for it.

How can we review a game that was never received? Amazon said it was in stock, but it never arrived. We received a note that said the item was no longer available, and they would refund our money. I am so tired of this kind of thing happening, especially when I'm ordering games for my two teen-aged boys. Online sellers should be able to immediately tell you if your item is in stock or not. Telling me it's not in stock by mail, on the day it's supposed to arrive, is bad business.