| Introduction
Developer Crawfish had been showing off its FPS engine
for some time before BAM! jumped on board and with its
alliance with Franchise Pictures, Ecks vs. Sever was
created. This is not the first FPS and it certainly
won't be the last but taking the unique angle of realistic
rather than fantasy locations does set it apart from
its rivals. The movie it's inspired by isn't even out
yet so there will be no drawing comparisons but even
so we'd still need to know if it is a worthwhile shooter.
GamePlay
There's little front-end presentation, after the
title screen you can decide to be either Ecks or Sever.
Each character possess very different strengths and
weaknesses. Whichever path you decide to take you'll
visit the same locations but the objectives and viewpoints
will be different. The whole game is set in an
internal enquiry however all missions are played retrospectively.
Each section is preceded by a (lot of) text based dialogue
between yourself and an examiner and is followed by
your objectives. These start off simple, things like
escaping a building before a bomb detonates or finding
a laptop should give you little trouble. Staying alive
gets a lot more difficult later on though and finding
alternative routes in addition to employing stealth
tactics is of far greater importance.
Some of the weapons and equipment on offer here is
truly impressive and though firing weapons in a 2D game
results in a bigger explosion or an easier kill, here
it changes the whole look and feel of the game. The
sniper rifle, for example, allows you to pick off assassins
from a distance and the zoom ability of this powerful
gun makes a head shot simplicity itself. Another useful
item comes in the form of the Thermal Enhancement Goggles
as problematic dark areas suddenly become easy target
practice with every enemy in your sights glowing bright
orange. Using your range of equipment for the right
purpose is paramount to success as simply charging in
'guns a blazin' will have you dead in no time at all.
Multiplayer games are enormous fun and although I've
only sampled this with one other player I'm sure the
maximum of four will prove incredibly addictive. Like
PC based FPSs there are several multiplayer options.
Deathmatch is familiar to everyone, the player with
the highest number of frags within the time limit is
the winner. Bomb Kit mode is a collect and avoid game
where you must locate various parts of an explosive
device and plant it before the other players. Objectives
can change however and if you're having trouble finding
the bomb parts you may just decide to hunt down your
opponents. Finally there's Assassination mode were you
must pick off a VIP while everyone else is trying to
find you. This is all a multicart experience however
so all players will need their own copy of the game
however unlike with some other titles I'm sure there
was no way to get around this.
Controls
This really could have been the weak link in Ecks
vs. Sever as any computer owner will tell you that consoles
just aren't made for FPSs. Fortunately Crawfish spent
a great deal of time and energy on the control system
so you'll never get shot or killed because of poor interface
design. Everything is used though, with the 'select'
button changing weapons and the shoulder buttons dealing
with the strafe and crouch options, a little practice
before you enter a four player game is well advised.
Graphics
Considering what's being attempted here this is a
major graphical achievement. Gone are the bland locations
of Back Track or the futuristic look of DOOM, to be
replaced with something a little more ambitious. The
fact is real locations are always more difficult to
replicate graphically so the 3D environments in this
title can only be viewed as a success. Everything also
runs at a smooth 30 frames per second and the textures
that are visible throughout the game are both impressive
and varied. Don't get me wrong, this is nothing like
you'd expect to see on your PC and the sprites, although
well rendered, are not the best animated but bear in
mind that this is running on a handheld and not the
latest home computer. The overall presentation is a
bit disappointing, there are no cut screens and the
'text only' based story line may leave a few people
feeling short changed.
Sound & Music
Although the music here suits this type of game perfectly
it's only ever available during menus and options. Actual
in-game audio is limited to guns, groans and doors.
This is a shame as we all know that a good movie score
can help to build tension and it can have the same impact
in games. The developers assured gamers that this shortfall
is because of the GBA's technical limitations and while
it doesn't hurt the overall gameplay you can't help
thinking how much better it would be if it was there.
Final Comments
If you can forgive the text based plot which is incredibly
boring to read then you're left with an outstanding
first person shooter. From the first mission you'll
be drawn in to one of the most exciting and toughest
games you've played on your GBA. There are shortcuts,
secret locations and bonus items scattered everywhere.
In addition to this not all missions require you to
dispose of everyone and instead require a degree of
stealth and forward planning. Longevity is also ensured
with 24 single player missions and a whole host of multiplayer
options on offer. If you bypassed both DOOM and Back
Track I'd urge you to give this a look and remember
that according to Nintendo this type of game on the
GBA simply can't be done...
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