The Rabid Gamer

There are lots of words to describe this newest game from Silicon Knights: boring, lacking, weak… take your pick. My personal choice would be: Disappointing. From a company that made CLASSICS like the Gamecube version of Metal Gear Solid, and especially Eternal Darkness, this game makes me wonder: would the studio have been better off quitting while it’s ahead, or sticking to the simpler consoles?

Harsh, I know, but hear this rabid gamer out. The game starts off well enough, giving you so many promises from the start. You get to pick one of three mutants, and (SPOILER ALERT) you are at a memorial peace rally for none other than Professor X. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose, by what looks like Magneto, and you’re forced to fight for your life. Luckily, your mutant powers awaken just in time… unluckily, the controls suck so much you wish they had never awoken.

Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of a battle when the camera moves for no reason, other times, you have to fight countless enemies by just bashing buttons… that’s it, all you do is press the same buttons over and over, wow HOW INTERESTING (ah, sarcasm, my one friend against mind numbing crap… now I know why MST2K was so popular).

But, that’s OK right? At least, the story sounds interesting! I mean I get to be a Mutant with COOL POWERS!!! Well, you got one part right (HINT: It’s not the part about cool powers and story being interesting). Sure the powers may LOOK good, but with the clipping and frame rate weakness, plus the special effects looking lame, well you’ll wish this was an FPS instead…

Have you ever played the original Metal Gear Solid, for the PSX? Then you’ll probably think you went back in time when you play this game…. no actually never mind, Metal Gear had better graphics (and I’m not exaggerating). No, this isn’t a demo, it actually went Gold and has been put on the market…

And the story… if the graphics are bad, that doesn’t always mean the story suffers right? I mean look at Fallout 3 (actually don’t look at it, the game breaking bugs will just do your head in…). CRAP graphics, but story and side missions more than made up for it. Here, the story is awful. For something that starts so well, it gets boring within the first 20 minutes. Here’s the story: You have to do missions for either the Brotherhood or the X-Men… doesn’t matter what you pick, your choices don’t make a difference You want to be chummy with the X-Men? It doesn’t mean you won’t fight Wolverine sooner or later… but that’s OK, just mash all the buttons until he collapses. No need for strategy! *UGH* As you can see I’m a bit upset with the game, but honestly if you’re an X-Men fan, you’d be too. No progression, dialogue almost never changes, and no matter what powers you choose, you’re going to end up abandoning the game MAYBE after an hour, wondering what went wrong.

As a rabid gamer, I play for a great story, I play so that I can relax… I don’t know about you, but if you’re dead set on getting this game… rent it. Trust me, you’ll thank me later!

Stars: ** out of **********