Playstation 2 - 24: The Game

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Sony
Developer
SCE Studios Cambridge
Country of origin
England
Genre
3rd person adventure

24: The Game

By David Rasmussen
2nd Apr 06

Hold on. Let me set the mood and we’ll see if we can get you excited over this game or not.
You are Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), and you are part of the ultra big C (C!) T (T!) U (U!) and the clock… is ticking! Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick… you have 24 hours (Twenty and Four Hours TOGETHER) in order to save the United States from evil terrorists -- terrorists who, for some strange reason, don‘t seem all that Muslim or Middle Eastern for the most part… odd.
And while you play this game, set between the Cougar-rrific Second Season (bad kitty!) and whatever happened in Season Three… well, you’ll find out some of the secrets of the show that you never knew you wanted to know in the first place! For instance…
Who ran the country while President Palmer was fighting for his life… not you, Mr. Quayle, put your hand down please.
How did Kim Bauer (whose Bauer mom was kidnapped raped and written off the show via death in the first season) get a job with daddy snearest in the CTU! -- wait, you don’t care? Me neither!
Who is the mysterious Muffin Man? And why does he deliver sugar dounts to the cops in every hour of every day of every season as if they needed the damn things?!? Why do people still watch 24?? Does anyone care that Jack Bauer is on the run this season… do I actually watch this show?
Yes, I know it’s actually good and lots of people are fans of the series… but that doesn’t give game designers an excuse to hoist (bleep)y tie in games on fans of series like 24! So, because you need to know whether or not 24 : The Game is one of those bad egg games, I jump on the hand grenade of very possible (bleep)y game design with 24 : The Game… and no, I wouldn’t be caught alive watching this show, just so you know my feelings about it.

Set between the second and third seasons of 24 it looks like Keifer Sutherland and the rest of the gang has another 24 hours of storytime to go through, this time set to video game pacing as you find yourself in control of Keifer Sutherland and gang for 24 hours of fun… though I heard this game is 1/4th the time.
First thought I had about this game was… well… total fan game. Somehow I can’t believe anyone but the people who watch 24 will be playing this game… but wait, maybe it’s fun… maybe.
But the fun disappears faster than 24 hours… faster than 2.4 hours in fact!

As the game begins it’s the morning and Jack Bauer is leading his team of merry SWAT dudes onto a ship holding illegal arms and the deadly bioweapon known as Ricin (not to be confused with the non-deadly food product known as rice pudding). You catch some Ricin (no soy though) but the weapons slip through your fingers. And with that it’s off to the races as you must uncover the plot behind this shipment which leads to a plot to assassinate the acting president (aka the vice president), and other things… if you can make it through the 6 to 8 hours of gameplay despite the fact that game supposedly promises “24” hours.

First off this is your basic run and shoot game. You move, sometimes sneak or use cover to move about areas, shooting people and picking their pockets for ammo and stuff. About 60% of the game is this 3rd person shooting which is kind of fun -- until it wears thin and you stop enjoying it.
Also the mere fact that the game is strictly written and set means there’s no chance for freedom of movement from what I can see of the game, or a chance to play the game differently which limit’s the reason to replay the game other than to rack up percentages to unlock bonuses (which ain’t all that bonusy to begin with).

There’s more though. You can also undertake these “exciting” activities in the role of Keifer Sutherland and the rest of the cast of 24 (who actually show up for their own game, lucky us).
- You can chase down suspects and stop them from being run over by vehicles!
- You can hack computers and electronic locks… which is actually cool since the last several “hacking” games I’ve seen in other games mostly equaled matching spinning gears which is not so much of the “hacking” in my opinion.
- You can interrogate people in an interrogation mini game(s) which is kind of tedious since it’s mostly watching your victim’s heart rate and choosing whether to pump them (in a non sexual way), level them or be kind to them (basically putting the heart meter in the little line of “breaking” so you can “break” them when you’re set… bleah. I liked the Frank Castle way of interrogation better.
- You can drive cars and chase suspects… which, despite the fact is supposed to remind you of Grand Theft Auto driving is nothing like Grand Theft Auto driving. The problem with the controls is most apparent here since it’s not the easiest to control your vehicle.

Control issues is not much, but it’s abit fidgity to control your death dealing government yes man when you want to swing into cover mode (X button) to go into the open to move or run and shoot (watch the camera spin and spin which confuses you as you move between the two).
Otherwise for the most part your character responds well enough, and targeting works rather well (though you have to be within a certain distance to target)… why? Because you can decide to wing your target or kill them… wait, that doesn’t work! I tried it, and even shooting the guy’s leg ends up “killing” them! So how the heck is this supposed to work again, other than to give you a headache?!? Oh, and sometimes they’ll surrender so you might want to be careful not to drill a surrendering enemy… you know, just in case they’re important for something. That’s when you can go up to them and cuff them… bleah.

There is some variety, as you can see above, but not enough to really stave off your soon to be apparent boredom with this game before too long. It’s kind of fun, but it’s not for long term ownership unless you are a die hard total fan of the series… and even then… well, let’s break it down.

24 the Breakdown Day 2.5...
(This breakdown originally took place between 5:00PM to 6:00PM)
What’s Hot?
It’s a good deal if you are a 24 fan I suppose. I mean with the entire cast (or as much as possible) signing into the game, a few interviews to unlock with favorite stars and so forth? I guess you can go worst on series tie-ins and it does have some interesting gameplay.

What’s Not?
However the game will become old really really fast. You’ll get bored with the 3rd person shooting, and even things like the sniper sections or the hacking or even the driving will not stave off your fatigue with this title. Somehow I think 24 is a better rental than an owned game, mostly since you’ll finish it long before you have to bring the game back and probably won’t want to play it again after finishing it the first time.

Moments to Remember?
Besides the fact that the 24 stars are in this game? How about the nice little batch of things like sniping distant snipers, or the hacking… oh, and the 3rd person shooting which is kind of nice… if you like 3rd person shooters it’s not the most horrible one I’ve seen, and I’ve seen worst.

What to Ignore?
However ignore the fact that the game is most definitely NOT 24 hours despite the fact that the game promises an experience in “real” time (the game is NOT in real time). Also ignore the fact that Jack Bauer and company occasionally seems to bend the laws of time and space to instanteously travel from one area to another in far less time than you would need to actually travel from location to location in real “realtime”!
That and completing the game will remove most of your desire to play the game again.

Overall?
Rental is the best route for 24 : The Game. If you are a fan of the series you should just give it a rent, spin it, play it, and finish it. Die hard 3rd person shooters, however, will be better off finding a more challenging game than this to play. It’s nice and all, but fatigue over the game will overwhelm you soon… and then you finish the game. So don’t throw away your $40 or so dollars on this one, save your money and rent only.

-- David Rasmussen 2nd Apr 06

Playstation 2 24: The Game Images