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Very average
I have never watched the Action Man TV-series; I only know the character from the line of toy figures. The first thing that strikes you about this game is how frighteningly average it is; no effort whatsoever is made to pull the quality of the product above mediocrity. As a result, that's what it is... mediocre and average. It would seem that the developers didn't care too much if people(well, kids, they are *clearly* the target audience here) actually enjoyed it, they just wanted to make money off the franchise, regardless of the game's quality. The plot is painfully simplistic, and actually utilizes the same twist not once, not twice, but three times(!). The game-play is very limited and dull. It consists of Mr. Man(or is it just Action?) running, swimming and jumping around, activating switches, collecting items and wasting enemies. Sound fun? Well, it isn't. The running is made needlessly hard by constantly moving the camera around, and with it, the controls. Picture this; you're running towards a gap you have to jump over, and just before you jump, the camera rotates, making your run change direction, ruining your momentum and sending you head-first into a wall right before the gap. The swimming is much the same, just with limited and slower movement(as if this was a game that needed to go slower). The jumping is hurt by the same camera movement, and it's limited to only being useful for jumping over gaps and getting from point A to point B(assuming these two points are basically in front of each other) slightly quicker than simply running the same distance. You can't use it for, say, getting away from enemies if they've got you cornered... which would the sensible way to do it. You can basically be killed by three weak enemies, if they all get close enough, and keep you from moving away from them, due to the fact that you can't, for whatever reason, fire a weapon when the enemy is close enough to hit with your bare hands(occasionally he will even punch in their general direction, even though they're too far away to hit). There are six levels, half of which are vehicular, half of which are of you running around. In the vehicle levels, you move around a fixed area, battling enemies, collecting stuff and finally facing off against a boss enemy. This is every bit as tedious and repetitive as it sounds. Worse even, to 'aid' you in the mission, there's a U-turn system, which turns you 180 degrees if you're moving in the opposite direction of your objective. Sound helpful? Well, it's not. This system can't tell if you're going in the right direction navigation-wise, only direction-wise, meaning that it won't care if there's a big hole between you and your objective that you're trying to circle around... it turns you around regardless. And it can't be turned off. Doesn't that sound like fun? My gosh, with help like this, who needs opposition? The running-around levels consist of plenty of tiny missions and areas, each of which has an auto-save function. This means that if you die, you'll simply have to do the last few things again. That's good, but that's also the only positive quality the game has... and that's just not enough. Plus, this still means that you may be forced to do the same thing over and over again, if you die for one reason or another. Granted, the difficulty is so low that you almost can't die unless you try to(they actually spawn health power-ups near you when you're close to croaking, even in boss fights). But it happens, and when it does, it will be even more frustrating(because you shouldn't die, in a game this simple). The weapons are pretty much a joke. None of them are really effective, and for the better part of the game, you can get the job done better with the standard handgun than any of the two or three(oh, I know... the sheer amount is copious to the point of being overwhelming) you pick up. Then there's the hideous control of the vehicles; the first of the vehicular level is with cars and the motorcycle, so it's fine. The second, however, is with a helicopter and other flying stuff(I won't bother to type it here), and the control is so bad it's almost funny. The third is the worst, though, taking place partly on snow and ice(making for darned slippery ground traveled with already hard-to-control vehicles) and partly in the ocean(further limiting movement speed and control). The graphics are fair. The voice acting is pitiful... it actually sounds like the actors are parodying their characters. The game has little to no replay value, being that the only thing you can collect that isn't required to move on in the levels(or ammo) is the Power Points. When you've beaten a level, the game keeps track of how many of them you collected, and you can see in the levels how many there are to collect. There doesn't seem to be any bonus to them, though, you can just brag that you've collected them all, I suppose(if that is possible... I've collected them all on several occasions, but due to a counting error, the game refuses to show it). Between missions you can see skins of the various enemies, get useless info about the weapons, test the sound and play one or two classic games(Pong and Frogger, for anyone interested)... and the scary thing is, they're almost more fun to play than the game itself. Fact of the matter is, this game just doesn't have an awful lot to offer. You can spend the same amount of money on some of the toys and, with some imagination, have far more fun with them. I recommend this only to huge fans of Action Man. Everyone else... approach with caution and extreme prejudice. If you really want, try the game... but don't say I didn't warn you. 5/10
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- TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
- Sep 17, 2005
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