REVIEW: Time Crisis 4

Developer: Nex | Publisher: Namco | Format: PS3

Reviewer: Craig Jay Gallagher Light Gun games are one of the last remnants of a bygone age valiantly struggling for some sort of relevance in a market where the novelty of pointing a piece of plastic at your TV has worn off.

The Time Crisis franchise was the last game to bring anything of note to the genre and here in it's fourth outing, it's first on the PS3 it combines traditional lightgun duck and shoot fare with the freedom of a traditional FPS.

Like the Wii sensor bar the new G-Con3 comes with a sensor, though unlike the sleek and simple Wii variant the G-Cons sensor consists of two rather imposing sensors which are placed at either end of your TV.

The gun its self is a large orange contraption which resembles a much bigger version of the G-Con2 with the added bonus of a jutting handle to the left of the barrel, some extra buttons and an analogue stick at the back. These buttons and sticks are used to control the character in the game. This redesign actually turns a rather cumbersome old model into a comfortable and natural feeling piece of equipment, granted that you are in fact right handed.

Playing Time Crisis 4 is a rather mixed bag. The traditional option of duck and shoot is fully explored in the arcade. Taking a handgun, shotgun, grenade launcher or submachine gun you can literally lose yourself in a barrage of mad cap violence. It's generic as hell and takes it's self far too seriously but at the end of the day it delivers exactly what it promises. The story involves some terrorist group with evil intentions and the three law enforcement officers attempting to thwart said evil plans.

The main thrust of the game is based around the games main selling point, the modernisation of light gun gaming. The new revolutionary step for the genre so to speak. Or it would be if it all didn't feel so, meh. The controls are the same as in any FPS, you use the left analogue stick to move and the other one to look up down and all around. The only difference is that you still use the light gun to aim.

The rudimentary implantation of this development is decently done even if some aspects are shockingly bad. One encounter between yourself and a helicopter is torturous due to the fact that tracking a helicopter with your gun is extremely difficult when moving and aiming at the same time.

If TC4 had been released a decade ago it would have been a landmark title, as it stands it's an adequate distraction. While far from the promised next step for FPS it still remains a decent time waster which arcade fans will lap up. For everyone else there's Call of Duty 4.

Games reviews thanks to Irish games website GamesToaster.com.