This game is an arcade-style shooter, reminiscent of the classic arcade shoot-em-ups like "house of the dead", "Time crisis", "Crisis zone", and multiple other titles seen at your local Dubiously-legal bar-cade. While the graphics seem outdated for a PS2, it helps to draw in the allure the game tries to sell; Problem is, the visuals of everything around it doesn't match up (Especially when the buildings and other objects on stage don't share the same cell-based look), placing a yellowed filter or maybe scanlines would help with selling the nostalgia.
Content disclaimer: This review TECHNICALLY includes disclaimers for what shambles this game's story has.
[h3] The Story [/h3]
The game has no story. One mission follows your character into chinatown to take down some "Gang Members" (Yakuza stand-ins that don't have any similarities to anything but modern-day hoodlums) which becomes incredibly confusing when you fight a large japanese man wielding a minigun at the end of the level. The enemy layout can also become incredibly challenging, with some enemies hitting you only just after being able to fire. Still, the level is mostly packed with action, and only dies down after your left to fight the last enemy
The next level after that is [strike] Bootleg Scarface's mansion [/strike] The raid on Antonio Montoya's Manor. You fight through some levels, kill a number of nameless Henchmen (men specifically), and probably shoot the main guy in the face several times. Don't worry if you kill him easily, he comes back multiple times. FInally, shoot your way through a nameless drug lab that supposedly produces cocaine, you have no clue if it actually does or doesn't because it's nondescript plastic barrels, and after a lengthy shootout of being careful not to shoot the blinking red bombs around the level, you can blow up the boss that never seems to die with an RPG-7. You do not get access to the RPG-7 again in any other mission, the item is used in a single moment, and doesn't ever come back into notice... ever. Furthermore, Antonio is obviously based off of Tony Montoya due to the voice actor's attempted impression of him.
Lastly, the final mission is a police station raid. Prisoners and what seem to be rogue correctional officers are attempting to take over the building. You fight them, and follow them into a hole, leading into a subway system. From there, you fight nondescript enemies until fighting the boss, A person clad in black clothing who also wields a minigun, and occasionally throws grenades.
You play all of these missions, all the while being talked to by a voice on the radio with terrible line delivery. A voice in the first level that yells out from a helicopter sounds bland and emotionally uninterested, and breaks the mood of the incoming firefight. Your boss (the voice previously mentioned on the radio) has hints of emotion in their voice, like how la croix sparkling water has hints of flavor. The announcer also generally has trouble stressing their voice, and the line delivery overall sounds flat. Adding more emotion in the vocals and line delivery can help players gain more info about the situation, even adding a background ambient or musical track could help.
[h3] The Gunplay [/h3]
Shooting, in this arcade shooter, is surprisingly decent. Some of the firearm offerings leave something to be desired: The Suppressed rifle (MK16, I believe it's called) doesn't have iron sights and leads to innacurate shots unless your using a 500 coin lasersight upgrade with it. Furthermore, the rifles all fire in bursts, with the AK and MK16 being close to indistinguishable aside from their looks and sounds (They both have a five shot burst) with the M16 having a 4 shot burst instead. The CX4 and MP5 behave similarly as well, both being Full-Automatic submachine guns, with a different place to load the magazine leading to be one of the only differences with the weapons. The P90 (referred to in-game as the R90) is one of the only unique weapons in game that you can buy with coins, being a single-handed full-auto SMG with a high magazine capacity and fire-rate.
Still, The firearms shoot well and are decently fun to fire. There are a set of camos and looks you can put onto the weapons, but I prefer their stock looks personally. The weapon sounds aren't incredibly punchy or weighty, and give little feedback upon enemy hits other than an enemy hit display over their corpse. It is still surprisingly enjoyable to shoot people in the game, and is reminiscent to the arcade games that came before it.
[h3] Overall [/h3]
If I had to give this game a score out of ten... It would probably be a 5.5/10 in my book. In no way does that reflect the game poorly, its actually very fun to mess around in, but it's unlikely to earn a game of the year, nor would I shout it's name from the rooftops. If the game goes on sale, even for 10%, I'd recommend anyone who was a fan of the old arcade(literal) shooters to pick it up if you have a VR headset. If not... I wouldn't buy VR just for it, $20 seems a little bit too much for it, with the game's quality being more reminiscent of a $15 game.
