Back To The Noughties
Nick’s time machine lands in June 2002, a summer full of high-profile releases such as
Spider-man and Medal Of Honor: Frontline
we’re often told how Spider-man “does whatever a spider can”, but we didn’t know that included being in multiple places at once. His film was dominating the box office, the soundtrack’s lead single Hero was unavoidable, and your friendly neighbourhood arachno-bloke was also swinging his way onto consoles. But where the movie had Sam Raimi’s excellent direction and the song had vocals from Chad Kroeger of the universally beloved Nickelback, the game wasn’t quite up to those lofty standards. Cube complained of “a
bewildering camera, awkward controls and dull level design” in a 6.1/10 review, and XBM concurred, claiming it “needed an extra couple of months’ work” and scoring it 6/10. Official
Playstation 2 Magazine was a bit more upbeat and scored it 7/10, but still felt that the game “would have benefitted from a GTAIII-STYLE free-roaming cityscape”. Maybe that would be a feature in a future sequel?
The big format exclusive of the month was the PS2’S Tekken 4, with the press choosing to review the Japanese release rather than waiting for a UK version. Play’s Simon Cann felt that the game “arguably represents the pinnacle of the Tekken experience”, but complained that “the only significant improvements to be made have been in the visual department” and that “you really would have expected something more substantial.” Despite the criticisms, the game received 90%.
Edge had broadly similar criticisms of the game and felt them representative of the state of the genre as a whole, claiming that “the terminal limitations of the traditional 3D fighter are already becoming apparent.” Its review was rather less forgiving, with the game scoring only 6/10.
If you preferred guns and bombs to unarmed combat, EA’S World War 2 shooter Medal Of Honor: Frontline also arrived on the PS2, to a broadly warm reception. Play’s Will Johnston was positively bowled over by it, scoring it 98% and proclaiming “We’ve seen first-person shooters before, but nothing as superbly crafted as this.” Edge was considerably less impressed with it, scoring it 5/10 and complaining of “slipshod coding”, linear pathways and enemies that “appear at the same points and perform the same actions with mechanical predictability”.
But writing in Official Playstation 2
Magazine, Ryan Butt’s 9/10 review brushed such concerns aside, stating, “Pretty much any shortcoming can be forgiven when the gameplay is so fantastically thrilling and addictive.” Looking beyond the blockbusters, PS2 owners received some excellent musical treats. Harmonix unleashed Frequency, a game in which you had to activate various components of a song such as guitars, keyboards and vocals, then perform a juggling act to keep them all going. The Official PS2 Magazine gave it 8/10, proclaiming it “one of the most euphoric, compulsively addictive, magnificently quirky titles” and Play’s Stuart Messham felt that it was “the best interactive music package available on PS2,” awarding it 82%. Gitaroo Man finally arrived on UK shelves too, earning 80% from Play and 8/10 from Official PS2 Magazine, with the latter calling it “perfectly silly” and “deliciously exuberant” but complaining of a “foot-stamping difficulty level”. They were also able to partake of the most notable Playstation game in a while, a conversion of SNK’S excellent
Metal Slug X. This received 90% in Play, with the reviewer commenting that
“the 2D graphics put most recent Psone (and PS2) software to shame”.
The newcomers in the console world had a quieter month. The most notable Xbox exclusive was Gun Metal, a tough shooter which allowed the player to switch between a walking mech and a fighter jet. XBM felt that it was “sure to please brainier fans” and awarded the game 8/10. Beyond that, both the Gamecube and Xbox were catching up to the PS2 through numerous conversions of the market leader’s third-party offerings. Some of these were warmly received, such as SSX
Tricky. Despite having an altered control scheme compared to the PS2 original and some framerate issues. It scored 7/10 in XBM and 8.8/10 in Cube. Less warmly received was Spy Hunter, which had suffered in the conversion process.
Cube’s 6.1/10 review claimed that the game was “absolutely ruined” due to a terrible framerate and substandard graphics. XBM had similar complaints but added a concern with the collision detection, noting that the new model “sees any car you bully ‘boing’ into the air or miraculously appear on the other side of your interceptor”. These transgressions earned the game a scathing 4/10 review.
Last but not least, PC Gamer was very excited by Soldier Of Fortune II:
Double Helix, awarding it 90% and its game of the month. Steve Brown had few criticisms beyond the “bland soft rock soundtracks”, and heaped plenty of praise on the game. He was particularly impressed by the variety of levels and the increased importance of stealth, and felt that by moving beyond the shock value of the original game’s dismemberments, “Raven have clearly poured a lot of effort into making an intelligent game and not just a seller.”
Join us again next month, when we should start seeing the future of games (well, relatively speaking) at the annual E3 show.