24: The Game

Everyone must have been a fan of the NYPD, Law and Order or 24 series. And now, the watching experience has become a gaming experience. Impersonate Jack Bauer and join the fight against crime, but stay inside your own house, where the shooting is at on the Playstation 2. From the streets of L.A., to the most secured terrorist bases you'll shoot, hack and drive to stop the menace against your country, president and daughter.

Story As the title probably got you thinking, the action of the game takes place in 24 hours, one day of hell. The game won't take 24 hours to complete, 7 or 8 will do. The story of 24 : The Game takes place six months after the events of season two of the televised series. It revolves around Jack Bauer's fight against terrorist organizations, that, having failed to assassinate president Palmer, take their chance with vice president Prescott. Jack's daughter, Kim, gets kidnapped in the process and terrorists detonate bombs in L.A., also stealing some nuclear warheads. Quite a calamity for a bunch of highly-trained detectives, isn't it? The good guys are the CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) of the L.A. police force, whose most important members are Tony Almeida and Jack Bauer, that retired from his senior position in this organization after his wife got killed. Now Jack is called to take action against the new terrorist menace.

Concept This game has the license from FOX Network and thanks to that you benefit of the presence of 16 actors from the original show. 24 : The Game is a third-person shooter, but it also has some first-person shooting moments and car chasing missions. You can change the camera view, though the over-the-shoulder is the best setting for ideal game play. Probably it's not an essential aspect of the game, but this is kind of funny to mention: you can pause during cutscenes! Did you ever feel frustrated in a game when you knew that a divine FMV would follow and you had to answer the phone or go to the bathroom? 24 has the solution with just a press of the Start button, that frezees the well done cutscenes of the game.

The game has it all: puzzles, moles, traitors, torture, snipers, bombs, all the concepts that define terrorist actions and intelligence agencies work. The presence of multi panel windows showing simultaneous events is so movie-like, that you'll be looking for the remote control as you get stunned by the complexity of the presented actions. Realism is not only a word in 24, when you take a look at the floor and see used bullets that fell from the emptied magazines fired at you. The same projectiles will appear as holes in the walls that they hit missing you (thank God). The driving system is poorly implemented in the game, I mean this is not Need for Speed, but I felt like I was driving a sleigh sometimes. Let's not talk about the enemy cars, which come in six-packs (no beer included), or more and ram into you. Quite a suicidal AI, isn't it? They explode, die, break the car apart, just to stop you.

Gameplay There are three playable characters in the game, each with their individual storyline: Jack Bauer, Chase Edmunds and Tony Almeida. You can also control Kim Bauer and a few other characters for short periods of time during the game. Once you get hit a lot and your health starts depleting, you'll feel that in the way the character walks, as he starts to slow down and drag his feet. You can recharge health through health stations found throughout missions, but they can get depleted too. The AI hasn't watched enough cop TV shows apparently , as they take the "Hands up!" warning too serious. They don't put up much of a fight, or dodge any shot, for that matter. However, you can't really call them target practice when, at times, they'll ambush the hell out of you. When outnumbered, the game offers an original possibility to gain an advantage: ramming into the opponents by holding X and pressing the square button to hit them.

You can lean on the walls to see who's coming by pressing the X button, a feature present in most third-person shooters nowadays. Also you can take cover by pressing the triangle button that makes the character duck, or you can hide under an office or climb higher at the given location. I liked the way you interact with the surrounding environment, because you can kick trash cans, chairs, break windows, or push barrels with your car. Can't stand pressure? It was a hard day on the job for Jack Bauer and you'll have all the fun in the world interrogating the terrorist Robert Daniel, being aggressive and trying to stress the young man out. Check out his pulse when you make him confess! This minigame is so much fun that you can even play it on the game's official website.

Confused? Take a look at you PDA to see the objectives of the mission or check out some hints. Handguns, shotguns, automatic weapons, ammo of any caliber, they are all available just to help you feed lead to the terrorists. You can pick them up from any area of the map or search the body of dead foes to supply yourself. If you're the quiet and peaceful kind of guy, you might try to move in stealth mode around the place, which is a must if you play with the unexperienced Kim. With all this shooting involved the game was screaming for a professional crosshair and got one, but kind of a big one. I think the producers exaggerated the dimensions of this aiming system, as it takes up too much space on the screen and might confuse the gamer.

Video The actors from 24, the film were used to create 3d animations. Cyber versions of the stars of the TV show are perfectly built. Bauer is more Bauer than he was in the TV production, moving, acting and looking like the actor. The driving part is not so well taken care of, because cars don't have the details we'd want to see. Also the way the vehicles get damaged is poorly drawn: the car seems to shift its shape, and a couple of pixels change places. The background is well designed, be it terrorist bases, LA surroundings, deserted areas, rooftops, dirt tracks or parks. The weapons look so real, that you could dodge bullets in your room when playing the game. The camera angle is a bit of a problem shifting too quickly and causing a bit of nausea to a fast playing gamer.

Sound Great voice acting! That is the first thing that crossed my mind when I thought about 24: The Game. The producers wanted so much to keep the game close to the TV series that they used the original voices of the actors. Each emotion is perfectly suited for the situation considering that the crew has already shot 6 seasons of the movie and the actors know how to express fear, panic or anger. The sounds of the fired weapons are also good, the helicopter, cars and all sorts of vehicles sure do sound like the real ones. The radios, the "Roger that!" feeling is all there and I could swear I'm a real LA copper.

The cell phone ringing during a mission almost made me pick my phone up. The soundtrack includes orchestral parts, being composed by the same man that did the soundtrack for the movie, Sean Callery. The music is alert, action-like and fits every situation. You'll hear "I'm hit!!" when you take a bullet or "What are you doing here?!" when the enemy discovers you, adding a bit of realism to this production. Kiefer Sutherland is one the voices you'll hear in 24, acting brilliantly in almost every occasion.

Conclusion In a world of sequels, game sagas, movies made after games, the producers dared to create a game based on a famous TV series. I must admit that I have never watched 24, but after playing the game, watching the six seasons of the show is on my "to do" list. The feeling that you're actually "playing the movie" is present and being a cop never was this much fun, as you shoot your way through terrorist-infested LA. The only problem with 24: The Game is that the producers tried to do too many things in one single game, not being able to focus completely on one of them. Driving, shooting, solving puzzles, hacking, stealth actions creates a mixture to be served for dinner to feed the appetite for destruction of the gamer and cop-movies fan.