Spy Hunter

"Not fun, not fun at all..."

I've heard all the crappy reviews about this game, and I thought that they were just angry critics pissed at Midway or something, well, I was wrong, this is a terrible game, and why it was released, I simply have no idea.

The gameplay is, ugh. It's terrible I had no fun playing this game, you go around shooting random targets, at the hope of saving the world. Not only have we seen this before, but it sucked when trying to do this. The way you advance from level to level is stupid, as you have to get a certain number of objectives done from previous levels to actually advance from level to level. It may be unique and different, but it's not fun, I'm used to innovative things like that system to being fun, but, obviously, I was wrong. You pretty much get weapons, and, well, you drive around shooting enemies that are bad, that's the simplest way I can put it, and that concept is very old. Hell, I did this driving thing in James Bond: Agent Under Fire, and I found that fun. I don't know how a game based on a first person shooter, with 2-3 car levels, manages to be better than a game COMPLETELY based around cars. I just...ugh! Quite simply, you are a secret agent type guy, and you are trying to stop some evil organization from using these satellites called ''The Four Horsemen'' to blow up the world, eh, I've seen stories similar.

There are some cool parts about the gameplay, such as your car turning into a boat when about to fly into some water, and when your health meter is low, it turns into some strange motorcycle type thing, that doesn't look too bad, in it's own right. At some point in the level, you will hear a voice, telling you about a truck of some sort, and if you drive into that truck, it will happily fill up all you ammo, health, etc. That was a cool twist to the gameplay, but it kinda made each level that much easier.

In each mission you get quite a few different objectives, one is the primary objective, which you HAVE to do, and the others are Secondary objectives, you still pretty much have to do those, just they aren't as important as the primary one. To put it in easier terms, they are all important for advancing to the next level, so I don't suggest you slack off and just get the primary, as you won't get too far in the game.

Now the graphics, well, I wasn't particularly impressed with, especially after seeing the PS2 version, which looked quite good. The cars looked cool and stuff, as did the backgrounds and other cars and buildings, and the water did, too. But everything seemed a little choppy, despite the cool design involved. Even the cinema scenes looked pretty bad, they were all foggy, and kind of had a glassy look to them, and they didn't exactly flow ''smooth''. Again, I'm comparing this to Agent Under Fire, and the car/chase scene levels' graphics were better then this, I really expected a lot more, especially because of the power of the Gamecube.

And you can't forget the sound! Well, it's something that I could listen to, but not too much. There's some spy music right off that bat, and it sounds cool and all, just it, gets repetitive, annoying, and boring after a while. The talking in the cinema scenes flowed good, but it was just...boring, and I didn't like it. There's a voice that you hear sometimes in the levels, that tells you about that little truck that fills up your health and ammo, and that's helpful, so that's a definite plus. Other than that, all the car sounds were realistic, so were the guns and missiles, as were the water effects and such. The sound was OK, but it wasn't exactly above par, either.

Overall, Spy Hunter's cons outweigh the pros easily, and I suggest that you stay away from this game at all costs, it's for you own safety...

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/02, Updated 02/08/03