Jaws Unleashed

"Fish are Friends, not Food"

I saw the Jaws film a long time ago, and, from what I remember, it was really stupid. When I picked up the game, I didn't think it would be any different.

Swimming through the ocean is the only real fun part in the game. I don't even know why it was fun, but it just had a feeling to it. The rest of the game, including the completely stupid missions, is not fun at all. It feels like you just have to get the missions done before you can really enjoy the fun part of the game: swimming through open oceans. Fighting bosses, which seems to be the high-points of most videogames, is a drag in Jaws Unleashed as all the bosses seem to be defeated in basically the same manner.

Have you ever heard the sound of your wall falling onto you? Well, after throwing you controller up in rage on a few of the missions that Jaws Unleashed has to offer, you will hear that sound. Some of the missions are very easy; yet, other missions are over-the-top difficult just because of how difficult it is to control the shark. There seems to be an easy way through every mission though, much like Grand Theft Auto, so once you figure that out, the game should be a snap.

One feature of the game that should've been a hard part just isn't hard enough. There are extra items to find that are hidden throughout the missions and the open ocean that garners you extra points to upgrade your shark's abilities. However, these items are too easy to find (except for the treasure chests). You'll probably be able to collect all of them on accident!

How many times can you make a gamer scream? I think that might have been the point in the control system for Jaws Unleashed. The shark is hard to move through spaces that are essential to missions and it's really easy to get stuck behind stuff. The most annoying part about the swimming capabilities is the fact that sometimes the shark just stops moving all together for no apparent reason. This leaves the shark open to plenty of gunfire and will probably cost you your life.

The game introduces you to the some of the basic moves through a tutorial at the beginning. However, it leaves you in the dark about some other moves that could help you out a lot in harder missions. The problem is, you'll probably never know about these moves unless you attention to the loading screens.

Thirty years after the horrible shark attacks, the resident of Amity Island are finally ready to get back into their infamous waters. However, the shark attacks are starting again and it's up to Brody to once again put a stop to this shark menace!

You'd think that a game that has barely any features or actual levels in it would be able to take the graphics up a notch or two. Sadly, this game doesn't. The character modules look terrible, I mean, their mouths don't even move when they talk! All the environments look the same and there isn't that much of a variety of underwater life to feast on. The fire-effects look like they came from the Duke Nukem games on the Nintendo 64! The only part where the graphics truly shine is the final cut-scene, but I won't ruin the only good part of the game for you.

Let's talk a little bit about the camera from Hell. Sometimes the camera will be aimed under a dock, and you won't be able to see yourself. So, you start flapping your tale to try to break free. After a few minutes of this, the camera will move back to reveal that you weren't even under the dock in the first place. Instead, you were in the middle of the ocean getting your body ripped apart by dolphins. If I ever play a game with a camera this horrible again, I might quit videogames all together!

The voice-acting is stuff of horror. When picking up videogames with movie titles, you at least expect terrific voice-acting. Sadly, Jaws Unleashed delivers amateur acting and horrible effects through-and-through.

If you're a gamer that just plays games for the story-modes, then this game will disappoint you to the point that you'll want to cry. The story mode is the shortest story mode in a videogame that I have ever experienced. Some people try to justify this by the tons of side-missions, but essentially, all the missions feel the same. You ram something until it blows up, eat something, or throw stuff at boats.

I guess if you really feel like collecting all the extra stuff, upgrading your shark to the fullest and get 100% in the game, then it might have some replayability. However, this doesn't save the game at all. It still suffers horribly from all the other areas where it fails to entertain or amaze.

This game isn't a renter or a buyer. This game is a game that you should ask your video store to get rid of. That's how horrible this game is. It was a great idea, but it just wasn't played out right. I was very disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/06