Time Crisis 3

"A must-buy if you have a PS2 (and like shooting stuff)"

To me, not a lot of games are really worth a 9, especially in this day of gaming, where most games are the same old, same old.

Me, maybe I'm a little biased, because I adore the Crisis series and the House of the Dead series (Time Crisis, of course, more so).

Gameplay - 9
Typical of Time Crisis. It includes the standard arcade mode, which is much longer than Time Crisis 2 (by about 10-15 minutes, depending on how good you are), the accuracy of the gun is great, there's no silly hostages to worry about in arcade mode (and even shooting comrades simply deducts points). The weapon system is incredibly fun, and even as a home version, it still works just as well as if it was in the arcade. In fact, I found the home version less frustrating that the arcade. Maybe it's the fact that I hate dishing out tokens in the arcade...

What was the best about this game is the Story Mode. It brought a whole new gameplay aspect into the game, and it gave you a reason to buy the home version, so you can play in Alicia's viewpoint. Not only did it help you understand the game however, it also put a new spin on the weapons, as you can level them up so that Alicia's weapons can kick more butt than Alan and Wesley's! On top of that, the Sniper modes are also tons of fun, and difficult at the same time.

Story - 8
Typical, terrorists want to rule the world sort of deal, so they hijack a bunch of nuclear warheads, nothing big or unusual. Of course, you have your big bad guy, and your two, three heroes.

As mentioned above however, what makes this game better than the arcade counterpart is the new added Story mode, which gives you the entire perspective on the entire game's story. It's something so few games fail to do, and it's something TC3 arcade players would probably least expect to find in the home version.

Graphics/sound - 7
Graphics, typical PS2 graphics, straight from the arcade version (which isn't surprising since the arcade version uses the same system as the PS2). MPEG videos are cleaned up, and load times are kept to a minimal, which is a plus. Most jaggies and shakes are also fixed in this version, which is nice as well. Sound, well it has your explosive bangs that you can expect out of any quality gun game. Music is pretty sub-par though. But who needs it when you're too busy shooting the crap out of everyone?

Replay value - 8
The new modes are nice, and the first...many times you play it (does that make sense?), you seem to unlock something new every time. First you have to unlock more lives, then more continues, then new modes, new replay modes, and it just keeps going. And the game is difficult enough so that you'll be going at this one for a while, Crisis Missions especially.

One thing that I wish Namco added, however, were more mini-games, like as in Time Crisis 2 for PS2.

Overall
I can't really say there are any other gun games that game compete with the Time Crisis series. There's a reason the series has been massively successful, and this PS2 version just raises the bar that much higher. There isn't a whole lot more to say. If you're not a Time Crisis fan, play it for the sheer joy of blowing the crap out of everyone with the grenade launcher (even better with unlockable infinite ammo!), and spraying the screen with bullets with your sub-machine gun. If you are a Time Crisis fan, this will most definitely be worth your money.
...unless you pay too much.

If you choose to play 2-players however, unless your screen is over 30'', I wouldn't recommend playing split-screen. Although it's a great feature to have, it's a ton of pain trying to shoot enemies that are 1 cm tall.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/03