24: The Game

"A must play for all 24 fans"

I've been a fan of the show 24 ever since the beginning. I own all 4 seasons on DVD and I've bought them all on the day of release. I own all the books associated with the series. I haven't ever missed an episode. I'm what people would call hardcore.

24: The Game takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of the tv show and answers many questions including how Kim Bauer, Jack's daughter, comes to work for CTU, how Chase Edmunds becomes Jack's partner and many other things as well.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics are nice for a PS2 game but they aren't at the highest quality that they could be at. So I would say they're about average. The damage modeling is very good though. The big SUV's can take a severe beating while the sports cars can be knocked out quickly. What I like most is when a vehicle gets enough damage the license plate starts to come loose and falls to one side.

Gameplay: 7/10

I've never seen so many different genres crammed into one game before. The game types include the standard third person shooting, stealth, driving, interrogation, and puzzle solving. The interrogation sequences are sheer brilliance and I would love to see the feature included in more games. You have three options: aggressive, coax and relax and you have to use any of those three to get a person's stress level at the appropriate level. After doing this so many times you can break the person to reveal what you need to know. It's incredibly intense because you only have a limited amount of time to do get it done. The shooting, however, suffers from GTA syndrome where you try to lock on to a person that's shooting at you but instead you lock on to the guy behind a crate. The puzzle solving is something I don't really care for and relies mostly on trial and error.

Story: 7/10

For this being a 24 game it offers surprisingly few twists but when it does they're major doozies. Perhaps not surprisingly the story has things that fans of the show expect which includes Kim getting in danger (no mountain lions thankfully) and various CTU problems.

Presentation: 10/10

Probably the greatest thing about the game. It includes music one would expect from the series, from the ticking clock to Jack Bauer saying at the beginning of each new hour "The following takes place between (put time here) and (put time here). The first time I saw it it gave me the chills. The use of split screens is sheer brilliance and reminds me of classic season 1 and season 2. My only 2 complaints about this is that sometimes during cutscenes it can be distracting and tough to pay attention to 3 or 4 different things at the same time and also it can be jarring when you're playing and all of a sudden a split screen comes up. Despite those two minor issues it doesn't detract from the overall presentation.

Replay Value: 6/10

Their isn't much replay value to the game once you're done. However, each mission gives you a percentage of how well you did. Score 90% or better and you earn some unlockables. Each person can determine for themselves how much they want to gain these unlockables.

Any true fan of 24 will buy this game simply to gain a new insight into the 24 universe. However, because the game is directed at fans of the series, people with no knowledge of the show will most likely be confused about who everyone is. A rental is in order for those people.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/06