Disaster: Day of Crisis

"The only thing that's a Disaster is that you've not gotten this game yet"

(Author's note: This review is based off of the Japanese version of the game. I am not fluent in Japanese, so some game play elements may not be fully explained.)

Disaster: Day of Crisis is an action-survival game for the Wii that many gamers have long been anticipating since before the Wii's launch. We've been teased by only a few screenshots and a short video ever since the Wii was unveiled, and now it's finally come out in Japan and Europe two years later (Sorry America).

Disaster: Day of Crisis is, in a nutshell, a combination of survival game play and rail-shooting game play, with a sprinkle of driving thrown in. You control Ray, an ex-member of an elite rescue squad. A series of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions, strike the United States and what's worse, a terrorist faction has seized a nuclear weapon. Your goal is to make it out alive, save as many people as you can, and prevent the terrorists from triggering a nuclear catastrophe.

Gameplay: 8/10

First and foremost, this is a type of game where game play is absolutely essential. There are two main sequences of game play which I will call the "survival mode" and the "shooting mode." There is also a third game play sequence which consists of a driving section, but it's not as prominent as the other two.

As you control Ray, you will have a handful of meters and pictures at the top of the screen that you will need to keep your eye on. These are his health, his stamina, his lungs, and his heart rate. As you are shot by the terrorists, fall from ledges, or run through fire, Ray will take damage to his health. If it is reduced to zero, he dies and the game ends. You can recover Ray's health using band-aids or first-aid kits. However, you will have to keep tabs on these items as sometimes the people you rescue may need them. His stamina is the small bar just below it. This slowly depletes overtime, and depletes much faster if Ray is deep in cold water. I have not noticed any decrease in Ray's performance as it gets lower, but if it completely drains, Ray will start losing health. Ray can restore his stamina by finding food out in the open (which include odd items like fully cooked cheeseburgers and watermelons, usually in very odd places like newspaper dispensers) or by eating rations.

The other two icons represent Ray's lungs and his heart rate. If Ray runs through smoke or is exposed to volcanic ash, you will see the lungs start to blacken. If you find a spot with clean air, you can clean your lungs out by pressing the Z button. In between his lungs is a red dot that represents his heart. It beats and grows larger as he exerts more energy, usually whenever he is running. If he pushes himself too hard, he has to stop and his stamina takes a huge hit. You'll notice it growing larger and you can hear it beating if he's pushing himself too hard. The lungs and the heart rate aren't really used in the shooting section of the game.

Now, onto the actual game play modes.

The "survival mode" puts you in a third-person perspective, controlling Ray. You must navigate through city streets, a dense forest, and other locations as natural disasters unfold around you. Your main goal is to essentially get from the beginning of the stage to the end of the stage, so levels are very linear. There's not a whole lot of exploring or deviation from the main route, which can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on the player. The only real detours you will be taking are to rescue trapped or injured civilians.

When you find a stranded civilian, a "survival mini-game" will commence, where you must complete a task or series of tasks to save the person. This can include things such as tapping the A button as fast as possible to build strength up to lift a rock, pressing the Wii Remote downwards to perform CPR, or thrusting the Wii Remote and Nunchuck up to give that last push of strength to lift somebody up. A successful rescue will provide you with Survival Points, which you can spend to upgrade Ray's stats such as stamina, health, strength, and the like.

My main criticism with the survival mode is sometimes Ray is a little bit clunky to control. It's by no means terrible, but it could have used some fine tweaking. All too often would I try to be jumping onto something, such as a car, only to realize I can't quite make it on top. Other times I would find difficulty trying to position myself correctly to grab a ledge. Even turning around felt a little bit stiff to me. But, these flaws do not cripple the game, but they are noticeable and can be frustrating at times.

The other primary game play sequence is the "shooting mode." After passing through certain checkpoints in the "survival mode", you may encounter members of the terrorist group. The game play will change to mirror an on-rails shooter, similar to the Time Crisis or House of the Dead series. You use the pointer on the Wii Remote to aim and the B-trigger to fire your weapon. You can also duck behind a car or debris with the Z button if you need to catch your breath or reload. You can also use a limited, but renewable, concentration ability, which lets you zoom in with any weapon to perform more accurate shots. However, using this for too long will strain Ray and cause his vision to blur, so beware. These shooting sequences progress automatically. Shoot a few enemies and Ray will automatically start walking to the next part of the level as enemies try to overwhelm him. Successfully performing headshots or multiple kills in a row will net you Battle Points, which you can use to purchase stronger weapons or to upgrade pre-existing ones. You start with your standard assortment of a handgun, a shotgun, and an assault rifle, but you can upgrade to more exotic weapons later on such as a rocket launcher or a pulse gun.

The driving sections are the weakest part of the game, unfortunately. Fortunately though, there's not a lot of them, and there's only one that can be rather difficult. The problem with the driving sequences is that I found it very odd to control. I personally don't like trying to use the Wii Remote as a steering wheel, so I had some difficulty getting used to it the first time. Steering in this game seemed to be a little tricky, pretty much forcing you to use the brakes unless you wanted to crash right into a wall. Since this is a game based around survival, you're going to be on a time limit while driving, be it outrunning a pyroclastic flow, or trying to keep pace with the terrorists as gale-force winds and rain pummel your car, making it hard to see. That latter one is quite challenging, even exciting, but I'll be damned if it's not difficult.

One complaint that I have with this game is it uses quite a few "quick time events." A quick time event is where you must press a button (or shake the Wii Remote in this game's case at times) at a specific time during game play or a cutscene or you will take damage from an enemy or hazard, or even be killed. I don't really care for them much because they lose their impact the first time they are used. A player can easily remember which button to press when and it defeats the whole purpose. I wish that they had opted for another game play mechanic instead.

Story: 7/10

The story in this game is nothing we haven't really seen before. Terrorists stealing a nuclear weapon as natural disasters pummel the US isn't the most common story archetype in existence, but it's definitely out there and isn't something new or original. The game plays much like a typical summer action movie. There's a handful of twists in the story, but nothing that's completely earth-shattering. What I really enjoyed in the story was the tension between Ray and his friend's sister, Lisa. I will not go into details in this review, as I would rather you enjoy it yourself.

As for the villains, they're fairly standard but they work well for the concept. You've got the aging leader of the terrorist faction who's got his head on his shoulders, the brash young guy who just wants to kill a bunch of people, the strong big guy who also just wants to kill people, and some crazy dude with a hilarious Southern accent. "Light him up!!"

As I said earlier, the story isn't really ground-breaking and doesn't offer a lot of ground-breaking twists that are completely unexpected, but it gets the job done given the type of game it is. If you enjoy lots of action in your story, then this is something to look at.

Graphics: 9/10

This game has some of the best graphics that I have seen on the Wii. The level of detail in some of the levels is absolutely staggering. On the city streets, you will see cracks in buildings, fires, debris and litter all over the street. Even as you walk, sometimes a building in the background may suddenly start to collapse, or the side of a building next to you will come down right in front of you. I really felt that they did a good job on the "natural" elements in this game as well. Smoke, water, fire, and wind all look very convincing, even downright terrifying as you watch the volcano burst into flames and spew lava and rocks, or the tsunami start to crash down onto the city, engulfing and toppling buildings. Even though the game is fairly linear and doesn't have a lot of free-roaming, what is presented looks very nice most of the time.

Despite the nice looking graphics though, there are still some minor flaws that I had noticed that still got on my nerves. For example, some characters with large back collars on their shirt may have their hair clip through it, something that has always bugged me about games. Some of the debris shooting out of a volcano from a distance also looks like a red light or laser going in a curve and vanishing. The more close-up shots of the eruption, and the shots at ground level as they impact, look a lot better.

Music/Sound: 7/10

While the game has an absolutely awesome opening theme song, the rest of the music is fairly run-of-the-the-mill. There's nothing to really comment on that stands out as being overly good or overly bad. The only major complaint I had was sometimes there wasn't enough "pulse-pounding action" music playing during the shooting scenes, and sometimes the gun sounds were a bit weak and underwhelming. Still, the opening theme song manages to bump this up a bit.

The sound effects however, are much better in most regards. As I said earlier, most of the gun sound effects are rather bland, and yours are absolutely awful, but the rest of the game sounds just fine, such as when explosions go off or when a building suddenly collapses next to you. It's quite loud and it's quite convincing. But, since the shooting section is a large game play element, it starts to suffer as the sound there is rather disappointing.

Overall: 8/10

Despite its shortcomings, Disaster: Day of Crisis is still a very enjoyable and a very fun game. It combines heart-racing, natural disaster action with the tension of an impending nuclear disaster. If you're the kind of person who likes a lot of action or summer popcorn action flicks, Disaster is worth checking out. If you like the concept of surviving through the worst that Mother Nature has to offer, I also recommend it to you. Unfortunately, the game currently has no release date in the United States and Australia, and this may or may not change in the future. It is only out in Japan right now, and will be out in Europe at the end of October 2008. Importing it might be a bit pricey for those who live elsewhere. But if you happen to have access to it or find a sweet deal online, get it. You won't find a better way to spend a homework-free weekend.

Summary:

Gameplay: 8/10
Story: 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Music and sound: 7/10

OVERALL (not an average): 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/08

Game Release: Disaster: Day of Crisis (JP, 09/25/08)