Classified: The Sentinel Crisis

"A comfortable, formulaic FPS"

Comfortable - that seems to be the best way to describe my experience in this game. I completed it last night and to be fair, I didn't have such a bad time with it. I'll deal with the "comfort" factor a bit later. For now, lets just say that it is a relatively easy game.

In a nutshell, this is a traditional FPS in the mold of Halo (recharging shields, ammo pickups etc). It focuses on very traditional styled gunplay and sets the action up in a pitched battle manner (i..e you walk into a room and all hell breaks loose).

Story:
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Okay, so you're this guy in a special suit that's asked to assist some Russian Freedom Fighter to overthrow an evil dude. It's standard run of the mill stuff. There aren't very many scripted scenes and it does enough to tell you why you're there and what needs to be done.

Gameplay:
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This is what seems to have bothered a lot of people. The first thing that I noticed was that there was nothing new to the format. The developers did not take any risks and try to implement anything that we haven't seen before. The enemy AI is fairly competent, but they can be really stupid once in a while, running at you in apparent suicide fashion. The truth is, they're only really dangerous when they throw grenades. Even then, with a recharging shield, you only need to find cover to bring yourself back to full strength.

You only really have one gun in this game. As you go along, you pick up new upgrades to your gun which allows it to morph from an assault rifle into a shotgun, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, RPG and rail gun. The lack of weaponry was one reason why this game seemed very 'by the book'. The levels as well are linear, so you won't find yourself getting lost.

There is one feature that does do some good: the enemy detection switch. If you need to find out how many enemies there are and what their location is, you can flip a switch and it'll outline the location of the enemy. This isn't a complete cheat though, as it provides a snapshot, so if the enemy has moved, you will need to reactivate it again to find them. Night vision is completely useless and a waste of time.

There is one rail-shooter level, and an enjoyable stealth-like level where you lose your weapons except for a silenced pistol and need to recover your suit. When I mention stealth, I mention it loosely as there's no penalty for being discovered.

For the most part, it's a linear run & gun with easy objectives (like open 6 valves or detonate 4 gas tanks).

Visuals:
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Graphically, the game isn't that wonderful. It isn't awful to the tune of the Xbox ports of Soldier of Fortune II or Unreal II, but it isn't the most impressive to look at. The sky sometimes catches your eye, and a few of the levels have some style to them, but this would have to be classified as average or even below average in the graphics department.

Additionally you only really have one weapon model as the weapon you're carrying morphs into various configurations. Those who have played Star Wars: Republic Commando will have seen this before. Anyway, get used to your gun because it's the only one you'll see for the whole game.

The enemy AI only comes in a few models and the level of detail isn't very good. Through a sniper rifle scope, it seems a bit better. The animation is solid enough and they move around in a normal fashion.

Audio:
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Horrible. Especially when it comes to the sound of your gun(s). They don't pack a whallop and certainly don't sound very powerful. The shotgun sounds okay, but in execution, it's the most useless weapon of all of them.

The music consists of some very watered down sequenced drum beats and simple melodies. This is hardly the type of music to inspire crazy gunfights.

Length:
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I finished this one around the 6-7 hour mark.

Overall:
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Classified: The Sentinel Crisis will not be a "wow" experience at all. It won't be a rollercoaster ride or an adrenaline inducing frag-fest. Keeping in mind that it doesn't exactly fail in any specific area, it can serve a purpose. Over the last week, I've found myself enjoying the game, specifically because it was comfortable. You could run & gun and have a general expectation of what's to come without the hassles of finding weapons, getting lost, or trying to solve difficult puzzles. There's something comfortable about being able to corridor crawl and engage in gunfights without having to think about strategy. Combined with the sound and slightly defensive AI, you'll find yourself moving ahead at a good pace, not getting stuck for too long in any one area.

I think that because this game came out in 2005, it suffered because of it. By that point, so many FPS games had come out for the Xbox that this one looked to be a watered down hybrid of those previous games. Nothing was unique, so the reviewers panned it. But, there's nothing inherently wrong with this title. The game save your progress well, the AI functions well enough, and there are no noticeable glitches. I think it got a bit of a bum deal. That's not to say that it's a great game, because it's not, but it's a comfortable game.

6.6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/17/07