Ecks vs. Sever

"Worth playing it"

After writing my first review about MapleStory, I realised my english wasn't that good there. I guess it doesn't improved meanwhile, but I hope it is better to read this time.

So, I'm gonna to tell you something about Ecks Vs. Sever for the Game Boy Advance.
I remember when I first saw this game. I read the German gaming magazine COMPUTERBILD SPIELE, and I didn't owned a GBA back then. The only FPS which cought my attention was DooM II which had been played by my dad some years ago on our old P100. So I didn't took much care.

Years later - I got my own GBA meanwhile - I saw this game in our local mall. It was a crappy store, more used to sell plush animals and board-games instead of videogames. I checked their little shelf with the games to choose from more or less accidently. It was priced about EUR 29,99. All the ratings were 16+, just the USK (the German youth protection) rated it as 12, so I bought it finally.

After leaving the store, I started to unpack it and read the manual. I was surprised about the good manual and the descriptions of the many weapons. So I headed home to play it...

BEFORE PLAYING:
A little annoying is the high amount of crap you have to skip before playing. There are multiple companies showing their logo, including LICENSED BY NINTENDO and the language screen. After that, the first disappointment is showing up: NEW GAME and PASSWORD. Password system always sucked, and it still does. After hitting NEW GAME, you have two characters to choose from: Ecks and Sever (Duh x-D).

STORY:
Well, the story...sucks ass. I mean, common! Two agents of different U.S. defensive facilities, both beeing punished in their lives multiple times by some very irrealistic incidents (Family killed by a bomb..Ehh. Of course). Now they're both merciless killer. And both of 'em are ready to accept missions by a guy ("Gant"), because he promises them heaven on earth. This is displayed so irrealstic, it's just pathetic and you start to hit any button on the Gameboy to hopefully skip it.

The story itself is just plain text. You read it before starting each level, pretending a court hearing 4 weeks in the future. So you kinda "replay" their actions. Nice idea, but to read the story BEFORE playing is just dumb.

GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay matches the FPS stereotypes: You start holding a pistol, you see a bar with your life and the number of magazines and the bullets in the clip. You walk around, and the first person you meet start shooting at you immediately. WTF?

The gameplay is no different to DooM. You start to fight trough the maps, with all the different security guards in your way. You find better weapons, protection vests, ammo, keycards. At the end, you either have to enter the exit area (for usual just textureless "rooms") or to touch your objective. In the first map it's a laptop.

The way you have to play differs from the character you chose. For example, Ecks has to order to shoot Sever, while the player has to get rid off Ecks if you play that level as Sever. The problem is, if you play the other character your "AI"-counterpart is always somewhat armed. While you have your pistol, Ecks starts to shoot at you with a gattling, and as Ecks you'll get bombed with Severs grenades. Honestly!

ENEMIES:
The enemies are great in variety in my opinion. Starting off with security guards, you'll meet later FBI-Agents (wearing brown suits btw.), SWAT- and NSA-agens aswell. I like the fact the weapons they attack you with are in your arsenal aswel. No need to be jealous ;-)

GRAPHICS:
Awesome. The framerate is that high, the game just slows in very rare situations, such as exploding barrels and grenades in an outdoor area. The GBA has 16,7 MHz CPU, and I do not know how fast the GPU is - if there is any. But if you look closer, you see how it is possible to get this flawless gameplay: No floor and ceiling textures. Or colorfull textures at all. You'll start fighting through gray halls with gray ceilings and a gray floor. This is getting boring very fast, compared to the colorfull textures like in DooM. The enemies are very faceless. If you turn around and look back, you'll see all the same sprites. Do all security gards have to be bald?!

ITEMS:
The items are somewhat nice! You have sniper rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, mines, gattlings, assault rifles, and a Jackhammer (instead of a shotgun). You can pick up protection vests, medikits, night vision goggles. Kudos for that.

SOUND:
This game contains exactly THREE music tracks. Fortunately. The soundeffects of the weapons are nice, the moaning of the characters in pain are just hilarious. Ecks just shouts "IFF, "IFF UP" and "IFF URRP". Sever yells "UH!" "AH!" "OUH!" and the enemies have all the same sounds, reaching from "URGH" to "BLARGH". Totally dull, but good for laughs.

OVERALL:
A fun game in multiple ways, just the characters and their dumb storylines are the only downer.
If you find it, get it, play it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/21/09

Game Release: Ecks vs. Sever (EU, 12/07/01)