N-Philes

Minority Report: Everybody Runs

Posted by Archived.

Summer 2002 was the summer of the sequel, with titles such as Star Wars Episode II and Men in Black 2 hitting theatres. When it came to originality all hope was not lost, as Steven Spielberg unleashed upon the world Minority Report. The movie starred Tom Cruise as precrime officer John Anderton in the year 2054. This future world has developed a way to foretell murders and it is Anderton's job to get to the murderers before they kill. When the system turns on him and says he'll commit a murder, Anderton starts running from the system to prove his innocence. With the movie's recent release on DVD, Activision has simultaneously released a video game based on the movie.

Story

Minority Report: Everybody Runs basically sticks to the plot of the movie. While Activision could not get the rights to use Tom Cruise's likeness, everything else follows the movie. John Anderton is the staunchest believer in precrime. When the FBI comes to verify that the system is as flawless as advertised, he is the one given the task of showing them how it works. However, when he is fingered for a future murder, he starts on a search to prove his innocence and learns some telling facts about precrime. Although the game deviates from the movie for small portions, it generally holds true to the plotline of its silver screen counterpart.

Features

The gameplay itself is that of a generic beat-em-up, a game whose sole purpose is to beat up all the people encountered until reaching the end of the level then proceeding to the next level where it's more of the same. Fortunately, Anderton doesn't have to beat everyone up. Each level gives an objective of what to do, and while a lot of the time the objective is to beat all the precrime officers in sight (meaning beat them all senseless at which point you may proceed), sometimes the objective is just to reach a door or to get to the end of a level without needing to beat everyone up. There are also some jetpack levels where Mr. Anderton gets to don a jetpack and fly through the subway system, or up above the city. He still has to beat people up in these levels, as the precrime officers are still trying to catch him. There are also levels without precrime officers, but fret not as there are other people to beat up, including mall security guards, rioters, civilians, and construction workers.

Controls

At its core, the game's engine works on a three hit combo system with three buttons. There is the quick button, A, the strong button, B, and the block/grab button, X. The grab cannot be used until the third hit of the combo, otherwise it will just be a block and ruin the flow of the combo. That leaves two buttons for the first two attacks. Quick is a jab and strong is a kick, though on the second hit of a combo it may change depending on what you hit first. The third hit of the combo is the key one as it will inflict the most damage. It can also be powered up by holding the button down instead of just tapping it. This makes for around twenty combos total to choose from, some obviously being more powerful than others. The real problem comes in the control of it. Pressing these buttons doesn't always work, with the biggest offender being the grab button. Sometimes after hitting the first two buttons if a grab is attempted it simply won't happen. Instead, Anderton will raise his fists to block, giving the person he was pummelling on the chance to continue fighting. The other time there is no response is when a button is held down. Occasionally it will do the move as if the button wasn't held down, which is less powerful, while at other times it does absolutely nothing and what's left is a two hit combo which accomplished next to nothing.

There are other ways to beat someone up, with the most important manoeuvre being the ability to throw somebody, with the best way to implement this being throwing them off of a building. This will instantly kill them, and leaves one less person to beat up. To throw them, you grab them when they're down, though the same grab/block problem exists as before. The way the game is designed doesn't make it any easier, as there are always five or six people in a group, making it quite difficult to reach down, grab someone, aim for a ledge, and throw him to his death. The only real negative to throwing someone off a building is you lose anything he may have been carrying. The rare person may carry ammo or health, with both being extremely important. The other method of attack is weapons. By holding down R a lock is placed on the closest enemy and by pressing A or B Anderton uses whichever weapon is currently equipped. The concussion rifle from the movie is available, as are concussion shotguns, riot machineguns and other fun toys. Sincerely missed as a usable weapon is the puke stick from the movie. While the precrime officers have the ability to use it, Anderton can't pick one up and use it himself. The weapons have a problem as well. The lock doesn't hold on enemies. The R button must be depressed all the way, and if it is lifted in the slightest the lock is lost. Also, by pressing the C-stick he should be able to switch enemies, but tends to lose the lock instead.

Gameplay

The real difficulty in this game doesn't come from the officers themselves, but rather from the amount. As I stated earlier they will usually gang up on you in teams of five or greater. This is hard on its own, but then there are additional difficulties. If there is somebody with a gun he will stand back and shoot like a coward. He's got to be taken out first because he never misses. There are also robots. These robots can't be beaten with simple punches and kicks, weapons are needed to destroy them. Luckily, it only takes one or two shots before they go down, but they are still some of the cheapest enemies in the game, having weapins which will kill Anderton quickly. Lastly are the bosses. These guys have health meters which lower very slowly. Add in the fact that they run away after a certain amount of health is depleted, at which point there is a whole gang of precrime officers to face, with this particular cycle lasting four or five times, and what remains is an unfair fight.

What's left to combat these unfair fights is the black market. Throughout the game there is money strewn around which can be found, some in open areas, and some in secret areas. This money can be spent in the black market to buy more combos or to buy upgrades such as health, strength, armour, and weapons. Accessing the black market is as simple as pushing pause and entering the black market menu. It definitely helps and makes things easier, though not by much. Upon completion of a level, it will show how many of the secrets, and how much money was found. This leaves a good reason to come back if all the money wasn't collected. Also, by finding all the money and completing the levels on different difficulties, new characters are unlocked for a second play through the game. While not making an actual difference in the game, since all the movies use the in-game engine, it can be neat to see them with the different characters. You can also enter the pain arenas which are opened when you beat bosses. These are arenas where you can fight multiples of that boss and aim for a high score.

Graphics

The graphics in the game aren't extremely good. The textures are bland, and the whole look of the world just doesn't cut it. There seems to be no detail given to anything, and it looks like the whole world, and the characters are all very simple. When Anderton pukes because of the puke sticks, I'm not sure which looks better, this or South Park puke. The look of it really is that bad. The animations in the game are also severely lacking. When blocking, Anderton will go from having his fists at his side to having them in front of his face in one frame. There is no animation of him lifting them or anything like that. There are similar problems when hanging from a ledge and shuffling along it. His hands move from one area to the other with no fluid animation.

There is some good in all this bad, specifically the effects are spectacular. The concussion rifle shots look like they come straight out of the movie, and there are some nice effects emulating the look of electricity. Some of the areas look straight out of the movie as well. Precrime HQ looks just like it did in the movie. The other great thing about the environments is that everything is destructible. Tables can be destroyed, chairs can be rammed over, and windows can be shattered. In fact, one of the great things to do is throw somebody through a window. All this destruction does take its toll on the framerate, and it constantly stutters. This adds to the very boring look of the game and takes away from all the good.

What isn't boring is how bodies fly, twist, and turn when thrown. Treyarch implemented ragdoll physics to the engine. This should generally be good as it means bodies aren't stiff, although it is not used to great effect in the game. The way it comes out is that they actually look like ragdolls. Bodies land with their legs twisted as if they were broken in five different places, right after which they get up and continue fighting. They are also flung at distances which can exceed twenty feet. Instead of looking cool, it looks silly.

Sound

The audio of the game has the same multiple personality disorder. The music is actually quite fitting and well done, however it seems to be on a one minute loop with only one or two pieces of music throughout the entire game. Voices are generally well done, with the best being Clancy Brown's version of John Anderton. Everyone else ends up being quite acceptable and above average.

This game gets an N-Philes score of D.

This game is just another average beat-em-up game with nothing to distinguish itself. The inconsistent controls and bland gameplay add up for an experience which is rather poor on the Gamecube. The days of a simple beat-em-up being acceptable passed with the Double Dragon franchise on the NES. Nowadays, this simply won't do.

Posted in: Reviews

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