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COWBOY BEBOP —by Dickinson Lo
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Having reviewed a previous Bandai effort last issue, (ZETA GUNDAM), I was a bit weary with the prospect of picking up another similar game. But word of mouth has it that COWBOY BEBOP was a great game based on a hot new anime series. Famous last words. Here are five reasons why not. [5.] No Analog Control - You'd think that with a great controller like the Dual Shock Analog, a 3D game should definitely take advantage of the features that precise analog control brings. Nope. Not supported. The difference could be night and day here! When was the last time any of you played a good 3D shooter with some digital input device? That's like playing WING COMMANDER with the keyboard! And here's the kicker; it's Dual Shock compatible (as in the "rumble" feature). If they bothered to make it Dual Shock compatible, why not just take a few extra steps and make it analog stick compatible also? Because...
[4.] You're Not Really Flying - The game goes to great lengths to trick you
into believing that you're actually controlling your aircraft. If you take
away the polys that make up your aircraft, what you're left with is really a
cross-hair that you control while the computer steers you around a
predetermined course through the level (like NiGHTS). The real problem lies
in the fact that this looks like a 3D shooter, almost an arcade style
flight-sim, but it is really just a cleverly disguised 2D shooter in a 3D
perspective. |
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[3.] The Camera - The game is using some form of a floating camera engine. Since your craft is visible in the game, you often have to steer it right across enemies and other hazards that you'd want to keep visible. So the game's camera will change the angle of view of your craft depending on which direction the "track" was taking you, where you're pointing your craft, and which direction you're trying to steer yourself. This is the part that will make you sick—literally. Whenever your actions conflict with the level's "track," the camera will end
up displaying this disorienting angle of play area that'll make you dizzy
just by looking at it for too long. Eventually it will try to reorient you
to the track's direction, and the automatic course adjustment isn't
pretty--the entire background blurs and your craft flies in every which way,
disregarding all hazards. By the time you're back on course you'll have
slammed into several buildings, probably dragged along the ground a few
miles, and square danced with a dozen enemies while swallowing a ton of
damage to your craft. And occasionally the camera will switch from a top
down view of your craft to some bottom up view for no apparent reason,
making it very hard to negotiate certain obstacles such as bridges,
overhangs, and such. This wouldn't have been so bad if there was any eye
candy or innovative game play to be had. Which brings me to my next point. |
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[2.] It's just poorly made. - Despite the aforementioned problems, this wouldn't have been such a bad game if it had good looks and some originality in gameplay. You play as the main character of the series, Spike Spiegel, piloting the Sword Fish II through a number of unimaginative levels of 3D terrain, while trying desperately to dodge enemy fire, enemies, and the very features of the terrain itself (jutting rocks, etc. ). I wouldn't have minded the poor level designs so much if I could have flown freely in real 3D, or at least had been given the ability to truly steer and negotiate the levels. But the added floating camera and forced "track" removes any fun from playing the game. The best thing to do is to adopt the minimalist approach. Don't try to be fancy and dodge all over the place. Any amount of oversteering will cause you to fly wildly, pitching hither and dither, thus causing the in game camera to go berserk. The game engine itself is not bad, with the objects having a fair amount of polys and good use of textures. There was very little slow down, and most of the game's objects held together fairly well.
[1.] Fun Factor - We play games to have fun, not to struggle with a poorly
designed flight engine or breeze through sleepy levels. I eventually got
the hang of flying this sucker around, sure. But was it fun? Not really.
Why? Because all the bad pieces fitted together so badly. Sometimes even a
bad game can be fun, but there was nothing fun about COWBOY BEBOP. It
wasn't fun to play, look at, or listen to.
To say that I'm disappointed with this game would be an understatement. It
seems at least for now games like COWBOY BEBOP are the trend of the
industry: exploit anime license for a quick buck, while giving serious
gamers complete garbage. This game gets a whopping 1 1/2 stars out of 4; 1
for being a busy 3D game with minimal slowdown, and the 1/2 for Hayashibara
Megumi's voice as Faye. I think I'll just watch the anime and leave the
piloting to
Rating: *1/2 out of **** |
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